Principles of Orchestration, with Musical Examples Drawn from His Own Works

by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

Wood-wind harmony.

Before entering upon this section of the work I would remind the reader of the general principles laid down in the beginning of the chapter.

Harmonic texture, composed of plain chords or ornamental designs, simple or contrapuntal in character, must possess a resonance equally distributed throughout. This may be obtained by the following means:

1. Instruments forming chords must be used continuously in the same way during a given passage, that is to say they must be doubled or not throughout, except when one of the harmonic parts is to be made prominent:

To be avoided:
	[[audio/mpeg]]

2. The normal order of register must be followed, except in the case of crossing or enclosure of parts, which will be discussed later on:

To be avoided:
	[[audio/mpeg]]

3. Corresponding or adjacent registers should be made to coincide except for certain colour effects:

To be avoided:		The second flute will sound too weak and the oboes too piercing.
	[[audio/mpeg]]

4. Concords (octaves, thirds and sixths) and not discords (fifths, fourths, seconds and sevenths), should be given to instruments of the same kind or colour, except when discords are to be emphasised. This rule should be specially observed in writing for the oboe with its penetrating quality of tone:

To be avoided:
	[[audio/mpeg]]