Orchestration
The art of assigning musical material to specific instruments within an orchestra to create desired timbres
Category
composition
Pronunciation
OR-keh-STRAY-shun
Origin
English
Length
79 words · 1 min read
About Orchestration
Orchestration transforms abstract musical ideas into vivid sonic colours. A melody given to an oboe sounds entirely different on a French horn or violin.
More composition terms
Counterpoint
View all compositionterms →The art of combining two or more independent melodic lines simultaneously.
SequenceThe repetition of a musical pattern at successively higher or lower pitch levels.
Twelve-Tone TechniqueA method of composition that treats all twelve chromatic pitches as equal, ordering them into a fixed row that governs the entire work.
TransposeTo shift an entire piece or passage to a different key while keeping all intervals between notes the same
CanonA contrapuntal composition in which a melody is imitated exactly by one or more voices entering in succession.
v1 · 10/04/2026Browse all terms →