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The difficult part of composing...

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks & Talk' started by Stephen Limbaugh, Sep 4, 2022.

  1. #1 Stephen Limbaugh, Sep 4, 2022
    ....I have a 5-part progression approaching a cadence that will close out the exposition. Having difficulty picking which will lend itself best to orchestration, which must be tutti. Thoughts anyone?

    (see attached file)

    ...of course there are many more options, but when exploded across the orchestra's whole register, forte, seemed to each have a nice balance of dissonance (without the leading tone, which avoided intentionally as part of a larger purpose in the work) in preparation for a consonant tonic.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. #2 Mike Verta, Sep 5, 2022
    FWIW I think this is the precisely the opposite way to approach composition and orchestration. The concept of taking what you have here and "exploding it" across the orchestra presumes that composition and orchestration are separate processes. They are not. They are inextricably linked. Distributing voices, doubling octaves, etc., is not orchestration. It's giving people in the orchestra something to do.

    No part of an idea conceived at middle C on a piano can be expressed two octaves higher on flutes without it fundamentally changing the meaning and intent of the idea.

    The academic teaching of exploding compositional ideas, even the entire concept of reorchestrating, is inherently flawed and just one of the many reasons there are almost zero composers nor orchestrators of any note anymore. There is no such thing as an idea which will lend itself better to orchestration. There is only the orchestration inherently present in the composition itself.

    I will say this, which is a touch overstated, but not by much and it's a good place to start: the only acceptable orchestration for what you've put on paper are instruments at those exact notes and in those exact ranges which produce the tonal and emotional quality you intend. You can't just add other instruments, you can't just add other octaves, you can't just add other notes. Do so and it is not this idea. It's an entirely different idea with an entirely different meaning, and you have to first know exactly what it is you're trying to say.
     
    David Healey likes this.
  3. #3 Stephen Limbaugh, Sep 5, 2022
    This is indisputable, agreed. The the timbre and tessitura chosen changes the Nature of the music.

    What about instances like Ravel orchestrating Mussorgsky's piano piece, Pictures at an Exhibition? Granted, I cannot hear the original piano version without hearing solo trumpet, though that may be due to conditioning having listened to that piece a thousand times!

    Thanks Mike!
     
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