Practice in orchestration

[pcartwright]

I've never really shared any of my pieces on the forum before, but I thought it might be good to see what ideas others had of my work. Here's a theme that I use to practice orchestration; there isn't much musical variation, it's meant to show some of the different sounds obtained by using different instruments.

There's an mp3 and a pdf file of the score. I was a little hesitant of loading my full Notion file as I tend to load between 4-7 GB of samples per piece and I didn't know how different systems would respond.

[pcartwright]

The pdf of the score isn't wanting to upload... I'll try to upload a Notion file using default instruments in the next day or two.

[Rudi]

Hi, I don't think you'll have to upload more than just your Notion file. I can't imagine that this could have more than 10 MB...

[jonknowles8]

I'm just learning myself but it sounds like good practice to me!

Small point - perhaps too much triangle in the middle section.

I took a lesson from a guy who gives online orchestration lessons. He suggested making sure you have a third, fourth or even fifth in registral space between the different groups of instruments. I'm going to keep that in mind as I orchestrate. Do you have something like that in mind as you orchestrate?

Jon

[pcartwright]

I have learned some principles of orchestration here and there. I took a class on orchestration when I was in college, but personally, I think the best reference to modern orchestration was from a book I read by Paul Gilreath (http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Midi-Orches ... 0964670526).

The author describes primary, secondary, and tertiary elements of music which are emphasized or de-emphasized with orchestration. These ideas may have been around before, but the first I heard of them came from this book. Furthermore, the book is designed for MIDI/sample library orchestration, which practically makes it a must have for Notion users.

Anyway, in this particular practice file, I had the main theme, a counter-theme, and an accompaniment. The triangle part is part of the accompaniment which is the tertiary element of this orchestration. As I don’t want the accompaniment to stand out, I’ll need to go back and revise the dynamics of that part.

I will post a pdf or a link to a pdf soon; I tried opening the project file on a different computer, but it may be easier just to upload the pdf copy as I have a lot of hidden staves that might be confusing if taken out of context. I think it will be simplest to load a PDF for anyone who wants to take a look.

[pcartwright]

I finally added a pdf copy of the score in a zip folder on the OP if anyone is interested. I'd love to hear more comments, criticism, advice.

[Grawnque]

Overall, I like it, but it does bring up a problem endemic to using this sort of program: it's easy to lose track of problems musicians in the real world face. We put it in the score, and the sampler cranks it out faithfully, something not always possible in the real world. IN this case, I found myself wondering at the be beginning how many harps you had in mind. I'm not a harpist myself, but I suspect that the beginning becomes more than one person could physically play. It reminds me of a friend, years ago, who used samplers professionally; he was trained as a tympanist, and would shake his head at some of the things others would put into samples scores. Just how many individual tympani do they think even the biggest orchestraa have available for some of the chromatic parts being written?

(In all fairness, I sometimes have to wonder just how playable some of my own scores are...)

[pcartwright]

I found myself wondering at the be beginning how many harps you had in mind. I'm not a harpist myself, but I suspect that the beginning becomes more than one person could physically play.

I do my best to write music that is playable; in this case, yes, there are two harp parts. I use one for melody and one for effects.