X. Orchestration
Subtle Color Changes
Mark Gotham
Key Takeaways
- a timbral cadence
- a smooth structural boundary
- an “attack-sustain” (“resonance”) effect
- a seamless orchestral crescendo
- a timbrally nuanced melody
For a timbral cadence
Apart from changing the timbral distribution between sections (after a cadence), some composers make changes for the cadence itself, emphasizing the cadential moment. This is related to the more formal considerations of holding back a timbre discussed in the previous chapter.
Classical-era orchestral composers sometimes used wind parts in this way. Here’s an example from the opening of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K453, movement 3. The strings begin, and the timbral cadences are marked by the addition of winds (highlighted in the example).
Shostakovich provides some extraordinary 20th-century examples of this device. Consider the end of Shostakovich 11/iii. The outer sections of this movement are effectively one long viola solo, and the timbral addition of unison violins at the end is integral to formalizing the end of the theme. The melodic contour and discontinuation of the countersubject are also contributing, but the harmony is deeply ambiguous. In the following recording, the theme plays from 0’50” and the timbral cadences fall at the ends of the sections (4’50” and 12’40”).
This device is not unique to orchestral music. For instance, Blink 182 uses the same effect to close verses in the song “I Miss You”: here the timbral cadence is achieved by the addition of the other vocalist (e.g., at 0’55”).
To finesse a structural boundary
Timbral additions can also be used in the opposite sense: to finesse a structural boundary and actively connect the two sections. This is a favored device of Brahms. Brahms 2/iii opens with a gracious oboe theme, and it is the return of the oboe (in tandem with motivic handling and other matters) that finesses the return to the A section at m. 101/107.
It is the oboe again that Brahms adds to round out the first cadence of Brahms 4/i. (Note also the cello-viola dovetailing here.)
For the “attack-sustain” (“resonance”) effect
One technique beloved of 20th-century composers is the “attack-sustain” or “resonance” effect. Acoustics teaches us that the very start of a note has a very different profile from the rest, and composers seem to be striving for something similar in orchestral writing that casts some instruments in an “attacking” role (shorter notes at the start) and others as “sustain” (longer notes starting together on the same pitches).
Examples abound and are not limited to the 20th century. For instance:
- Mozart: Magic Flute overture. When the brass parts enter, the horns are long, while the trumpets and trombones are short.
- Mozart: Dies Irae (from the Requiem): again, trumpets and drums are short; others long.
- Beethoven: The opening of Symphony 1/i is an iconic example, and not only for the extraordinary harmonies. The winds’ fp chords achieve the attack-sustain pair o