"Canope" (Debussy) orchestration

Canope transposed pitch.pdfCanope transposed pitch.pdfThis is a piece that I consider to be special. I have spent weeks working on it bit by bit, making one decision after another.

It is Prelude No. 10 from Debussy’s Second Book, entitled ‘Canope’.

A canope is the vessel in which the remains of mummies were stored in ancient Egypt; these were sealed with small sculptures of Anubis’s head.

The piano piece is spectacular, with harmonies that defy all logic within the tonal world.

I’m providing the score in concert pitch and in transposed pitch.

Canope concert pitch.pdf Canope transposed pitch.pdf

Link to the piano original version:

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Luis Hernández

A very successful orchestration 😊. I enjoyed listening to it. Great balance and color!

Mark

Hi Luis,

This is a great piece to choose for orchestration! I'm sure I've played this on the piano in the past.

It uses one of Debussy's favourite tricks with its harmonic planing, and has some lovely impressionist touches.

I wonder, are there any other orchestrated versions; or is yours the first?

Using a choir of flutes was a neat idea, and I like your harp harmonics (near the start).

Also harp with glockenspiel is an effective combination that I probably wouldn't have thought of.

My only wish is that you had slightly better instrument libraries to do justice to your score, as the rendition doesn't always sound fully realistic.

Wonderful orchestration - lovely, lovely color!

I find this orchestration to be incredibly balanced - fresh and innovative, while holding to the character of the original. As @Alex Weidmann said, I also think the flute choir was an excellent idea.

Your choices feel very intentional, and I enjoyed listening to your orchestration! I would love to see how you might approach something by Bonds or Price.

@Alex Weidmann

@BlackkBeethoven

Thank you for listening and commenting.

Yes, virtual instruments do what they can, and well, I prefer to focus on the composition rather than on post-production with a DAW and so on. That’s why I use an editor (Dorico) with NotePerformer.

There are indeed orchestral versions of Debussy’s preludes. Some are very famous, such as the arrangements by Colin Matthews or Stokowski.

I must say I didn’t listen to them when I was working on my modest version. In fact, I didn’t even know they existed until I started exploring this piece.

It’s been an interesting challenge because of the nature of the piece – so colourful, yet harmonically free and daring at the same time. It’s been a slow process, taking about two months, as I was working under the supervision (on a weekly basis) of a composer and teacher. I’m in a small group (four people) learning orchestration with him, and it’s fantastic…

We usually work on shorter excerpts from pieces, but this one was the full work. In fact, there have been some subsequent modifications and improvements, but never mind.

Soon we’ll be moving on to orchestrating pieces we’ve composed ourselves; we’ll see how it goes…