Title: Woodwinds - How to Compose, Orchestrate and Arrange
Headings: Orchestrating for Woodwinds
Orchestrating for Woodwinds
What You Need to Know about Woodwinds
Saxophones
Flutes
Oboes
Clarinets
Bassoons
Audio Selections
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Content: Woodwinds - How to Compose, Orchestrate and Arrange
Orchestrating for Woodwinds
On this page: What You Need to Know about Woodwinds
Saxophones
Flutes
Oboes
Clarinets
Bassoons
What You Need to Know about Woodwinds
Woodwinds are so called because the tone is generated by the player’s breath and originally all instruments were made of wood. The main woodwind instruments in modern western music are: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and saxophones. Each instrument is subdivided into a family of different sizes and pitches, (e.g the flute family: C flute, piccolo, alto flute, bass flute) The basic orchestral woodwind section consists of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, usually with two, three or sometimes four players for each instrument or family of instruments. In the orchestra the 1st or lead player will usually play the main instrument of the family and the 2nd, 3rd or 4th players will play any other instruments as required. ( When a player plays more than one instrument this is referred to as doubling)
As a section the woodwinds have the greatest variance of tonal and dynamic characteristics between the individual instruments. This means that each instrument has a very different character, allowing a great deal of variety of expression within the section. For the same reason it may be difficult to achieve a blend within the woodwind section, without a great deal of knowledge and experience of their tonal and dynamic characteristics.