The Study of Orchestration

As always, Alder's book is a fantastic resource for any composer/arranger/orchestrator. The only errors I could find were a picture of a Flügelhorn labeled Cornet in the section about trumpets, and mentioning the "Poaching Song" from Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy as being the third movement in the Second Suite by Holst. The online examples are of great quality as well.As for the physical product: it's a good sturdy book with glossy white pages.Overall, I'd give it a 4.75/5 for the minor errors, but I can only rate in whole-stars.

Awesome book, but kind of expensive and no student discounts :(

Very useful. None of my classmates would sell their old one to me and after reading it and taking a class on instrumentation I see why. Tons of information. Tons of examples. If you have any question on instrumentation the answer will be in this book.

I'm just looking at the book for the first time, but as a string player myself, I can already tell that the book hasn't been proofread very carefully. (especially for a 4th edition!) I've already encountered a number of errors and inaccuracies (a lot of them having to do with fingerings on string instruments), and it makes me wonder if there will be more errors relating to other instruments that I'm less familiar with that will therefore be more difficult for me to catch...Overall though, it seems like a useful resource to have. And I agree with the other reviews that making you pay more to extend the access to the examples online is totally bogus. I guess it's geared towards people using the book for one semester and then just forgetting about it, but for those of us who'd like to keep referring to the examples in the book, it's really annoying.

I needed this for my orchestration class and I kept it because it has a looooot of great information in it!

One reason I was willing to pay for this extremely expensive book was that the ad promised that "The Fourth Edition invites students to experience the instruments through online audio and video recordings and now offers more coverage of writing for band." note: NO INDICATION THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ACCESS!When the book came, it had a card in it with the web site URL, a password, and instructions for setting up your access -- with NO INDICATION THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ACCESS!I went through the process in question, with NO INDICATION THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ACCESS!Then after a year, I found my access blocked, and a message that if I wanted to keep access you better give us some money, bub.They can of course charge for their web site access if they want to. But to advertise that the extremely high price of this book includes web access with NO INDICATION THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ACCESS! and then to include instructions for access in the book with NO INDICATION THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ACCESS! and then to have you go through the registration process with NO INDICATION THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ACCESS! and then to spring it on you later that to keep access you have to give them still more money than the unconscionably high price they have already charged -- in other words, TO SELL YOU A TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION WHILE ALLOWING YOU TO ASSUME IT IS A PERMANENT SUBSCRIPTION --is very clearly unethical. This company ought to be ashamed of itself.

A very complete and well written introduction to the craft of orchestration. Some sections are greatly expanded from the third edition, and some are barely touched at all.The publisher takes the book into the digital era by replacing the accompanying CD with a website where you can listen to the examples. HOWEVER, hidden in the small print of the user agreement it says that you only get access to the media files for one year (!!). If you want to have access to the files after that time, you have to pay another 40 dollars per year that you want to access them. They never advertise this at the time of sale, which I think is very misleading.It is clear that the publisher does not offer this upgrade for the user's convenience, but rather to squeeze money out of the pockets of their primarily student audience. Until they address this issue, you're probably better off buying the third edition, which comes with a regular CD that never expires.EDIT (4 Oct 2017): A year after this review I can confirm that my access has expired. I now have the option to add another 180 days (NOT an entire year as reported earlier) for $40. The website also says that my access expired 3 months after buying the book, as opposed to the one year I read in the user agreement. Please draw your own conclusions.

The book is very helpful and informative. However, with such high price, I expect to have permanent access to online audio examples.

To use this book you need to use the online code provided inside. The problem with this book is there are parts missing with the online examples. Examples will skip sections which makes it impossible for me to follow the text book. Part 58 will skip to 63 for exampleIt is also very important to note that the online material is only available for 1 year and if you do not live in the USA you cannot purchase it again.

I've recently started studying orchestration in my spare time. I am an amateur composer who works primarily with DAWs & samplers than scoring software. One hurdle I'm trying to overcome is learning familiarity with different "voices" of the orchestra & how to blend instruments well so that I can best approximate what my inner ear is hearing and write more fluently. I picked this book up after noticing it was a common & frequent recommendation made by online tutors.Although less than 1/2-way through I can guarantee that this was an excellent purchase and a solution to my problem. The chapters are clearly written and content is easy to digest. The topics are well chosen and give a complete, practical "how-to" guide for the modern orchestra (with surprising coverage of lesser-used instruments). There are chapters dedicated to scoring for specific sections of the orchestra as well as chapters dedicated to scoring for mixed sections and full ensemble. It is exactly what I was looking for.To those whose pitch reading is poor (like me) the digital resources in each chapter are incredibly valuable & easy to access/use -- both video & audio of live performances of most excerpts in the book illustrates the author's points clearly.The value far outweighed what I paid, which was £50. If you have similar concerns to mine then I urge you to make this purchase.Only two notes of caution:- you will need a web connection to use the digital resources;- it is impossible to imagine perching this on a music stand, whether free-standing or on a piano. It is a chonk of a book;- you should have a basic knowledge of music reading (the book helps as much as possible but being able to read a bass & treble clef staff and understand the principle of key signatures would be essential to get the most value out of this book)

DO NOT buy this edition of the book. Previous editions come with a full CD set of audio examples (a vital part of this book) which you own forever, this edition comes with a web code to access the audio online.The website does not let you download the material and it is only available online for one year before you have to renew your subscription for $40 - the kicker is that even if you wanted to, you can only resubscribe if you live in the USA or Canada, and this is the INTERNATIONAL EDITION. I cannot now access the recordings that are a vital part of this book.The publisher should be thoroughly ashamed of this incredibly scummy practice, please do not endorse it and find another edition of the book with physical CDs, this book contains a lifetime's worth of study, one year wouldn't give you anywhere near enough time to explore all the resources.

Very detailed and informative, you get a dedicated chapter for each instrument of the orchestra, talks about every pro and non-pro range, every string timbre or register quality, contemporary techniques, and how to orchestrate for that section, and that is only half the book! The 2nd part is just full orchestration lessons from the great composers! The only downside is the physical construction of the book (paperback version), the sheets are very flimsy and the cover itself is easily breakable, I would suggest you buy the Hardcover version if you look forward to carrying the book around all the time! But for an over 1000 pages book I kinda understand why they would do this, still the best orchestration manual out there!!

The book is a great resource for orchestration students like myself and a must have.. BUT...wwnorton charges additional $40 for access to the online support resource every year which in my opinion is ridiculous considering that you have already paid in full for the book.