; a composer's work
stands the best chance when the parts are well written.[5]

[Footnote 5: A. Glazounov has well expressed the various degrees of
excellence in scoring, which he divides into three classes: 1. When
the orchestra sounds well, playing from sight; magnificent, after a
few rehearsals. 2. When effects cannot be brought off except with the
greatest care and attention on the part of conductor and players. 3.
When the orchestra never sounds well. Evidently the chief aim in
orchestration is to obtain the first of these results. (Author's
note.)]

III. _A work should be written for the size of orchestra that is to
perform it_, not for some imaginary body, as many composers persist in
doing, introducing brass instruments in unusual keys upon which the
music is impracticable because it is not played in the key the
composer intends.

It is difficult to devise any method of learning orchestration without
a master. As a general rule it is best to advance by degrees from the
simplest scoring to the most complicated.

The student will probably pass through the following phases: 1. the
phase during which he puts his entire faith in percussion
instruments, believing that beauty of sound emanates entirely from
this branch of the orchestra--this is the earliest stage; 2. the
period when he acquires a passion for the harp, using it in every
possible chord; 3. the stage during which he adores the wood-wind and
horns, using stopped notes in conjunction with strings, muted or
_pizzicato_; 4. the more advanced period, when he has come to
recognise that the string group is the richest and most expressive of
all. When the student works alone he must try to avoid the pitfalls of
the first three phases. The best plan is to study full-scores, and
listen to an orchestra, score in hand. But it is difficult to decide
what music should be studied and heard. Music of all ages, certainly,
but, principally, that which is fairly modern. Fairly modern music
will teach the student how to score--classical music will prove of
negative value to him. Weber, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer (_The Prophet_),
Berlioz, Glinka, Wagner, Liszt, and modern French and Russian
composers--these will prove his best guides. It is useless for a
Berlioz or a Gevaert to quote examples from the works of Gluck. The
musical idiom is too old-fashioned and strange to modern ears; such
examples are of no further use today. The same may be said of Mozart
and of Haydn (the