Spectrotone Chart

Cambria MusicOrchestration ChartsCP803Spectrotone Chart and Orchestration GuideArthur Lange’s analogy between visual color and tonecolor. The chart portrays a graphic representation of the orchestra and its kaleidoscopic tonecolors. The chromatic scale at the foot of the chart covers the range of the piano keyboard. Each note is numbered and corresponds to the numbers appearing on the different colorgraphs for each orchestral instrument (and their range) that are shown above the chromatic scale. Each colorgraph is divided into two parts, an upper and a lower band.

1. Spectrotone Chart Converter

The upperband represent the basic tonecolors of the instrument and the lower band represents the tone-colors complementary to the basic (Dimensions 15 x 18). Suitable for framing. Included are two booklets on orchestration written by Lange.$12.00.

.The Spectrotone Chart™, created by ® nominee Arthur Lange, and former head of the MGM Music Department, has been taken over and revised. With its inclusion in Alexander Publishing’s Professional Orchestration™ Home Study Series, the company offers the first complete orchestration series to come out of the Hollywood scoring stages which combines learning orchestration with compositional insights, MIDI mock-up skills, and now recording and mixing. The Professional Orchestration series of books has been by winners of the Academy®, Grammy®, Emmy®, BAFTA®, and G.A.N.G. The instrumentation notes in Volume 1 were edited by leading film session players. “The end result of this training is that someone can learn the steps for writing and producing their own music to 21st Century standards with learning materials logically organized in one place,” explained CEO Peter Alexander, a Berklee graduate.Spectrotone Chart BackgroundArthur Lange was a highly successful self-taught composer.

Spectrotone Chart Converter

Besides songwriting for Tin Pan Alley, Lange fronted a very successful jazz band, and recorded extensively for Cameo Records in the 1920s. Lange was so successful with his band that he sold it to another bandleader,.Lange wrote many stock orchestrations during this period and in 1926, wrote Arranging For the Modern Dance Orchestra. According to jazz trumpeter and historian, Richard Sudhalter, author of Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945, Lange’s book was the, “arranger’s bible.”Drawing on this extensive practical background in writing and recording, Lange created the Spectrotone Chart which displays an individual instrument’s range broken down by colors demonstrating intensity and timbre change by specific pitch and range.

The chart is organized by woodwinds, saxes, horns, brass, percussion, harp and chimes, and strings. At a glance, an arranger, composer or orchestrator can use the chart to work out specific instrumental combinations within an instrument’s family, and by combining instruments. At the bottom of the chart is a piano keyboard with keys numbered 1 to 88. Instrumental color breaks are coordinated by specific pitch using the numbered keyboard.Alexander Publishing’s revision to the Spectrotone Chart was three-fold. First, it was redrafted to be printed on a standard 18 x 24 poster printer found at many quick printers. Second, the chart was relabeled for faster implementation.