MUSICAL COMPOSITION

100 MUSICAL COMPOSITIONguide does of scenery. The maps and plans are useful,but give no clue to the contours and colours of 8landscape, or to the architectural aspects of a city.Orchestration treatises, after they have explained thecompasses of the various instruments, their mechanism,general character, capabilities and incapabilities, havesaid all they can say. All the discussions upon thequality of their sound, individually and collectively, areof no possible use to anyone who has not heard themwith his own ears. They may help the student'sjudgment and explain his difficulties after he isacquainted with the sounds they are discussing, butnot before. It is safe to say that no musician whohad never heard an orchestra could write a page ofpassable scoring with the help of books. His bestand his only master is the orchestra itself, and hissoundest method of studying it consists in frequentattendance at orchestral rehearsals, with the full scoresof the works to be rehearsed in his hand. Rehearsalsare best, because he will have more opportunity ofhearing complex passages repeated, of analysing thequality of individual instruments, and of moving aboutso as to hear the orchestra from different positions;both close to it (and if possible above it, where he candissect the sound), and at a distance, where he will getthe general effect. It does not matter if the orchestrais small in numbers; indeed, for his purpose, it isbetter that it should be. Only in this way will thecolour effects produced by the orchestra, in whole andin part, get firmly fixed in that part of his brain whichcan hear mentally while reading a score.In the first efforts of composition it is a matter ofnecessity to start simply, as all the great masters did,