Things to look for while composing: a set of guidelines

Originally Posted by Qccowboy

A good book on instrumentation and orchestration is a MUST for any student composer.

Do you have any recommendations on a good orchestration/instrumentation book?

there are a number of books on instrumentation/orchestration out there.

the former is the first you should attack. learning the ranges and possibilities of instruments is the basics. There's a nice, not too expensive Piston book (if you ask me, it's mis-titled "Orchestration".. it's an instrumentation text: ranges, sound qualities, etc.. It has a few brief chapters at the end on actual orchestration).

orchestration is a little harder to learn from a book. This is where a good teacher sort of becomes a necessity.

I have the book "The Study of Orchestration" by Samuel Adler, and I think it's a pretty decent orchestration book. It's easy to read and has lots of pictures and examples of stuff (it comes with 4 CDs of sample music....or at least it should. Mine's from the library ). Anyway, it's good for ranges and sound qualities in those ranges.

Still, as Qccowboy said, a teacher or some experience with the instrument is invaluable in orchestration. A couple of weeks ago, when writing a duo for trumpet and trombone, I had notes that were in the range of the trumpet, but too high to come out effectively. So, I lowered the notes by an octave and it worked great, while still being playable.

continuation of the lesson
8. Principles of Counterpoint
“Why would you consider that traditional counterpoint would apply to writing something more modern?” I hear you ask. “For a number of reasons”, I will reply.
Regardless of what harmonic language we use, some of the basic concepts of strict counterpoint continue to apply in some way to our composition.

Density of texture: In counterpoint, the addition or loss of a voice creates a change in “weight”. Going from three voices to four is a major event in a four part fugue. Likewise, in a full orchestral piece, the addition of a single, independent melodic line is noticable in the overall texture. The main consideration here is that of relative weight. In a rising figure for flute, with string accompaniment, if you add the rest of the woodwinds as a group, their entrance will be noticed as such – an entrance. If your intention is to create a gradual thickening of texture (or a crescendo) then it becomes your job to stagger those entrances in such a way as to smooth the effect and make it less noticable.

In counterpoint, generally, voices enter/leave at cadential moments. That is, the harmony prepares the ear for an event, whether it be the arrival or departure of a voice. It is a counterpoint error to have a voice disappear on an unresolved tension. This same idea should carry over into your work with any other composition for a large ensemble, with a slightly different approach. Any large change in the density of your ensemble should be motivated by the thematic material and supported by the harmony. While a sudden change in density might seem exciting musically, if you are creating major shifts in density at every other measure, the effect very quickly becomes tiring to the listener. This is particularly noticable in music of a sustained nature.

One approach to smoothing over transitions from one density to another is to treat those junctures slightly differently from an orchestration point of view. For example, if we were going from a full tutti to a section of only strings, it would help smooth the transition if we had some instruments from the tutti carry over for the opening of the string phrase. A “classical” approach to this might be a sustained octave in a pair of horns.

COMPOSITIONAL NOTE: This is also a point where the transition might be used to repeat the “head” of whatever thematic material you are using. In this change from the orchestral tutti to the string sectional, we might have the full orchestra cadence, then strings and part of the woodwinds on the opening notes of the phrase, then REPEAT the opening notes once more with just the strings.


Suspensions: Suspensions are notes from a previous harmony that are carried over into a new harmony and resolved. (see the image below)
One important detail about suspensions is that you should never hear the suspended note at the same time as its resolution note in another voice. In the example below, the “C” is suspended into the harmony of G major. The normal resolution of that C is down to B natural. It would be very wrong for any other voice to play a B natural at the same time as the C. This despite the fact that B natural is an integral part of the harmony of the measure.
This might seem like a trivial detail, but the larger part of the effect of a suspension is the anticipation of its resolution. If you are already presenting the resolution beneath (or even above) the suspended note, then it in effect no longer HAS a resolution.
Suspensions are STILL used even in more contemporary harmony, and the same rule still applies regardless of the nature of your harmonic language.

Man, this helped me out a ton. I've always just let my Bass and treble coincide, and be pretty much the same thing, but your right, that does get boring. Thanks!

Yeah, I think soprano and bass tend to be best with contrary motion.

Oh, and QC, I think that two flutes can be twice as loud as one, provided that they are both playing at about 3 decibels.

Originally Posted by spherenine

Oh, and QC, I think that two flutes can be twice as loud as one, provided that they are both playing at about 3 decibels.

Actually, no, they would STILL be playing at 3 db.

And contrary motion is only one option. There are many moments where parallel motion works perfectly well.

One important aspect when examining the motion of soprano and bass lines is "where they coincide".

If you are bringing your soprano and bass to unisons at every single cadential passage, then you are bringing every one of those cadential passages to a conclusion.

And this is where the question of "motion" becomes important. If your bass and soprano are coming to those cadential passages by parallel motion, and in unison, then you are limiting the amount of over-all counterpoint in your texture.