How did composers know how to compose all the different musical instruments?

Question:i get how they know the melody and rythm but how did they know to do the flutes,chellos, violas, and all that stuff to make it all come together?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i get how they know the melody and rythm but how did they know to do the flutes,chellos, violas, and all that stuff to make it all come together?

You know, some people are really talented....they just slurp up information, they understand it all, they never forget it ... they just do know things that completely escape other mortals .... it is amazing !!

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They studied music and had a good knowledge of music theory in general, which relates to all the different instruments (for the most part, anyways).

They only compose the instruments they are familiar with.

Composers knew how to compose for all of the different musical instruments by studying orchestration. Put simply, orchestration is the art of writing for an ensemble of varied instruments.
There are many books on orchestration from famous composers such as Berlioz, Rimsky Korsakov, Walter Piston, and many others.

They acquired their knowledge through many years of study and hard work. There is no trick to it.

they knew the range of each instrument partly by studying the instrument itself, partly by learning based on the music theory behind it all.

composition and orchestration has many elements, and one of them is knowing what you have at your disposal. these instruments were relatively commonplace and these composers were musically literate - it follows that they would have an idea of how to use them musically.

that said, it's something you have to study, there's no magic formula or rules that guarantee you good-sounding orchestration.

Saul