How do you determine which notes you assign to which instrument?
My one question that I have (I’m not sure if there’s an answer or if it just comes with experience) is this: Outside of the bass note, how do you decide which note goes with which instrument and in which register?
For example, let’s say you end a piece with a B major chord like Stravinsky’s Firebird. Obviously it’s not going to be inverted, so our bass note is a B. But outside of that, there’s so many instruments. I mean what’s the difference in giving second and fourth horn and octave F# and an octave D# in the grand scheme of things.
Do composers consider how the notes would ring with the other horns? Does that really make a difference with that many other instruments playing?