@PoppaJOL said:
All:
[...]
Alan:
I have faith in your judgement about the worth of these volumes on Orchestration by Koechlin and I do read French though not fluently. The monetary value of anything is based on what the buyer considers worth the cost (did anyone see the latest art auction at Sotheby's? Record prices - 22+ million USD for single paintings!!!). I have certainly paid what others considered an excessive price for items I condered valuable. So, what else is there to say about it?
The Koechlin is divided into 4 fat volumes. The first book covers instrumental techniques and ranges, very throughly. Incidentally it is the ONLY orch.book I know to discuss the human voice in any depth. There follows a VERY detailed (>100 pages) discussion of problems of balance between instruments, famiies, etc..
Vol. 2 is a exhaustive study of orchestral combinations. You want to know about combining saxophone, flute, and solo viola? You'll find it discussed here!
Vol 3 is "real" orchestration, ie all about musical textures and how they can be realised orchestrally. Melodic combinations, acct. figures, etc..
Vol. 4 is about all sorts of special situations, e.g. orchestrating with choir, concertos, chamber music, etc..
The books are absolutely full of musical examples, but unfortunately many of them are from all but unknown works by Koechlin himself. I would say that's the biggest defect of the work.
Incidentally, K. also wrote books on counterpoint, fugue and hamony. The 3rd volume of the latter is exceptional in its coverage of 20th century techniques (up to when it was published, of course). In fact it is one of the 2 main (book) sources I use for my 20th century harmony course, the other being Persichetti. (The rest of the material I composed myself as needed.)
I hope this helps.
Alan