Orchestration: PART 1 (woodwinds) discussion

Originally Posted by oboeducky

Here are my excercises. I'm not sure I did the second one right though.

Alex

that was fine for the lay-out, I'm only looking, not listening for now.

nice short theme. cor anglais and bassoon will make a VERY "reedy" sound. but It should work beautifully.

your chord I'm a bit less convinced of, however.
notice that you're doubling all the most prominant woodwinds together in the same register: flutes, oboe and clarinets. there's nothing patently wrong with the chord, I can definately see its use in an orchestral context.

I would have prefered something a little more "traditionally" orchestrated
care to give it another go? with a 3-note chord (either major or minor as per the instructions))

don't worry, we'll get LOTS of chances to try more of this anyways as we go along.

Here are my exercises.

I didn't do the clarinet in exercise 1 because, as you said, it has dynamic control in all registers.

In exercise 2 I was going for something bouncy, happy, and I imagine the strings pizzicato in the background, playing happy bouncy chords, possibly major ninths.

In exercise 3 I was going for something calm, and peaceful, so I used a major seventh, putting the B in the clarinets so it didn't stick out like it would in the oboes, or in the soprano or bass. I only used standard orchestral winds, non of the extras.

Thanks so much for doing this Michel, I've enjoyed doing these, and look forward to the next lesson

excellent work Mark.

remember guys (and any gals I might not recognize because of the gender-neutrailty of screen names here!), we are exploring, and I want you to learn as many "tricks of the trade" as possible.

I'm going to add a little "interlude" lesson I hadn't thought of before we continue.

Exercises in attatchments.

very good David.

I notice a lot of you are choosing to go the "nasal" route with your melodic combinations

lots of oboe/bassoon combos.


David, I think that your chord might end up sounding a bit thin, you heavily emphasized the tonic of the chord. If this is what you wanted, then it IS your choice. As I said, outside of actual performing impossibilities, there are no "wrong" choices. There are weaker and stronger choices, but gradually you'll get the hang of those.

Originally Posted by Qccowboy

I notice a lot of you are choosing to go the "nasal" route with your melodic combinations

As I have some spare time on my hands, can I try exercise 2 again, trying out different feels?

absolutely.

I don't want anyone to feel limited by these exercises.

Do the exercises as I ask them, but DO try things as well.

I decided to try and apply all that we've done in this lesson to a short phrase for standard wind section. The latest addition to the lesson was quite enlightening, thanks Michel

very good Mark... even if you ARE getting ahead of us with this

one thing I'd ahve suggested doing differently is instead of unison doubling the clarinets, why not in thirds, so one doubles the flute at the octave and the other does the harmony?

another thing to watch for is that the oboes in sustained notes will be a bit more pungeant than you might want... I'd have prefered oboe/cor anglais doubling the flute with clarinets in sustained notes.

Thanks for taking a look, and for increasing my confidence with woodwinds, which this lesson certainly has done I look forward to the next installment