Meet the Colors

Abstract

Abstract Before the orchestrator can begin to assign the composer’s notes to the instruments, the makeup of the pit band must be determined. Spialek, at the beginning of our discussion, compared orchestration to painting. If orchestration is indeed the combination of colors into harmonies and dissonances, instrumentation can be seen as the selection of the fifteen or twenty tubes of paint with which to work. Paint can be blended in any variety of colors, yes; but it can be seen that there is a difference in the palettes of Van Eyck and Van Gogh, and, further, that Van Gogh’s sun-drenched Arlesienne fantasies differ from his indoor, brown-and-muddy potato eaters. So, too, is the difference between Walker’s Carousel and Fiddler on the Roof, or Lang’s Li’l Abner and Carnival.