Organology

What it means

Organology (German Instrumentenkunde) is the study of musical instruments: of their construction, their sound production, their range, their history, and their distribution. It describes how an instrument functions, what it can do and what it cannot — knowledge that is indispensable for composing, arranging, and score reading.

Musical use

The usual scholarly classification orders instruments by the way the sound arises: idiophones sound through the material itself, membranophones through a stretched skin, chordophones through strings, aerophones through air, electrophones through electrical generation or amplification. This order is more comprehensive than the usual orchestral division into strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion, which is oriented on the practice of the European orchestra and classes some instruments correctly only historically — the flute counts as a woodwind instrument even if it is built of metal.

For music-makers, above all practical information counts: range, transposition, tonal peculiarities of individual registers, fingering technique and its limits, breath and bow control, duration of retunings and changes of instrument. Whoever writes for an instrument they do not play themselves depends on it. To this is added the historical side: instruments have changed, and music for older forms of construction presupposes properties that modern instruments no longer have — the valveless natural horn is a well-known example.

The basis of today's classification is the system of Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs of 1914. It orders instruments by the manner of sound production into idiophones, membranophones, chordophones, and aerophones; later the electrophones were added. This systematic replaces the older division into string, wind, and percussion instruments.

Performance practice

When you arrange or orchestrate, first check the range and transposition of every part and, when in doubt, ask someone who plays the instrument — the limits of what is feasible are stated completely in no table. When reading scores, watch the tuning indications. And, with older music, make clear to yourself for which instrument it was written; much that succeeds effortlessly today was a special feature then and wanted to be heard as such.