Chords of different tone quality used alternately.
1. The most usual practice is to employ chords on different groups
of instruments alternately. In dealing with chords in different
registers care should be taken that the progression of parts, though
broken in passing from one group to another, remains as regular
as if there were no leap from octave to octave; this applies specially
to chromatic passages in order to avoid false relation.
Examples:
- No.239. Ivan the Terrible, Act II 29.
- No.240-241. The Tsar's Bride 123, before 124.
- * No. 242-243. " " 178, 179.
* Note. The rules regulating progression of parts may sometimes be ignored,
when extreme contrast of timbre between two adjacent chords is intended.
Examples:
- * Shéhérazade, 8th bar from the beginning, (the chromatic progression at
the 12th bar is undertaken by the same instruments, the 2nd cl. is therefore
placed above the first in the opening) — cf. Ex. 109.
- * The Christmas Night, opening (cf. Ex. 106).
2. Another excellent method consists in transferring the same
chord or its inversion from one orchestral group to another. This
operation demands perfect balance in progression of parts as well
as register. The first group strikes a chord of short value, the
other group takes possession of it simultaneously in the same
position and distribution, either in the same octave or in another.
The dynamic gradations of tone need not necessarily be the same
in both groups.
Examples:
- Ivan the Terrible, commencement of the overture (cf. Ex. 85).
- No.244. Snegourotchka 140.
