7
MUSICAL COURIER
April 12, 1923
PRACTICAL INSTRUMENTATION
For School, Popular and Symphony Orchestras
By FRANK PATTERSON
Author of The Perfect Modernist
[Fifteenth Installment]
(This series of articles was begun in the issue of January 1)
Copyrighted, 1923, by The Musical Courier Company.
one as a climax at all, unless the musical thought is really strong and forceful, unless it has been reached by a logical ascent.
This is well enough illustrated by the examples here given. The same phrase is seen in a variety of lights, just as, in speaking, the same words may be given any number of shades of meaning and emotional intensity or variety.
Wood
Horns
Brass
Strings
Variety and Simplicity
That there is very frequently a difference of opinion as to the intentions of composers is evident from the various “interpretations” even of standard masterpieces. Perhaps carelessness also has something to do with the results one hears at symphony concerts. Perhaps, too, the fact that the conductor, being right over his orchestra, cannot tell how it will sound in the auditorium may also be a factor. At all events, in the passage next quoted (Ex. 35, page 18 of the score), the counterpoint on the horns is evidently intended to he heard, and hardly ever is. The effect, when it is heard, is tremendous, but Tschaikowsky marked the horn parts only forte, and forte is not loud enough in our big American orchestras. In similar passages the student is urged to write the part fortissimo and to mark it “outstanding.” Then it will not be overlooked. (See Ex. 35.) (Errata: D and A natural in horn part.)
In the five passages here quoted Tschaikowsky, with truly astonishing facility and sureness of touch, gives us five different readings of the same phrase, each perfectly simple, and each a little more intense than the one before. This׳ is particularly noticeable by a comparison of Examples 34 and 35. The chromatic passage on the horns is much more vividly emotional than the similar passage on the wood. This is perhaps partially due to the harmony, but it is chiefly due to the orchestration.
On page 58 of the score, after a short presentation of a motive of a very different character, there begins, very softly, a return to the first, a mere suggestion used as an interlude between developments of this other motive. It is given first to the wood alone (see Ex. 37), then to the strings (Ex. 38).
Ex. 37
Now the inversion of it, two pages further on, gives us also a complete rearrangement. (Ex. 38.)
Ex. 38
Oboes
This part is played by four horns in unison. The melody, in the strings, is given to first and second violins and violas, while the cello and bass play the bass part in octaves and the two bassoons have the same part. The other woods have the counterpoint, flutes and oboes on the upper octave, clarinets on the lower octave. The harmony is the dominant seventh chord of D, but otherwise the passage is merely an inversion of the bars shown in Ex. 34 —at least the first bar—with the horns instead of the wood playing the descending chromatic.
That this is׳ an orchestral development of the chamber music idea is clear enough. It is part writing, really solo part writing, but with the solo parts doubled up. With the omission of some of the octaves it might very well be played by a quartet of strings, wood and horn—say, violin, cello, clarinet and horn. In this way it differs materially from the usual orchestral methods. But then Tschaikowsky had ideas of such force and beauty, or say, rather, definiteness—and he had such a wonderful command of consonant counterpoint, a counterpoint of avoidances—that he could do things other writers would be incapable of.
One thing to be particularly noted in all this is that his harmony is never altered to make way for contrapuntal development. The counterpoint is made strictly subservient to the harmony, and is of the first order, that is to say, it fills in the harmonic notes. It does not pass through the harmony, but is, itself, the harmony. (See The Perfect Modernist.)
A few pages further on (page 22 of the score) we come to a fortissimo development of the passage shown in Ex. 33. There is no counterpoint, the melody is strongly reinforced, and the brass is used. (Ex. 36.)
The parts, which are difficult to indicate on this reduced score, are as follows: Wood, upper octave, flute, flute, oboe; middle octave, oboe, clarinet; lower octave, second clarinet; bass, two bassoons׳. Horns: First horn, third horn, second horn, fourth horn. Brass: Trumpet, trumpet, trombone, trombone, trombone, tuba. Strings: Upper octave, first violins; middle octave, second violins; lower octave, violas and cellos; bass, the basses. The tympany, omitted in the example, play the same rhythm as the accompaniment, on F. The strings play in sixteenth notes (not tremolo, but just two notes to the eighth). All instruments are marked fortissimo.
The melody notes׳, except the rhythm on the second beat of the bar, are exactly the same as in Ex. 33. The harmony notes are also exactly the same except for the high F on the trumpet. It looks very simple but is, in fact, a tremendously impressive fortissimo, a climax terminating the first section of the exposition.
It may be well to remark at this point that mere noise never produces these enviable results. One of the important and essential features of orchestration is that it must be exactly adapted to the basic musical thought to which it is set. To make a great clash of noise with brass and cymbals and all the rest of the clatter will not necessarily be impressive, and may not impress