Extract from the Preface to the last edition.
My aim in undertaking this work is to reveal the principles of
modern orchestration in a somewhat different light than that
usually brought to bear upon the subject. I have followed these
principles in orchestrating my own works, and, wishing to impart
some of my ideas to young composers, I have quoted examples
from my own compositions, or given references to them, endeavouring
to show, in all sincerity, what is successful and what
is not. No one can know except the author himself the purpose
and motives which governed him during the composition of a
certain work, and the practice of explaining the intentions of a
composer, so prevalent amongst annotators, however reverent and
discreet, appears to me far from satisfactory. They will attribute
a too closely philosophic, or excessively poetic meaning to a plain
and simple fact. Sometimes the respect which great composers'
names command will cause inferior examples to be quoted as
good; cases of carelessness or ignorance, easily explained by the
imperfections of current technique, give rise to whole pages of
laborious exposition, in defence, or even in admiration of a faulty
passage.
This book is written for those who have already studied instrumentation
from Gevaert's excellent treatise, or any other well-known
manual, and who have some knowledge of a number of orchestral
scores.
I shall therefore only just touch on such technical questions as
fingering, range, emission of sound etc. [1]
The present work deals with the combination of instruments in
separate groups and in the entire orchestral scheme; the different
means of producing strength of tone and unity of structure; the
sub-division of parts; variety of colour and expression in scoring,
— the whole, principally from the standpoint of dramatic music.
