Goss is an absolute pleasure, his videos are really insightful. Samuel Addler's 2nd edition of "The Study of Orchestration" I believe is free to access online, as I believe is Berlioz's treatise on orchestration. Another great one is Andrew Hugill's "A User's Manual" on orchestration, found here: <a href="http://andrewhugill.com/manuals/intro.html">http://andrewhugill.com/manuals/intro.html</a>
I worshipped Rimsky-Korsakov as a teenager, though I think "Principles of Orchestration" is a little dated.
BlazingDragon
I can only answer seven of the ten questions, so I suppose I can't claim to be an orchestral composer. Perhaps one day... :'(
That aside, very nice post. I especially like when you asked if we imagine the harpist when writing for harp, because just last week, I sat down with a harpist friend for an hour and watched in wonderment as she explained it all to me (including how many fingers can be used on a chord at once!).
Every time I actually meet an instrumentalist, see solo music for their instrument, and begin really digging in and asking them questions, I get SO inspired to write music. For instance, I realized last week that the harp was so much more capable than I had been giving it credit. Now, I'm realizing that I can make my harp parts much more interesting than mere arpeggios.
Thanks for the resources and great post!
samulis
You can call yourself an orchestral composer, and a good one too, hehe. I put a few hard ones on there, I guess- I had to check one or two. :P
Harp is also the instrument that opened me up to this point of view... When my own harpist friend showed me how it was played and written for, some of the literature, and even had me arrange a piece for her- that changed me a lot, not that I knew it at the time. I now understand how important and inspirational it is to understand each instrument, so whenever I can corner a musician who plays something I haven't cornered someone else about previously, I definitely make a fool of myself asking way too many questions. :D