The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies

Abstract The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies makes an argument for the centrality of orchestration in musical practice and examines this often-neglected topic from a range of disciplinary perspectives. While musical scholarship has frequently relegated orchestration to a merely decorative role—the adornment of composed notes and rhythms with instrumental timbres—we seek to reclaim its importance as an inherent and essential part of creative music-making in a variety of genres and styles. Though the term “orchestration” is most typically associated with arranging previously composed musical ideas for the symphonic orchestra, our definition (adapted from music psychologist Stephen McAdams) is much broader: orchestration is the choice, combination, and/or juxtaposition of timbres in a musical context. Under this encompassing definition, orchestration is no longer separate from composition and improvisatory creation but an integral part of the process: whenever we “com-pose” (put together) timbres with attention to their constituent and emergent qualities, we are simultaneously orchestrating. In this sense, orchestration is present in virtually all musical settings and traditions, from chamber music to gamelan ensembles, jazz big bands, or the mixing of synthesized sounds in the electronic music studio. By adopting the phrase “orchestration studies,” we seek to open a wide-ranging interdisciplinary engagement with the topic. This Handbook assembles authors from many established disciplines—musicologists, ethnomusicologists, music theorists, organologists, music psychologists, composers, conductors, performers, cognitive scientists, acousticians, computer scientists, film scholars, recording engineers, and more—to contribute to our shared understanding of orchestration from a broad variety of perspectives.