The orchestra is tuning…
Putting it together: sections in combination, clear layers, contrast, soloists, endings, character, the size of the band, and chamber forces: quartet, piano with strings, choir alone.
WRITE OR EDIT opens the melody editor on the right, above the score. Saved work waits on YOUR SHELF, step 6.
Pick a master to score your melody, or SCORE IT YOURSELF: choose every instrument and part, and all four masters judge the result.
Each part: an instrument, what it plays, how, how loud and when. The score and all four verdicts update as you change things.
Read the verdicts under the score and press TRY IT on any suggestion. Then hear the change here, or undo it.
Saved in this browser on this device only.
You found the door. Your theme, four masters, six movements, one night only. Perform the suite, name yourself on the program, and take it home as a score.
Tap the staff to place a note at that height, or play the keyboard. Tap a note to select it; ▲ ▼ ♯ ♭ act on the selected (or last) note. Change key with the KEY menu and the meter with TIME. A PICKUP lets the tune start on an upbeat. Fill every bar; two to sixteen bars.
The score is written in C unless you choose Transposed. Each part uses the clef its player reads: horns in bass clef for low notes, bassoon, cello and trombone in tenor clef when high. Piccolo, glockenspiel, celesta, contrabassoon, double bass and tenor voice keep their customary octave transpositions in both views, so they sound an octave away from the page. Export gives a zip with a MusicXML score (transposing parts as the players read them) and a MIDI file. Orchestral sounds: FluidR3 GM SoundFont by Frank Wen, MIT licence.
Your progress, secrets and saved scores are kept in this browser on this device. Clearing browser data erases them.
Files tucked away in the storeroom beneath the stage. Each holds a hint; open SHOW ME HOW if you would rather not hunt. Opened files show their name, and some can be replayed from here.
Six rooms, each with its own job. The stage and dialogue box stay with you everywhere: each master’s speech moves on by itself (tap the box to skip ahead), and answer his questions with the buttons that appear.
In the header: ORCH or SYNTH switches between orchestral samples and the synthesizer, ♪ mutes, ? GUIDE brings this map back, and ★ SECRETS lists what the masters keep hidden, with hints. Your progress, streaks and chosen conductor are kept in this browser.
Traité d’Orchestration en Pixels was conceived, designed and directed by Dr. Frederic J. Bertino, a physician and lifelong student of music, and built with Claude, Anthropic’s AI model. It is the companion to Gradus ad Pixelum, his tutor in Fux’s counterpoint. Find both, and more, at fredbertino.com.
All in the public domain. Their teachings are paraphrased here, not quoted, and the masters’ words and jokes in this app are affectionate inventions.
Public-domain music. Notes taken from MIDI transcriptions (Free-scores.com for the Toccata; John Wilson McCoy’s 2000 sequence of the Capriccio, by courtesy of classicalmidi.co.uk; a community transcription of the Berlioz; the Strauss from the MuseScore transcription by ClarissaDaley85), re-orchestrated and voiced by the app.
With thanks to four gentlemen who were not consulted, and would have argued about all of it.
Tap a room’s name to open or close it.