String Orchestra or Wind Ensemble?

Which group has more potential for variations in color? In YOUR opinion

Wind Ensemble.

A string orchestra is made up of just one family of instruments.

What do you mean with color?

I think he ment something like diversity of timbres,

Wind ensamble, including Woodwinds and Brass ? Sure, that's better.

That's sort of hard to quantify if you start counting all the extended techniques for both ensembles and the diversity of possible combinations.

Yeah, if we go into all the extended techniques, we get a huge range either way. From a more traditional point of view, it depends a lot on the size of the ensemble. When you have a huge ensemble where many instruments don't play for long periods, then you have some advantage in a wind instrumentation, since that means you can make transitions between various instruments and leave out certain timbres for parts etc. If you have a smaller ensemble however, this advantage of "different families" comes much less to play, since you'll often "need" certain instruments to cover certain notes/registers - whereas here the strengths of string instruments become much more prevalent: Individual string instruments have a huge range of timbres all by themselves and contrary to most winds they can move between them much more continuously (with different bow pressure, bow speed, bow position etc., and all of this at any dynamic within a rather large range - and I'm not even counting "extended" techniques here).

For example: To produce a tone with stronger harmonics on a trumpet, you'll either have to play louder (which makes it dependent on another parameter), or use a mute (which makes the transition not really gradual - plus requires additional time to put the mute in/out). There may be other ways to produce tones with more or less strong harmonics, but they tend to be much weaker in effect than the change between sul ponticello and sul tasto for example. The same goes for changing between variant instruments, such as a Bb clarinet and an Eb clarinet. Sure, they allow you to produce the same note with two quite different timbres, but you can't just move smoothly from one to the other (with one player).

That's probably why of all the pieces I've heard so far, small wind ensemble pieces have often sounded much more uniform in sound to me than, say, string quartets. And this -also- includes the use of extended techniques. Which doesn't mean that small wind ensembles can't be awesome. But I've never yet heard a relatively small wind ensemble produce the range of different sounds I get in a Lachenmann string quartet.

Which is also why I wish I played a string instrument. The chamber literature for winds is really cool and all - but then I listen to a string quartet and think "whoa, I want to do that too!". I guess that's just personal though.

Which is also why I wish I played a string instrument. The chamber literature for winds is really cool and all - but then I listen to a string quartet and think "whoa, I want to do that too!". I guess that's just personal though.

What is stopping you from taking lessons locally and practicing the string instrument of your choice on your own?

I think no matter how much diferent techniques may be used in strings (I'm thinking in normal section violins, Viola, Cello, Bass) it won't be so much "diversity" as having Flutes, Clarinets, Oboes, Bassoons, Trumpets, Trombones, Horns, Muted Trumpets, Stoped Horn etc .... The gama of choices is wider in winds,

What is stopping you from taking lessons locally and practicing the string instrument of your choice on your own?

If I were to learn a string instrument I'd want to be able to play it reasonably well, which would require lots of practice and time. And since I already can't practice the instruments I -do- play as much as I'd like, that's not a very realistic option at the moment.

I think no matter how much diferent techniques may be used in strings (I'm thinking in normal section violins, Viola, Cello, Bass) it won't be so much "diversity" as having Flutes, Clarinets, Oboes, Bassoons, Trumpets, Trombones, Horns, Muted Trumpets, Stoped Horn etc .... The gama of choices is wider in winds,

Well, as I said, it's a matter of ensemble size. You'll only be able to move smoothly between stopped horns, trumpets and oboes if you have enough instruments, so you can "afford" not having a lot of them play for long stretches. When all instruments of a diverse group play at once all the time, you don't get much timbral variety - then you'll be much better off with a more homogeneous, but versatile group.

Sure, a woodwind quintet -does- feature a lot of different colours. But in a majority of woodwind quintet literature you'll have four or five of them playing at once for most of the piece, so the sound does stay relatively uniform. Sure, if you can do without a rich, full sound and make a music that consists only of a single line, then you again have many more possibilities for changing between timbres. But many composers don't want that and prefer full harmonies, polyphony, interesting textures, etc. And even if you give the melody once to the flute, once to the oboe, and even once to the horn, those won't be gradual, fine changes between different sounds, if you insist on having (almost) all instruments almost all the time.

But admittedly, "gradual fine changes" aren't required to produce "many variations in colour". If you just want blocks of drastically different sounds, all the above doesn't matter much.

yeah ... in that case is that Micus who have to speak, because I was thinking in something like the Stravinsky Symphony for Winds, but maybe he was talking about an smaller ensamble (maybe 4-8 players).