SciFi Adventure Attempt

Do you write directly into the DAW or do you work out your orchestrations on paper/in a scorewriter first?

 

Not sure if this helps at all. A few years ago I received a commision for a Youth String Orchestra and "kinda advanced" piano part.

It was in Phoenix (my hometown) and so I picked an event I actually saw, and used it as a chance to pay homage to my hero Mr. Hermann

 

First, awesome job. And thank you for posting.

Listen to your piece, and just notice/count how many times you fully state your theme. By the end its gets so predictable and repetitive that we start to get a bit bored.

On top of developing your idea, change the rhythm. Make the value shorter and quicker, make it into triplets. Give us something exciting and ferocious but that derives from your melody. Keep making it smaller and faster and crazier, the harmony is getting intense so by the end you land on your cadence and bam! We're back into your melody loud and clear and then we as the listener will be so much more satisfied to hear the melody again instead of just repeating the same exact melody just with different background accompaniment.

I've said this before, but I'll repeat cause its so easy to hear and analyze. Listen at 3:06-5:08 to Tchai's 5th. There is his melody with the clarinets and bassons. Then it changes to it's B varation to the flutes. Then repeats his A in the strings with winds playing fast forward motion to move the piece forward. Then comes in a little break in variation. This is the start to his development. Notice how he keeps FRAGMENTING and making it smaller and smaller. At 4:19 now its just the start of the rhythm... He's building tension and lolok the strings are now playing that forward motion (fragmented) that the winds were doing back in the beginning. 4:38 he then throws the motif/fragment as almost a battle between the winds and the strings. 4:43 he almost gives you the melody and does a fugue like or chorale thing... Til bam 4:53 he gives us the melody in full then he drops us off the cliff into his new section. That was literally your form, A-B-A-C(development) back to A. All based on his theme.

This is exactly the same techinques that John Williams uses every piece, that Beethoven, that Bach uses. It's just wrapped differently for every composer but the techniques and skills are fundamental.

Hope this makes sense and helps? But you do know and realize yourself that it doesn't develop all that much, however you did take us on a journey and were following your story points.

Cheers!

 

Great analysis, thanks for this!

 

Some fantastic advice in this thread so far, and lots to work on and pay attention to (especially for myself observing this). But seriously, thanks for posting. Your piece sounds quite well-orchestrated, cohesive and memorably thematic even with what others have pointed out, so great job getting this far, because not that many seem to!

 

It doesn't have to be done pencil and paper but sketching the whole piece on piano rather than going straight to the orchestration does help a lot. The sketch will tell you very clearly where you are just trading water and lacking development.

 

This has been tremendously helpful in ensuring I actually write something interesting. I'm still not great at fleshing out details that follow but that's what the study of orchestration is for.

 

@Dillon DeRosa that was particularly well done. Great example, easy to follow explanation. You should teach.

 

Thank you so much Paul. That's incredibly nice to hear you say that I should teach, you're too kind Paul!

 

+1 to what Paul said, I've read through and studied your example multiple times over the last week.

 

Thank you Rohann! That warms my heart to hear you and Paul say that. I'm really glad my short analysis has helped! And just wait, soon your studying will pay off and it'll show up in your compositions naturally.