The goal in building the online Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR) is to create an innovative, pedagogical, web-based resource that is a tool for timbre (sound-colour) and orchestration education, bringing together the knowledge and expertise of the Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project.
My PhD dissertation research examined basic principles of orchestration, proposing and reviewing several new taxonomic categories designed to provide further insight into the underlying fundamental processes—instrumental combinations and transformations, and the perception of timbral structures — that operate as the building blocks of orchestration.
In structuring the information architecture of the TOR, the needs of many different users must be taken into account, from young musicians to college professors, from composers of many genres to new students of music to AI researchers.