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possible, through constantly changing combinations of instruments, and

oftentimes a particular grouping appeared only once in a composition; this
exploration of tone color reached its apex in Movements for Piano and
Orchestra.
Although examples can be found of the piano being doubled with each
instnmient of the orchestra at one time or another, certain instnmients were
doubled much more frequently. Stravinsky showed a marked affinity for the
soimd of piano doubled with piccolo and/or flute, sometimes joined also by oboe
or clarinet. When in the lower registers of the piano, he often doubled the
pitches with bassoon, bass clarinet, and sometimes contrabassoon.
Of the brass family, he seems to have preferred the piano sound doubled
by the horn. Trombone and tuba double the lower registers with less
frequency; the use of sarrusophone combined with piano in Threni creates a
unique timbre. The highest of the brass instruments, the tnmfipet, is rarely
doubled with the piano except in full orchestral tutti sections; when it does
appear with piano, it is often placed one or two octaves lower than the piano
in register. The trumpet does appear frequently in canon with the piano, in
the same register.
The percussion instnmient most frequently doubled with the piano (in
its low register) is the timpani; the combination of timpani, piano, and harp is
used often in the neoclassical works. The xylophone is combined with the
piano's higher register several times in the early and middle period works; it
appears only once with piano in the later works, in two measures of The Flood.
OccasionaUy, the piano is doubled in rhythm by the bass dnun, snare drum,
or other percussion instrument.
Stravinsky evidently regarded the doubling of piano and stringed
instruments as a special problem. In the early 1930s, after completing his
violin concerto, he commented:
For years I had disliked the sounds produced in combination by
the percussive strings of the piano and the strings vibrated by the