William K. Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 What are your ideas about scoring lightly? For example: Oboe, Bassoon, and Strings. On my horn concerto, I'm only writting it for two oboes, two bassoons, strings, and solo. Do you think thats okay? What are your views? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cavatina Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I love the idea - I think that it is much harder to accomplish something great with less than it is to use a Mahlerian style orchestra. The sense of accomplishment that you get from making a great piece of music out of fewer instruments is rewarding. I personally refuse to place percussion in any concerto of mine, as I hope to give the soloist and orchestra the driving pulse. One example, my Piano Concerto No. 1, was scored for a small orchestra and I believe that I accomplished quite a bit with it. Reaching that small ensemble's fullest potential was one of my goals. Here is the scoring for the piece: 2 Flutes 2 Clarinets 2 French Horns Solo Piano Orchestral Strings If you are curious about the work: http://www.jbelelieu.com/work-piano_concerto_no1.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaltechViolist Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 I prefer to score lightly, because I don't like how many composers will include an instrument in the score and proceed to use it only sparingly. If an instrument isn't going to play a significant role in the orchestra, it's not going to be in my score. It's one of the reasons I dislike Mahler, while I admire Brahms for being able to produce a dense Romantic texture with very limited orchestration - he actually wrote for smaller orchestras than did Beethoven. I think I did fine with a small orchestra with my 1st horn concerto, which was scored: 2 flutes 2 oboes 2 clarinets 1 bassoon 2 horns 2 trumpets 1 trombone timpani solo horn strings My second horn concerto, which I've recently started, is being scored slightly more heavily: as above, except that the orchestra has 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and 2 trombones. Still very much a chamber orchestra, though. For now, I'm not using any percussion other than timpani. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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