Timbre as a structuring force in music
Stephen E. McAdams · Proceedings of meetings on acoustics · 2013
Most of the music we enjoy uses the musical qualities of different instruments to create specific perceptual and emotional effects that composers sculpt over time. Timbre is the auditory attribute that distinguishes different instruments. Research on timbre perception has demonstrated that it is multifaceted and contributes in many ways to the perceptual organization of musical structures. The art of structuring music with timbre is orchestration. A survey of orchestration treatises reveals the dearth of underlying theory, in sharp contrast to other traditional areas such as harmony and counterpoint, which have long theoretical traditions. We seek to develop a theoretical ground for orchestration practice starting with the structuring role that timbre can play in music. Many aspects of musical structuring are achieved by auditory scene analysis, the perceptual processes that result in unified events, integrated streams of events, groups of events segmented into phrases and sections, and larger-scale units extended over time that we call orchestral gestures. The roles that timbre plays in the manifestation of these principles in orchestration practice will be considered as potential elements of a theory of orchestration. How such principles might be incorporated into computer-aided orchestration systems and computer-aided orchestral rendering systems will also be examined.