Before his death in 1994, Norman Del Mar was acknowledged as one of the world's foremost authorities on the orchestra. Anatomy of the Orchestra is written not only for fellow conductors, players, students, and professional musicians, but also for everyone interested in the performance of orchestral music.

Dedicatory Introduction
Preface to the revised edition, 1983
Acknowledgements

I. The Strings
II. The Woodwind
III. Horns
IV. The Heavy Brass
V. Timpani and Percussion
VI. Keyboard and Other Instruments

Postscript and Envoi
Index

"It tells you...all those important things that the score and the textbooks on orchestration don't tell you."—Music Weekly

"It's tremendous fun just reading from cover to cover...The chapter on horns doesn't fail to embrace water-emptying, or the perils of seating them in front of percussion—vibrations shoot up backward-turned bells and shiver the players' lips; and who needs to be any longer at a loss for a term for any type of snare drum in any of four languages?"—Tempo