Author: hardreed
Date: 2003-05-02 22:44
In balancing instruments in any ensemble, it's a bit like mixing paint. A few fundamental rules to follow are:
1. Blend accompaniment into primary melodic material.
2. Blend louder instruments into weaker (i.e., brass into woodwinds).
3. Blend more intense timbres into less intense (i.e., alto sax into French horn, oboe or bassoon into clarinet)).
4. Blend lower octaves into higher octaves.
The ideal is to get the sounds to join, rather than fight each other for dominance. The only way for this to be achieved is for the conductor to get the muscians to actively listen to each other and understand how their part stands in relationship to what the others are playing.
With Redhedclrnetist's band, no matter how loud or soft the clarinets play, the director will have to get the brass players to produce their sounds so that they stand in proper dynamic relationship to those produced by the clarinet section when both groups are playing together. This will require the brass to play softer. This may mean sacrificing some volume in louder passages, but relative volume is far more important than sheer volume.
Achieving a good balance through active listening and blending doesn't imply a loss of clarity. On the contrary, textures become much more transparent because the sounds are heard in the proper relationship to each other. Cheers,
Hardreed
Post Edited (2003-05-02 23:46)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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