Shorthand for orchestra instrumentation
Encyclopedia
The shorthand for the orchestration of a classical symphony orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 is used to outline which and how many instruments
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

, especially wind instrument
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...

s, are called for in a given piece of music. The shorthand is ordered in the same fashion as the parts of the individual instruments in the score
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...

, read from top to bottom.

The orchestra is divided into four groups and specified as follows:
  • Woodwind instrument
    Woodwind instrument
    A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...

    s: flutes, oboe
    Oboe
    The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

    s, clarinet
    Clarinet
    The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

    s, bassoon
    Bassoon
    The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

    s
  • Brass instrument
    Brass instrument
    A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...

    s: horn
    Horn (instrument)
    The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....

    s, trumpet
    Trumpet
    The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

    s, trombone
    Trombone
    The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

    s, Tuba
    Tuba
    The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...

  • Timpani
    Timpani
    Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

    , percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

    , piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

    , harp
    Harp
    The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

     etc.
  • String section
    String section
    The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...

    : violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

    s, viola
    Viola
    The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

    s, celli
    Cello
    The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

    , basses
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...


There is no standardized version of this shorthand; different publishers use different systems, especially for doubling/alternate/additional instruments. However, the basic order of the instruments, as seen above, is common to all of them.

Examples for different notations for the same orchestration:
as in table below: 2d1, 2+1, 2d1es+bass, 3d1 - ...
Chester Novello: 2(picc).2+ca.2(Ebcl)+bcl.3(cbn)/ ...
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....

:  
2(II=picc).2.corA.2(I=Ebcl).bcl.3(III=dbn)- ...


Examples

Shorthand Meaning Comments
2, 2, 2, 2 - 4, 3, 3, 1, timp, str 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons - 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, strings A standard large orchestra.
0, 2, 0, 2 - 2, 2, 0, 0, timp, str 2 oboes, 2 bassoons - 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings A typical orchestra of the classical period
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...

. Omitted instruments are specified by using the numeral "0" (in this instance, flutes and clarinets).
3+picc, 3+cor ang, 3+bass, 3+contra - 4, 4, 3+bass, 1, timp, 16/14/12/10/8 3 flutes plus piccolo (not doubling), 3 oboes plus english horn (not doubling), 3 clarinets plus bass clarinet (not doubling), 3 bassoons plus contrabassoon (not doubling) - 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones plus bass trombone (not doubling), 1 tuba, 1 timpani - 16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 celli, 8 double basses A specified number of string parts may be given. This is an orchestra of the late romantic period with a very large wind and string section. The relations of the individual sections has been kept since the classical period for acoustical reasons, so a small string section could be 10/8/6/5/4.
2d1, 2+1, 2d1es+bass, 3d1 - ... 2 flautists, one of which doubles on piccolo; 2 oboists plus cor anglais (not doubling); two clarinettists, one of which doubles on E♭ clarinet, plus bass clarinet (not doubling); three bassoonists, one of which doubles on contrabassoon. Non-standard instruments related to "core" instruments (for example piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...

, cor anglais
Cor anglais
The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....

, E♭-
E-flat clarinet
The E-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family. It is usually classed as a soprano clarinet, although some authors describe it as a "sopranino" or even "piccolo" clarinet. Smaller in size and higher in pitch than the more common B clarinet, it is a transposing instrument in E, sounding a...

 and bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...

, contrabassoon
Contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower...

) are given after the number for the "core" instrument, using a "+" if an extra player is needed and a "d" if one player may double.
2, 2d1, 2, 2, alto sax - 4, 4, 3, 0, timp, perc, hp, str 2 flutes, 2 oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, alto saxophone - 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, strings Non-"core" instruments not closely related to any "core" instrument (for example the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

) are given after the group in question, here from Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...

's Arlésienne-Suite No. 1.


If any soloists or a choir are called for, their parts are usually printed between the percussion/keyboards and the strings in the score. In shorthand however, they are usually omitted.
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