QcCowboy

the "shrill" effect would definately, be there, although the bassoon would not have quite as much carrying power as the bassoon.
ideally, you would have to double with still more instruments to really get a "shrill" effect.

at some point further along we'll start to consider multiple instruments in unison/octave dispositions.

To really get nice rich/loud sounds, it becomes important to layer the instruments more than 2 x 2.

Of course, I'm speaking from an orchestral point of view here. Chamber music is a completely different animal.


For "fullness" of sound, a very important factor is to consider the harmony as a unit.

If you have a 3-note chord and end up doubling only one note of that chord over and over, then you are going to be weakening part of it.

There are many ways to score a single chord, but one of the most effective, and "richest" is to keep the disposition almost exactly as it would be in the overtone series.

In other words if we had a C major chord, starting from teh bottom up you would double at the octave the fundamental "C", then put in a G, then another C, then more densely pack the notes as the register got higher. Until in the highest register you would have literally all the notes of the chord stacked one on top of each other.

This, for example, would be my favourite way of orchestrating a C major chord for woodwinds (with horns). It's not the ONLY way, just one that gives a particular orchestral colour of which I am particularly fond:


Notice which instruments are in octaves, and which are in closer positions.

Here is a recording of that chord:

C Major woodwind chord recording

Again, take into consideration that this is being performed by a sample library, and I also did this very quickly as an example.

Another way to orchestrate the same chord could have had more overlap in the upper register to accentuate the "C" tonic of the chord.
The same principle remains in effect, however, where you space notes further apart in the lower register and closer together in the upper register.

Generally, around and above middle C it is unusual to have octave gaps in the texture.
While two octaves down from middle C it is almost a prerequisite.