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Rating: 
Summary: an invaluable instrumentation text
Review: 1) Just because one has written previous works on a subject does not invalidate further works and further revelations on the subject.2) Every book ever published contains inaccuracies. I'd rather chance a few unimportant inaccuracies for the depth of information that the book does provide. 3) One of the great strengths of the work is its completeness and willingness to tackle instruments that have been largely ignored for many years. The percussion section of the book is worth the cost of the book alone. I'd prefer a text that at least attempts to present relevant information over a book that won't even acknowledge that the "non-orchestral" instruments exist. And really, if you are looking for more advanced information on string instruments, there is a lot already out there. The "glories" of string instruments have been sung before and will be sung again ad nauseum. 4) The fingering charts provide are a starting place to depart from. The woodwind charts, in particular are extremely helpful and very thorough. The work may be lacking a little in techniques of Orchestration (though there are interesting exercises and basic information on the subject), but as an Instrumentation text, it is invaluable. It is a great look beyond the tired, overplayed orchestral warhorses and is a resource for the new and innovative composers/arrangers looking to escape the cookie-cutter writing emphasized by many texts. It's one of few works that can help you understand what you >can< do, and not what you >should< do (in the author's opinion)... two utterly different but oft-mistaken concepts. If you were to follow three-quarters of the orchestration texts out there, you'd never hear anything but the typical "violins on the melody, woodwinds in thirds, brass playing chords, percussion sitting on their duffs reading magazines" that the older texts ram down your throat. An excellent and thorough work. But if you want highly specialized information, ask a performer... they are always the best of resources.
Rating: 
Summary: I beg to differ
Review: Despite its title, this book is neither more nor less an instrumentation text (in contradistinction to an orchestration text) than the aforementioned "Orchestration" by Cecil Forysth. It is only much inferior to "Orchestration" by Cecil Forysth. That is all.
Rating:
Summary: Great introduction!
Review: I am just getting into composing for the orchestra and have no musical training. For me trying to find facts about instrumentation and orchestration, this book is at the perfect level. Accessible descriptions and packed with valuable info. Other books I looked at seemed geared more towards people who were either very familiar with this world already, or, going to school studying this and then have the assistance of a professor. Some other books just had way too much references to existing classical pieces, without very much description (or to high level descriptions for me) of what the author was talking about. This book is great if you are trying to gain some more understanding of the orchestra, and are new to that world.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book - for instrumentation
Review: Instrumentation and Orchestration should be titled just "Instrumentation." The book goes in depth on practically every instrument available, explaining each instrument's specal features. It demonstrates how to notate a "smack tone" for a double-reed, or a "mouthpiece pop" for brass. It does in depth on brass mute effects and multiphonics, it shows picture after picture of instrument families (in the case of the clarinets, it dipicts the A-flat soprano clarient to the B-flat contrabass clarinet, and everything in between, including the basset horn in F). Instrumentation and Orchestration highlights almost every percussion instrument seen in modern ensembles,and includes an apendix with fingering charts for every instrument discused earlier in the book. It even has a section on the voice and choral arrangements. But it contains only 5 short chapters on orchistration, somthing stressed in the title of the book. If somone is looking for a book on orchistration, this would not be the book to buy. It may be extreemely helpful in demonstrating every instrument's unique charactaristics and how to notate them, but I would caution anyone buying this book purely for orchestration.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book - for instrumentation
Review: my freshman year of college at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, my composition teacher required me to buy this text. i've definitely not regretted it. i'm on my second copy of it, and any time i need to learn about something the book has served me just fine, and it works beautifully as a reference matieral as well. it covers from the most basic aspects of composition to the complexities of writing new music and writing for extended techniques. i can't live without this book - i use it every time i write. <and i do a LOT of composing.>
Rating: 
Summary: So-so
Review: The author should have actually said this is a book on instrumentation. There are few samples of orchestration and nothing as helpful as a CD of samples. For orchestration you should look elsewhere. For instrumentation it is fairly useful but it does contain errors, one of which is the listed transposition for the Alto Saxophone, which is wrong. One would hope that if someone puts out a book on instrumentation that the basic facts would be correct. Perhaps talking to an instrumentalist would be more useful but the section on the strings is quite decent.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource
Review: This is an excellent resource book for any music student, anyone interested in symphonic or band music, and any composer. In short: If you love music, this book will be an extrememly useful addition to your bookshelf.
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