Frank Bridge - The Hour Glass: Dusk (orchestration)

Hi Music Maestros!

Just wanted to post my latest orchestration, which I only started on Thursday: so it every rough and ready.

This is from a piano piece in three movements by Frank Bridge, and I've so far tackled only the first movement.

Planning to do the rest soon.

I think it's a beautiful piece, that's not very well known, and has, to my knowledge, never been orchestrated before.

I'm hoping Peter may be able to give some advice on whether my French horn parts are playable, because they go a bit high.

Also my trombone and viola parts are sometimes in the uppermost range.

Have taken quite a few liberties with my arrangement, including tempo adjustments, additional notes, retiming transitions, and new counter-melodic lines.

Without these changes, the orchestration doesn't work well, as it's quite challenging to adapt from piano.

Some of my fermatas will be replaced by ten. markings (which Bridge himself uses in the original).

Dynamic markings are intended for midi playback only: so I will be adjusting those.

My flute is getting buried in the mix towards the end: so I will be adjusting that. But any other mix advice would be very helpful. I wonder, should I lower the threshold on my compressor, as the dynamic range is very wide?

Anyway, hope you enjoy, and hopefully I've introduced some new people to this lovely work.

Frank Bridge - Dusk #24 (added ZL compressor).pdf

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Alex Weidmann

Hi @Alex Weidmann !

Nice job on this orchestration. The horns do not go very high - only up to concert Bb which will be an F on the top line of the treble clef transposed to F. Thanks for sharing!

This is nice! I really like when the strings enter at m 16, it’s a really nice color.

If it were me I would move the Horn 1 part in m19-21 to the 2nd Trumpet. Then maybe bring the 2nd trombone at m22 down a fourth so it doubles the 2nd trumpet at the octave (or maybe even remove it altogether…?)

Also, why does Trombone 2 have that part instead of Trombone 1?

Overall really nice arrangement, I enjoyed listening!

2 hours ago, gmm said:

This is nice! I really like when the strings enter at m 16, it’s a really nice color.

If it were me I would move the Horn 1 part in m19-21 to the 2nd Trumpet. Then maybe bring the 2nd trombone at m22 down a fourth so it doubles the 2nd trumpet at the octave (or maybe even remove it altogether…?)

Also, why does Trombone 2 have that part instead of Trombone 1?

Overall really nice arrangement, I enjoyed listening!

Thank you so much for the kind words.

Coming from you it's a great compliment, as I'm a huge fan of your work!

I actually tried that brass arrangement in Bars 19-21 already; but much prefer the way I have it now.

I found two trumpets together were a bit harsh, and the mellower tone of the horn created a better colour overall, when blended with the rest of the brass section.

Think I also tried the trombone an octave lower in Bar 22, and switched it back; but will give it another shot.

The Trombone 2 thing is just a temporary glitch in my score. I will be switching it to Trombone 1.

8 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @Alex Weidmann !

Nice job on this orchestration. The horns do not go very high - only up to concert Bb which will be an F on the top line of the treble clef transposed to F. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Peter!

MuseScore was telling me the horn part was straying into "expert range": so it's good to know it's ok.

1 minute ago, Alex Weidmann said:

Thanks Peter!

MuseScore was telling me the horn part was straying into "expert range": so it's good to know it's ok.

You're welcome. Musescore is wrong. There's some kind of glitch in the horns where if you go up to concert Bb in the treble clef it marks it as outside the range. It's because someone programmed it wrong where a concert F should be the top of the range rather than the written F (transposed into F Horn). It's just a mistake they haven't remedied yet.

Just now, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

It's because someone programmed it wrong where a concert F should be the top of the range rather than the written F (transposed into F Horn). It's just a mistake they haven't remedied yet.

I'm 100% sure our Boss @chopin won't make silly mistake like this in Music Jotter ^0^

Hi @Alex Weidmann !

I really enjoy your arrangement here, especially on how you create sparse atmosphere with flutes and harp (which is also your favourite style). The Strings passage in b.16 sounds amazing and I absolutely love the parallel 5ths there to create the hollow and ethereal effect.

5 hours ago, Alex Weidmann said:

I actually tried that brass arrangement in Bars 19-21 already; but much prefer the way I have it now.

I found two trumpets together were a bit harsh, and the mellower tone of the horn created a better colour overall, when blended with the rest of the brass section.

Yup i really agree with you here, two trumpets may sound a bit too loud to me especially when the strings are up high in the sky playing that etheral melody! The weaker power of horn conversely becomes an advantage since it acts more like an overtone of trombone there, just like what you do in the strings section when the 2nd violin as overtone is sandwiched between the 1st violin and viola.

Given how you pair up an English horn with flute in b.30, would you also pair up a clarinet with flute in b.32, and drop it in b.34?

Thx for sharing this wonderful arrangement!

Henry