As you may already realize, writing for woodwinds is a truly special aspect of orchestration. Unlike the strings (violins, violas, cellos, and contrabasses), which blend so well into one giant sonority, the woodwind family is so distinct in all of its colors and timbres. This is due to the difference between a flute’s sound production (and metal material generally), combined with single reed (clarinet) and double reed (oboe and bassoon) instruments. Once you expand the families to include doublings or additional players on piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, and other instruments, you will realize that there are many specialized colors available to you.

The Woodwind Family

The piccolo reads the same notation as a flute (in C), but sounds one octave higher (octava). But the character of a piccolo, with it’s shorter pipe or tube, is not the same as a flute. It’s not just the flute sound but higher; it’s a clear, often piercing, sometimes shrill instrument used for effect as well as melodic doubling. The same goes for the oboe with its lower cousin the English horn. The ‘cor anglais’ or English horn (in F) is very rich and sonorous and will cut through a middle register with a soaring melody in a range that the oboe can’t touch. The clarinet’s (Bb or A) chalameau register is more pronounced in the rich lower bass clarinet (Bb). The bassoon’s lower cousin the contrabassoon adds that shuddering low Bb (or A with extension) that can help balance a full orchestra voicing.

Even with their unique qualities, it is obviously also possible to write for the entire woodwind choir as a unit and achieve a blended and balanced sound. Often this is done by ‘dovetailing’ the voicings where exact pitches or octaves are doubled by two separate wind instruments.

Woodwind Dovetailing Orchestration Example

Here’s a snapshot from Beethoven with winds by two: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, and two bassoons (‘fagotti’ in Italian). At the fermata (hold) symbol in this Beethoven snippet, the first flute plays the high ‘D’ (pitch D6), and the second flute plays the lower Ab5. Notice however that oboe one doubles Ab5, and oboe two plays D5, an octave lower than flute one. The frame of this octave is flute and oboe, respectively — but the two instruments double the middle pitch.

As we look at the Bb clarinet (transposed here a M2 higher) we see that clarinet one is doubling D5, the same pitch as oboe two. Clarinet two is playing Ab4, which is the lower octave from the flute 1/oboe 2 pitch.

The D4 and F4 in the bassoons add a couple of interesting anchors to the orchestration. The D4 in the second bassoon (fagotti) is a full two octaves below flute one giving us three octaves of D’s in the winds (D4, D5, D6). The has the fresh pitch F4 which shows us that at least in the winds, this is a D diminished triad. Of course we would want to analyze the brass, strings, and percussion to have a full picture of this sonority, but this wind dovetailing writing alone is quite interesting. (If you must know, a low Bb in the strings (not shown) makes this harmony at the fermata a Bb7, the dominant V7 chord in Eb major!)