Chills (orchestrated)

Hi to all.

Have just made this orchestration of my own recently composed piano work.

The score is designed for midi rendition only: so I haven't tidied it for real musicians.

Think the piece actually works better as an orchestral work, but I'd be very interested to hear your opinions of my orchestration choices.

I think some of them could be improved.

Chills (orchestral version) #15.pdf

Edited July 26Jul 26 by Alex Weidmann
Improvements in score layout

Hi Alex, Very interesting harmony and movement. My only comment is the orchestration: Instead of doubling for example the Oboes why not give the second Oboe the English Horn line. Similarly, I would also move the Bass Clarinet to the one of the Bassoons. I don't really feel you need the need them in the orchestration.

Mark

Hi @Alex Weidmann !

To me this one is a fascinating work and I agree this one would be better in an orchestral setting when there are so much color available. You are very good at creating etheral color with the winds and harmonies as always. I love the color and timbral contrast brought in b.18; I'm not sure whether it will be difficult for the bassonists to play the wide leap though as I'm not familiar with the instrument. There are lots of really high notes for the strings: will you add artificial harmonics and con sordini to them as well? I think it will make it sound even more ethereal and mysterious. Really enjoy this one, thx for sharing!

Henry

On 7/31/2026 at 3:43 AM, MJFOBOE said:

Hi Alex, Very interesting harmony and movement. My only comment is the orchestration: Instead of doubling for example the Oboes why not give the second Oboe the English Horn line. Similarly, I would also move the Bass Clarinet to the one of the Bassoons. I don't really feel you need the need them in the orchestration.

Mark

Many thanks for listening Mark.

The doubled oboes actually just come from my standard orchestral template. I was too lazy to correct the staff label! So I only envisage a single oboe playing most of the time.

My reason for using the English horn, is that oboes can sound quite harsh and intrusive in their low range. A bit like a duck! So I thought an English horn would have a more pleasant timbre in that range.

You're probably right about the bass clarinet. I just thought it might blend better with the regular clarinets.

20 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Alex Weidmann !

To me this one is a fascinating work and I agree this one would be better in an orchestral setting when there are so much color available. You are very good at creating etheral color with the winds and harmonies as always. I love the color and timbral contrast brought in b.18; I'm not sure whether it will be difficult for the bassonists to play the wide leap though as I'm not familiar with the instrument. There are lots of really high notes for the strings: will you add artificial harmonics and con sordini to them as well? I think it will make it sound even more ethereal and mysterious. Really enjoy this one, thx for sharing!

Henry

Thanks Henry! I'm really pleased you like this work, because I wasn't sure it was any good.

I actually tried to use con sord. on the violins; but then I discovered the little CTRL-T speaker thingy has disappeared. So I can't access that setting anymore.

Seems to be some kind of bug within MuseScore, and it only manifested after the latest update.

Weirdly it's only affecting this project. When I load other projects, the little speaker comes back.

Not sure how to put this right?

I guess some of those notes are probably too high for the violins without using harmonics; though I haven't actually checked.

Glad you like the bassoons combined with harp, as I wasn't sure about that orchestration. Hopefully they can play those big jumps across the break; but I'm not 100% sure about that either.

My time signatures are a bit all over the place in this piece, and I will be simplifying those at some point.

Thanks again for your review!

Alex.

My reason for using the English horn, is that oboes can sound quite harsh and intrusive in their low range. A bit like a duck! So I thought an English horn would have a more pleasant timbre in that range.

Alex this really is a misunderstanding of how an Oboe works! Let's throw out the meme about DUCKS! The lower range/register can be as beautiful as the upper range. (just ask Dvorak). The English horn in this orchestration will not add too much. It does not have the penetration ... it is better used a solo instrument or in a small ensemble.

Please no more duck jokes!

Mark

Hi Mark,

I always used to write lots of material for low oboe; but have had it repeatedly drummed into me that I should use English horn instead. So it's interesting you disagree.

There seems to be a very widely held view that the lowest notes on the oboe are too obtrusive, especially in the hands of an amateur musician.

I've heard this from the conductor of the orchestra I work with, as well as my tutor, and a bunch of other composers.

Anyhow, I'll bear in mind what you say for the future.

Alex.

22 minutes ago, Alex Weidmann said:

There seems to be a very widely held view that the lowest notes on the oboe are too obtrusive, especially in the hands of an amateur musician.

I've heard this from the conductor of the orchestra I work with, as well as my tutor, and a bunch of other composers.

I've also read from several orchestration books that the lowest register of a double reed instrument including oboe, English Horn and Bassoon are all more difficult to control, and it's much more difficult to play lower than mp in the low register. Given the ethereal mood of the piece I agree with your treatment to use English Horn instead of 2nd oboe. Also I think it's quite common to have at least 1 Englisn Horn in every orchestra so I think that won't be a big problem in practice.

Henry