Orchestration: PART 1 (woodwinds) discussion

Originally Posted by Chris

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:

Chris, please give me a few days to re-examine you exercise.

Being Christmas and all I have a whole lot of cooking to do for Monday night (traditionally for French Canadians, Christmas is usually celebrated on the eve).

I can tell you right away that I understand where you were going with this. I'm not entirely convinced it works on such a small scale. Meaning that with a brief exercise like this you will have more look looking for homogeneity and smooth transition from material to material.

Take all the time you need.

I'm not entirely convinced it works on such a small scale. Meaning that with a brief exercise like this you will have more look looking for homogeneity and smooth transition from material to material.

I know what you mean, my original piece (before I looked at your orchestration and also from comments earlier in the thread) was actually much more erratic, there were oboes and clarinets jumping in and out all over the place

Michel, I know I haven't posted any complete exercise today, but I have got almost a complete melody to work with - I'm sticking to a two part texture for this one, as I got a little lost when I tried 4 or 5 part in my last exercise I'll be away from tomorrow for a week, but will be taking lots of manuscript paper with me, so I should be able to get quite a bit of work done

Thanks again for all the work you've put into these masterclasses

Originally Posted by Qccowboy

Chris, please give me a few days to re-examine you exercise.

Being Christmas and all I have a whole lot of cooking to do for Monday night (traditionally for French Canadians, Christmas is usually celebrated on the eve).

I can tell you right away that I understand where you were going with this. I'm not entirely convinced it works on such a small scale. Meaning that with a brief exercise like this you will have more look looking for homogeneity and smooth transition from material to material.

Mamma Mia, you will be celebrating Christmas as the Swede's ^^

whoops... off topic

Hi again, I had a go at exercise 5 over Christmas:







Measures 1-4: I wanted to give the staccato bass notes on the bassoon a go, so I started out like that. I brought an oboe in to emphasize the first lengthy melodic note, and to build tension for the abrupt stop in the next bar where the flute and oboe jump to the A.

I doubled the flutes in octaves for the next part; I felt it needed more than in the first two bars seen as I'd brought the oboe in. Then there's a moment of tension where the staccato bass notes stop during measure 4, then for the next prolonged melody note most of the instruments come in to lead into main body of the piece.

Measures 5-8: I kept the flute and oboe in unison as one voice for the main melody, as was at the start of measure 3. For another voice, doubling an octave higher, I brought a clarinet in to play in unison with the higher flute.

There's also another voice that plays in measures 6 and 8, this is played by an oboe and bassoon in unison. In measure 8 this is what leads into the ending.

The other remaining instruments (clarinet and bassoon) are playing a low resonace part. It is likely they will be replaced by horns in the next exercise.

Measures 9-12: The oboe and bassoon voice leads into the ending and continues to play the melody, (hopefully) giving the effect that one melody was replaced by another which rose up and overpowered it. The only original "melody instrument" which remains is the flute, just to keep it sounding sweet and soft. The flute will probably get pretty much drowned out anyway, right?

The lower clarinet and bassoon continue with the resonance part and right at the end the other bassoon plays some descending notes just to release the energy and finish it off.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out with this.

Finally I have gotten my proverbial arse in gear and finished Exercise 5!

All of the woodwind parts are purely unison and octave doublings of my original 2 part counterpoint, with an extremely simple string pizzicato accompaniment just to state the harmony clearly more than anything else.

On a few occasions I made more 'lines' by doubling a few parts of one melody and a few of the other and combining them in one part. Is this a good idea?

One final note - I wrote this away from a computer or any instruments, and still haven't heard it due to my computer being unco-operative concerning midi playback, so I apologise if I've accidently done something grossy untasteful which I would've noticed on hearing it

Again, thanks so much for running these masterclasses, I'm learning loads

Mark, just looking at the outlines and ignoring anything "musical", very good.

My only concern MIGHT be the sudden shift in density when the clarinet stops playing. but it's a VERY minor concern.

I might have suggested giving the 1st flute a rising line, parallel to the clarinet, just before its entrance... maybe something in 6ths? just to reach that high note instead of it being a sudden entrance ON the beat.

Thanks very much for looking at it, and I certainly agree about the flute entrance

Your first statement seems to imply that 'musically' there may be concerns? I know it's not really related to the masterclass, but would you mind perhaps pointing them out?

Again, thanks very much

Originally Posted by Mark

Thanks very much for looking at it, and I certainly agree about the flute entrance

Your first statement seems to imply that 'musically' there may be concerns? I know it's not really related to the masterclass, but would you mind perhaps pointing them out?

Again, thanks very much

oh no!
I'm sorry if it lead you to think I had concerns.. it was rather that I looked at it without taking anything "musical" into consideration (style, harmony, etc...).

When I correct as many orchestration exercises as I end up doing here, it becomes hard at times to ALSO examine in detail things like counterpoint and harmony.

What I should have said was "I didn't take the time to look at the music itself..."

Hey, Qccowboy, did you get a chance to look at my exercises yet?