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‹Better GutenbergPrinciples of OrchestrationTable D — Pizzicato — * Table E — Glockenspiel, Celesta, Xylophone · 15 of 104Contents›

Principles of Orchestration

by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

15 of 104 · Contents · Download EPUB

Table D

Pizzicato

The black notes are dry and hard, without resonance, and should only be used when doubled with the wood-wind.

* Table E.

Glockenspiel, Celesta, Xylophone

Piano and Celesta

The use of a piano in the orchestra (apart from pianoforte concertos) belongs almost entirely to the Russian school.11 The object is two-fold: the quality of tone, either alone, or combined with that of the harp, is made to imitate a popular instrument, the guzli, (as in Glinka), or a soft peal of bells. When the piano forms part of an orchestra, not as a solo instrument, an upright is preferable to a grand, but today the piano is gradually being superseded by the celesta, first used by Tschaikovsky. In the celesta, small steel plates take the place of strings, and the hammers falling on them produce a delightful sound, very similar to the glockenspiel. The celesta is only found in full orchestras; when it is not available it should be replaced by an upright piano, and not the glockenspiel.

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