4 Writing and Sequencing for the Woodwind Section
4.1 General Characteristics
The woodwind instruments, as a section, offer the greatest diversity with regard to tone color. This is advantageous regarding expression and variety, but is challenging when a homogenized sound is desired. The challenge is greatest when working within a harmonic framework but is easiest when the harmony is assigned to one color group, for example three flutes, each playing one note of a triad. The woodwind instruments are at their best when featured playing independent lines. It is wonderful to hear, for example, a melody initially carried by a solo flute, picked up by a solo clarinet, and then transferred to a bassoon. Other times there may be a counterline ...
Get Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.