Hey guys, thanks for all the advice. I read over the lessons again and started orchestrating on paper today. I'd appreciate some feedback on what I came up with:
I'll explain why I did what I did and what effect I was trying to achieve:
Measure 1: I aimed to started with a deep, eerie kind of sound.
Measures 2-3: I brought the oboe and clarinet in to emphasize particular notes. Then left the clarinet going and later brought in flute and oboe to emphasis the next notes. I transposed the score up so that I could keep the low clarinet moving during measure 3.
Measure 4: I saw this as the intro the main piece (with the first three measures as a kind of prelude), and kept it low again with clarinet, but left the bassoon out and brought in a flute to give it a more light, relaxed, floaty kind of feel.
Measure 5: I thought this followed on from the last bar, but brought in extra instruments to emphasize that it was the beginning, the "dawn" of the piece.
Measure 6: I felt that this measure gave birth to a more "twisted" feel, a change in the tension (when I first heard this part of the melody it came very unexpectedly), so I brought an oboe in to emphasize that. I also doubled the bassoon, to bring more depth in.
Measure 7: I cut all the instruments out except a unison doubling of the low flute and high clarinet. I wanted this part of the melody to seem weak and vulnerable, and also like it had "ran away" from the rest. I also kept all the instruments in for the first note, this was very important to give kind of a "push" to the clarinet and flute.
Measure 8: This was where the rest of the instruments "catch up" with the other two. This was the reason I brought the bassoon in for the last note of the previous bar, to appear that they had
just caught it - the bassoon is like a grasping hand of an out-stretched arm that then pulls the rest of the instruments back in. I was going for the "one-note-crescendo"
I also feel that this would be a good place to bings some horns in - one with the initial bassoon and another following with the rest of the instruments.
I used the extreme high register of the flute in octave doubling with the other flute. I used octave doubling of the bassoons but kept them high for a tense, desperate feel. The clarinets are in doubled in unison, I contemplated having one an octave higher but decided to leave it.
Measure 9: This was the come-down part, I cut half the instruments out half way through for kind of like a call and response effect (not call and response but I can't think what to call it). I left the clarinet and flutes in for the soft, gentle feel.
Something interesting I just noticed is that the first bassoon keeps descending through both measures 8 and 9. This was an accident, the music was meant to be in bassoon 2 not 1 and the high one would cut out before the rest of the instruments. But now I'm wondering if I should have both bassoons descending like that until cutting out half way through measure 9.
Measure 10: Simple soft melody of flutes and clarinet, all on separate octaves.
Measure 11: I doubled an oboe in unison with the lower flute as I thought the second of these two phrases deserved a little more emphasis, and that kind of "twisted" oboe feel.
Measures 12-13: Back to the soft clarinet + flute feel, only without the higher flute part, and with the clarinet in unison with the flute to create a single voice for a gentle ending.
All feedback is appreciated,
Cheers.