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Old May 21 2008, 10:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by maelstromtempest View Post
I am wondering if the orchestration is a little bit too thick and the melody lines are too covered up. However, I know that in real life, these lines would be brought out by the players.

Let me just comment on this one line:

Do NOT expect the musicians to pick up on where the major thematic material is and "bring it out".

Orchestrate your densities. If your theme is in a single flute, against the rest of a symphony, no matter HOW memorable that theme is, it WILL be lost.

If your thematic material is important, ORCHESTRATE it as though it were important.

NEVER rely on the musicians' ability to "bring out a theme".
ALWAYS write as though you will not be at ANY rehearsals and the musicians playing are from the Special Ed. class of your local high school.

Do not over indicate dynamic differences... orchestrate them instead.

If you have different dynamics in a passage for every part of the orchestra it is a SURE sign that you did not orchestrate properly.

Remember that a forte flute does not sound the same as a piano flute. If the passage is marked piano for everyone but that flute is marked forte, the sound will NOT be "soft with a flute coming out of the mix".. it will sound like a flautist blowing his brains out while everyone else is relaxing.

I just need to repeat one thing:

Orchestrate your effects. Do not just write dynamics and expect that to work. Balance the right amounts of instruments against each other for whatever role they have in the final orchestration.
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In musical criticism, when issues of craft and technical consideration are set aside, what remains is more subjective. However, until technical issues are dealt with, the subjective portion bears considerably less weight.
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