What is Orchestration?
'''Orchestration''' in [[music]] can have two meanings: # It can mean: the study of how to write music for an [[orchestra]]. # It can also mean the list of [[musical instrument|instruments]] that are used in a particular piece of music. People who want to compose music for orchestras need to study orchestration. They can do this by reading books about orchestration, but also they can do this by studying orchestral [[sheet music|scores]] and listening to [[orchestra]]s in [[concert]]s or on [[CDs]]. Students at music colleges will also practise orchestration by taking [[piano]] music and [[arrangement (music)|arranging]] it for orchestra. The word '''instrumentation''' means almost the same thing as “orchestration”. “Instrumentation” means: understanding each instrument and knowing about all the sounds they can make. It can be about any music with instruments, whereas “orchestration” refers to the orchestra from its beginnings in the [[17th century]] to the present. Orchestration is all about understanding how to write well for different instruments, how to combine them so that they sound well together and balance well. Sometimes composers leave the orchestration of their works to other people. [[Leonard Bernstein]] is famous as the composer of ''[[West Side Story]]'', but although he composed all the notes he left it to other people to orchestrate. The composer [[Maurice Ravel]] took a piano piece called ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'' by [[Modest Mussorgsky]] (who had died forty years earlier). He arranged it for orchestra. Most people know this version rather than Mussorgsky’s piano version. [[Hector Berlioz]] and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]] are two famous [[composer]]s who were particularly brilliant at writing for orchestra. They both wrote books on orchestration which are still very useful today. [[Category:Music]]