水星的发烧名片（两片一套的，大包不厚道，只有第一片，木有这一张），作曲家汉森（Howard Hanson）一边讲解他是怎样作曲的，一边后面有乐队演示，一直都想有英文的原稿，貌似网上不大找得到，没办法，只有自己做这个事了！有不当之处，请高手不吝指正！
TRACK 01
Introduction, colors of the orchestra
I’m frequently asked the question: How does a composer write for the symphony orchestra? What is the pitch(
音高) spectrum available to him and how does he mixed the color of orchestra power?
Here is the complete spectrum from the lowest B of a contrabassoon
to the top most C of the piccolo.
And here are four basic colors: The first color the strings grouped on my right and left. Let us build a string chord(
和弦) beginning with double basses, then adding the cellos and then the violas then the second violins and finally the 1st violins.
Here is our second color: the woodwinds, seated in the middle of our orchestra and directly in front of me. Let us now build a woodwind chord beginning first with the lowest C of the contrabassoon, then adding the two bassoons,then the bass clarinet and clarinets then the English horn
（英国管） and oboes and finally on top, the two flutes and piccolo:
And here is our third color: the brass. Seated directly in the back and at our right. We’ll start first with the_______bass tuba then add 3 trombones then 4 French horns, then finally on the top 3 trumpets.
And finally here is our fourth color: the two harps and percussion.The two harps seated on my right and percussion in the back and at the left of the orchestra. The two harps and percussion together in one grand splash of sound:
TRACK 02
Woodwinds
Now let us explore these colors in some detail. We shall use far illustrations,passages from orchestra suite from my
up a merry mount. Since this suite makes extensive use of all of these different colors. Let’s start with woodwinds. Here are the flutes.Draw the top of the pitch spectrum of the wind group, the most agile and graceful instrument of the orchestra. In the beginning of
Maypole dances I wanted to use some simple graceful decorations so the natural instruments seem to be—the two flutes:
And in children’s dance we use them for the bright, gay, rhythmic effect:
The piccolo, as its Italian name implies, is of course a small flute. If for example the decorated passage for a moment ago played by flutes played by piccolo will sound like this:
And in
maypole dances the piccolo is used at the very top of its register(
声区) to give added brilliance:
The 2 flutes and piccolo together add one of the most brilliant possible colors at the very top of the orchestra. At the end of the
merry mount overture, the 2 flutes and piccolo together are used to light up, to illuminate the orchestra color:
The oboe is a double-reed instrument at the centre of our pitch spectrum. It is usually described as having an oriental type of sound. Here is the folk dance tune in the
maypole dances as its sounds played on the oboe:
The alto-oboe, called an English horn for some interesting reason is neither a horn nor English has the same type of color but deeper and even more somber.Here is a short passage from the love duet:
And the 2 oboes and English horn together give the composer one of the most exotic colors of his entire spectrum. Here is a little theme of the children’s dance in 2 oboes and English horn:
The third member of the double-reed family is the bassoon which we might I suppose describe as bass oboe. Here’s the same folk dance tune previously played by the piccolo now played by the bassoon:
The bassoon frequently plays comedy part in the orchestra. So in the children’s dance I wanted to picture a little boy running obviously very much out of breath. The 2 bassoons were given the assignment:
The contra-bassoon might be called double bass of the oboe family. It is at the very bottom of the pitch spectrum, sounding like this:
When we put 2 bassoons and contra bassoon together we produce this rather lugubrious sound:
The last but not the least,the clarinet, a single-reed instrument and one of the most important solo instruments of the orchestra. In the
maypole dances I toss the little dance tune back and forth among almost all of these instruments in the orchestra and this is how it sounds in the clarinet:
The name of the bass clarinet explains itself. It occupies approximately the same part of the pitch range as the bassoon. Here is a short melodic passage from the love duet:
But in the lower part of the register it has almost sinister sound:
The 2 clarinets and bass clarinet together make one of the most wonderfully effective rhythmic harmonic backgrounds in the orchestra:
And here is a passage at the end of the
love duet I abused entire woodwind section as a splash of dramatic color:
TRACK 03
Brass
In the brass section, the trumpet is of course at the top of the pitch range. Here is a short melodic fragment from the
maypole dances:
When the composer uses the trumpets he’s frequently inclined to use the entire trumpet trail. Here’s the exciting sound seem to be appropriate for the
children’s dance:
The French horn is in the middle of the orchestra spectrum with opulent noble sound. Here is the characteristic passage from the overture:
The four horns together give the composer one of the richest and most sonorous sounds of the orchestra. Here is a passage also from the
merry mount overture.
And here in the
maypole dances, I used the trumpets and horns alternately in a short fanfare(
号声):
The trombone is the most powerful instrument of the orchestra, but it is equally capable of a gentle,almost somber sound.
At the bottom of the brass range is the tuba--an instrument of great majesty and power:
The trombones and tuba together forming magnificent quartet for crawl like passages
as in the opening of merry mount overture
：Played _____they present the utter most in orchestra power:
Here in
the love duet we played the entire brass section together with the trumpet on top, the trombone and tuba on the bottom, and the horns in between:
TRACK 04
Strings
It is probably unnecessary to illustrate the strings in detail, but we might build up melodic line in the beginning with violas alone, then adding the cellos, and finally the entire violin section:
And here is the double bass.
By itself it seem to have depth but little power, however when we place it below the other strings, it adds both depth and sonority, here is the string section without the basses:
Notice the much richer texture and depth when we place the double basses below the otherstrings:
And here is the entire string section of the orchestra used as a gigantic guitar:
TRACK 05
Harps and Percussion
Although the harps is not of course a string instrument in the same sense of the violin, it may be grouped with the string section. I prefer however to consider it with the percussion section since it essentially an invaluable coloristic instrument. Here at the climax of
the children’s dance, we use 2 harps for characteristic color and rhythmic
（节奏） effect
including the
familiar crescendo:
The percussion section is sometimes called the kitchen of the orchestra. But it should probably be called salt and pepper of the orchestra. The percussion instruments are legion in number I should discuss only the ones used in this composition.Here are the percussion instruments with definite pitch
（固定音高）, first the familiar ____drum:
Then the xylophone:
And here the rich tones of the Marimba (
立奏低音木琴/
马林巴木琴）:
And finally the large, tubular bells
（管钟）or chimes.
Or we may prefer to use instruments with indefinite or mixed pitch, the cymbal, which may be suspended, and set into gradual vibration or crashed, In this example, we use both forms:
And here is the small high tone of the triangle:
And the deep sound of the gong:
And the almost definite pitches of the temple blocks(
西洋木鱼)
Or finally we may use percussion instruments which we might with the apology called the noise of the orchestra, first the snare drum(
小鼓):
The deeper tone of field drum
（军鼓）:
The still lower bass drum:
The tambourine:
And the woodblock
（响木）:
Suppose we hear what percussion section assisted by 2 harps sounds like by itself in
the children’s dance. It is a little like serving salt and pepper without food but the effect is I hope interesting:
TRACK 06
Putting the sections together
And now we have the problem of putting various sections together. I like to think of the orchestra
sometimes in terms of painting, where there is a background perhaps
not even noticeable; foreground which is quite apparent
with perhaps decorative ornamentation and shot through with the colors of the percussion section. Let us try a simple example from the
overture of the merrymount suite. We first paint the back ground clarinet, bass clarinet and bassoon:
Now we add somber color with timpani and gong:
And against this, we played in the foreground the trombones and tuba:
Here is another example from the
maypole dances. We paint first the background in the strings tremble-all:
We add touch of color in the xylophone and harp:
Now we add a little decoration in the 2 clarinets:
And place in the foreground a little tune in the cellos:
Or again we may contrast one entire section of the orchestra with another. Here in
the love duet for example, we first use only the color of woodwinds and horns, and then add the strings and interplay contrasting colors. Here are the winds alone:
And here are the strings alone:
Now we mixed them together. Note the way in which each section interlocks with the other:
Finally here is a passage at the end of the children’s dance where the colors are so thoroughly mixed that it is difficult to hear them separately. If we tear the score apart,so to speak, we find the strings doing this:
While the woodwinds are providing this decoration:
The brass presents this harmonic background:
And harps and percussion again, the salt and pepper:
Altogether it sounds like this:
And now having talked about how an orchestra score are put together, suppose we play the entire suite without pause.
