Using VSL as a teaching aid in orchestration class.

[Fergus Currie]

 I teach some private lessons (last year the music school closed because of the ecoomic crisis here in Greece) and I use samples to recreate the students efforts in order for them to hear what they've written. While this seems like agood idea there are things that you should know about real instruments that samples take no heed of at all such as available trills on the bassoon or how fast a low B string on a doublebass can do spiccato. In the future most of these students will use samples 99% more times than real orchestras - Do you think that it is wrong for me to get them to write taking into consideration 'real' difficulties or should I let them write what they want? Remember that when valves were added to horns in the 19th Century composers continued to write very 'hornlike' parts for them, only rarley taking advantage or the new available note for at least 50 years.... Comments anyone? 

[Composer_Larkin]

Dear Fergus, I think it is still important for the students to learn about the history of instrumental sections, and the playability. With the knowledge of playability comes the knowledge of how to write specifically for a specific section. For example, writing a passage for the horns that sounds horny ('scuse the term hehe). And then when it comes to "cheating" with samples, at least they know what they are cheating with. If the music becomes more unplayable, then it will SOUND less like orchestral music.. in my opinion anyway. I still have shiteloads to learn about registers, breathing and all sorts of playability stuff. I've just finished my 4 year composition degree and I'm already forgetting stuff about instruments due to samples (or just my lack of memory). e.g. should I care that I just wrote a really fast passage over the low/mid register break in the clarinet? Samples played it back fine anyway... Its a double edged sword!!!