Public Domain Scores Again!

For almost a century, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration has shown composers the secrets of arranging music for orchestral instruments. Thanks to Garritan's new Flash-based version, you can now see and hear the examples play back for free.

About a year ago, composer Greg Moore recommended I check out the work sound designer Gary Garritan was doing, including his online tutorials and breakthrough orchestral synthesizer, Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO). The result was our article "Gary Garritan: A Personal Orchestra for Everyone," in which Garritan explained, "Our goal was to make digital orchestration affordable, accessible, and useful to every musician—an orchestra on every desktop."

I subsequently bought a copy of GPO and put it to use right away on the Distributing the Future theme.

Talking with Garritan in person at trade shows, I've been impressed with his commitment to music education. But I was amazed at the scope of his latest project, a free online version of Rimsky-Korsakov's famous Principles of Orchestration. It pairs the lessons of this public-domain text with nearly 300 animated versions of the musical notation, recorded with GPO. This is a shining example of the educational potential of MIDI and the value of Fair Use and copyright limitation. Bravo!