02-17-2017, 06:07 PM
I've been reading a book about orchestration, and it discusses this concept of the ranges of strings sections quite a bit. The general idea that I've gotten from it, and confirmed with my own experiments, is that each instrument's higher range tends to be more bright, and its low range tends to be more dark.
So for example, if you want a bright sounding tenor melody, you could give the part to the cello section. If you want those same tenor notes to be more dark, try it out with the violas.
To some extent this also seems to work with woodwinds and brass instruments. For example the horn range is quite extensive, and horn melodies can have a very different feel depending on how high or low they are. Add the horn's response to dynamics into the mix and there are a lot of flavors you can get out of that single instrument.
So for example, if you want a bright sounding tenor melody, you could give the part to the cello section. If you want those same tenor notes to be more dark, try it out with the violas.
To some extent this also seems to work with woodwinds and brass instruments. For example the horn range is quite extensive, and horn melodies can have a very different feel depending on how high or low they are. Add the horn's response to dynamics into the mix and there are a lot of flavors you can get out of that single instrument.