Category: instrumentation
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Extended techniques: Do We Need a Pan-Woodwind View?
Since the 1967 publication of Bruno Bartolozzi’s New Sounds for Woodwind, there have been many books published for new sounds, or extended techniques, for the individual woodwind instruments. (Read here about some thoughts about the term “extended techniques”.) However, to my knowledge, since then there has been no book that addresses the emerging uses of…
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Ligeti Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto)
I thought it would be a nice segue from my last post on the True Range of the Flute to a work that, great as it is, has serious issues regarding range. Composers, if you have overstepped the bounds of the flute’s range, you are in good company. Gyorgi Ligeti is just about my favorite…
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The True Range of the C Flute
Back in the USSR, when information was really suppressed, many people were hungry for the truth. Now governments hide the truth from us under a deluge of information. I think composers suffer from this deluge, but it is not a government conspiracy. The true range of the concert C flute is a matter of public…
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Pet Peeves for composers
This is going to be a work in progress. To all composers – here is one musician’s (of the flutist persuasion) list of pet peeves:There is a compositional tradition which I would like to ask composers to please avoid, especially when writing for wind players. This is using a comma (which looks to a wind…