An Exploratory Study of Western Orchestration: Patterns through History. Chon, S. H., Huron, D., & DeVlieger, D. Empirical Musicology Review, 12(3-4):116, jun, 2018.
An Exploratory Study of Western Orchestration: Patterns through History [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Changes in instrument combination patterns in Western classical orchestral music are traced over a three hundred year period from 1701 to 2000. Using a stratified sample of sonorities from 180 orchestral works by 147 composers, various empirical analyses are reported. These include analyses of instrumentation presence, instrument usage, ensemble size, common instrument combinations, instrument clusterings, and their changes over time. In addition, the study reports associations of different instruments with various dynamic levels, different tempos, pitch class doublings, affinities between instruments and chord factors, as well as interactions between pitch, dynamics, and tempo. Results affirm many common intuitions and historical observations regarding orchestration, but also reveal a number of previously unrecognized patterns of instrument use.
@Article{          chon.ea2018-exploratory,
    author       = {Chon, Song Hui and Huron, David and DeVlieger, Dana},
    year         = {2018},
    title        = {An Exploratory Study of Western Orchestration: Patterns
                   through History},
    abstract     = {Changes in instrument combination patterns in Western
                   classical orchestral music are traced over a three hundred
                   year period from 1701 to 2000. Using a stratified sample
                   of sonorities from 180 orchestral works by 147 composers,
                   various empirical analyses are reported. These include
                   analyses of instrumentation presence, instrument usage,
                   ensemble size, common instrument combinations, instrument
                   clusterings, and their changes over time. In addition, the
                   study reports associations of different instruments with
                   various dynamic levels, different tempos, pitch class
                   doublings, affinities between instruments and chord
                   factors, as well as interactions between pitch, dynamics,
                   and tempo. Results affirm many common intuitions and
                   historical observations regarding orchestration, but also
                   reveal a number of previously unrecognized patterns of
                   instrument use.},
    doi          = {10.18061/emr.v12i3-4.5773},
    issn         = {1559-5749},
    journal      = {Empirical Musicology Review},
    keywords     = {1855,1885,1906,1914,1952,1964,berlioz,century,composers
                   have written a,defined as the
                   art,e,forsyth,g,gevaert,instrument
                   combinations,instrumentation,kennan,music analysis with
                   computers,music history,number of treatises on,o
                   rchestration might be,of combining musical
                   instruments,orchestration,rimsky-korsakov,since the mid-19
                   th,sonorous effect,to produce a distinctive,widor},
    mendeley-tags= {music analysis with computers},
    month        = {jun},
    number       = {3-4},
    pages        = {116},
    url          = {http://emusicology.org/article/view/5773},
    volume       = {12}
}

Downloads: 0