An Orchestration for Wind Band of Peter Klatzow’s From the Poets: Exploring a systematic approach to orchestration.

The wind band is a far underused composition medium in South Africa. Partially, this is due to the stereotypical view towards the ensemble and unfamiliarity with dealing with the heterogeneous timbral pallet. The author aimed to demonstrate the ensemble’s capabilities through a systematic orchestration process. The result of this dissertation is an orchestration of a large-scale work, From the Poets, for wind band. This creative research resulted in a systematic critical investigation of instrumental idiosyncrasies, balance, conventions of notation and timbre combinations found in the wind band. Furthermore, the author scrutinised the benefits and shortcomings of the aforementioned systematic process. Concluding that, through a methodical process, an orchestrator achieves a thorough understanding of the original text and can thus translate without fear of making unfavourable musical decisions. However, as this was a two-year process, the method might not work in the time constraints presented in real world situations, such as the music industry for instance. The author provides possible adaptations to the method in order to cope with the above-mentioned time constraints.