Doubling
Two parts playing one line — usually at the octave or unison
Related
Doubling has two parts play the same line at once, usually at the octave or unison, or across different instruments. Its job is not to add "more notes" but to thicken colour, raise volume, change texture: octave doubling brightens a string line, wind doubling makes a colour stand out.
It differs from doubling a note inside a chord: doubling copies one melodic line, while chord doubling arranges voices within the harmony. The usual mistake is to think more doubling is better — too much blurs the line and piles up the low end; the judgement is what to double, where, and how much.
Read deeper → voicing
Sources
- 配器中的加倍手法，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Orchestration"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.