Rachmaninoff - Elegie in Eb minor (orchestration)

I'm not done with the score for this yet: so please forgive the sloppy notation. Just hoping to get some comments on my orchestration choices before I finalise it.

I know there are arrangements of this piano work for various ensembles; but I couldn't find one for symphony orchestra: so I thought I'd make one.

Hope you enjoy listening!

Rachmaninoff - Elegie in E♭ minor (orchestration) #26 (midi).pdf

Nice! I love this, and have personally performed the original. You might want to give the harp some rest though lol. The strings and woodwinds are rather equal, which is great!

Good job!

-TristanTheTristan

Hello

That sounds fantastic.

I just have one ‘objection’: the harp, as an almost literal substitute for the piano, doesn’t strike me as an orchestral solution.

Piano arpeggios can be achieved in other ways using woodwinds or strings, or by combining them in a way that’s true to the instrument’s character, whilst maintaining the voice leading and rhythmic patterns. That would sound more symphonic.

Yes, it takes a lot more effort to find the right solution, but it’s worth it.

When I try to orchestrate piano pieces, I simply don’t use the harp. Perhaps later on, as an occasional supporting element or in specific moments…

And there’s a question I wanted to ask you.

In a case like this, have you considered changing the key to one that’s more ‘comfortable’ for the orchestra? For example, D minor, or even E minor.

Hi Luis.

Yes I did consider transposing to E minor; but then I remembered what my old piano teacher used to say.

He told me: "there's no such thing as a hard key; you just have to think yourself into it".

May be this applies more to pianists than musicians at large, I don't know?

I did also think about splitting the arpeggios between instruments, and tried this in an earlier draft.

Problem is, the arpeggios have a very wide span: so I had to use three different woodwind instruments to cover all the notes. This sounded bad, because they all had different timbres.

Also considered using marimba; but again it can't cover the whole span.

Maybe I could get away with it in the strings. Perhaps using pizz.; or a mixture of pizz. and arco?

Will give it a try.

The other option would be to change the arpeggios.

I've done this a little bit in the flute part during the recapitulation, where I've added notes that don't exist in the original. Could probably take this further: so that's another thing I'll try.

Many thanks for listening and commenting,

Alex

10 hours ago, TristanTheTristan said:

Nice! I love this, and have personally performed the original. You might want to give the harp some rest though lol. The strings and woodwinds are rather equal, which is great!

Good job!

-TristanTheTristan

Thanks Tristan,

I'm glad you like the balance between strings and winds, as this is something I've been striving for in my orchestrations!

Alex

Hello

A number of interesting topics.

I’m speaking from a position of inexperience and, more to the point, as I’m still learning, so all of this is just suggestions or other possible options. As I said, it sounds brilliant as it is.

Firstly, the issue of transposition for orchestra. I agree with what your teacher (your piano teacher, that is) said. But I think we need to consider making things easier for the instrumentalists. Another point is that it doesn’t really matter to us. It’s going to sound the same, at least in the context of virtual instrument libraries.

But the reality is that in this key of E flat minor, it’s more complicated for the strings because there are no open strings; they have to ‘press down’ with their fingers all the time, losing resonance, and so on…

I can see problems for the harp too, because being tuned to six flats puts a lot of strain on it. And changes may be more difficult.

I think the woodwinds would be most comfortable with this.

This key is rarely used in the orchestral repertoire, and I think it’s sought after for dark, tragic, profound tones. Perhaps it would suit something like the Elegy.

As far as I’m aware, in the symphonic repertoire, the only works in E-flat minor are by Russian composers: Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Symphony No. 1 (which he himself transposed to E minor later), and a few others.

The other issue, that of arpeggios… You see, in my orchestration classes and seminars we’ve discussed this quite a lot, as well as Alberti basses, etc… How do you adapt them for an orchestra?

As I said in my previous message, a literal translation can, of course, work, because there are instruments capable of playing those arpeggios. However, we’re now dealing with an orchestra.

It doesn’t have to be a single instrument that does everything. The important thing, I believe, is that the rhythm is clearly marked (with accents and pizzicato, for example), and that the figures are in the appropriate pitches and note values for each instrument.

This is also where the question of how faithful one wants to be to the original score comes into play. That’s down to personal preference; we can be very literal, or we can take the main ideas and create an orchestral version. It’s true that for some scores I find it less appropriate to take liberties (for example, when orchestrating Baroque counterpoint),

I’ve written these few bars in one possible arrangement, which I’m sure could be improved; I also think it would sound softer on the strings, especially with mutes.

Haha, in the very first lessons I had on all this, we worked on Mozart and pieces like that, precisely to translate those piano accompaniments into something else.

Cheers.

Edited August 11Aug 11 by Luis Hernández

Great job Luis!

By sustaining notes and using mixed articulations, you've managed to disguise the changes in timbre so they're not jarring. Also creating a richer sound in the process.

I will definitely experiment with something similar.

I changed the recapitulation today. The arpeggios are now mostly in the violins, with only the root notes in the harp.

I also elaborated the flute part: so it's now playing almost continuous alternate arpeggios on top.

I wonder if this flute part is a step too far? It may be distracting from the main melody?

Anyway the new material starts around 4'20", and I also made several other tweaks throughout the piece.

(Please ignore the messy slurs: these are only temporary.)

Rachmaninoff - Elegie in E♭ minor (orchestration) #30 (midi).pdf

Hi @Alex Weidmann !

I listen to both the original and the revised version and I enjoy both versions to be honest. I think for @Luis Hernández 's suggestion is that the whole arppeggiated phrase need not to be played by one instrument alone: for example in 4:20 even if you want the whole phrase played by flute alone, you could have shared the phrase to flute I and flute II players respectively, or in some bars later by divisi Vioin I players which will give the additional benefit of minimizing the volume as well. Thx for sharing this wonderful (again!) arrangement!

Henry

Thanks Henry.

I think it would have to be shared between flutes anyway, otherwise they wouldn't be be able to breathe! I just hadn't got round to marking in the instrument changes yet.

I could indeed split the arpeggios across more than just violins and harp, as Luis has done. Will give that a try at some point. It just takes a bit longer to notate.

Hello @Alex Weidmann,

Congratulations on this fantastic-sounding orchestration of this beautiful piano piece! Even though I’m more familiar with pieces for solo piano and am just at the beginning of my “orchestration career,” I have to admit that the orchestrated version is calmer and gentler than the piano original, where the difficulty of the piece remains perceivable, even in a professional recording.

Having an entire orchestra „at its disposal“ gives the chance to create seamless transitions between the various passages and moods from one instrument to another, and – as I’m now also experimenting with orchestration examples, I’m always astonished how well the different instruments blend together, even though they have such distinct timbres on their own.

On 8/11/2026 at 11:58 AM, Luis Hernández said:

the harp, as an almost literal substitute for the piano, doesn’t strike me as an orchestral solution.

Piano arpeggios can be achieved in other ways using woodwinds or strings, or by combining them in a way that’s true to the instrument’s character, whilst maintaining the voice leading and rhythmic patterns. That would sound more symphonic.

This is a very interesting topic. Having arpeggios in a piano piece tempts one to utilize the harp for that passages. But as Luis demonstrated in his fantastic example, this can be achieved in a more natural way for the orchestra by distributing the arpeggio among several different instruments.

However, the „arpeggios“ in this Elegy are real slow (in eight notes), somewhat more in a kind of „broken chords“ which are even written out in full in the original piano score. But what to do if arpeggios in the piano piece are “faster”—that is, block chords preceded by the arpeggio symbol, played the way a harpsichordist would (i.e., with a gap of 32nd or even 64th notes between each note of the chord)?

I struggled with that problem in my own orchestration example, in which I tried to achieve the arpeggiated piano texture by distributing it among pizzicato strings, sometimes percussions (vibraphone and glockenspiel), while also retaining much of the original piano notes for the harp. In a „second layer“, the voice leading was then „doubled“ by the remaining „singing“ instruments (woodwinds, brass and some violins).

On 8/11/2026 at 11:58 AM, Luis Hernández said:

In a case like this, have you considered changing the key to one that’s more ‘comfortable’ for the orchestra? For example, D minor, or even E minor.

Concerning the usability of the key of E-flat minor for an orchestra, there have been interesting discussions in this thread (and also here in@danishali903 ‘s Nocturne No. 1 in E Flat Minor by Gabriel Fauré (Orchestrated) https://www.youngcomposers.com/t50225/nocturne-no-1-in-e-flat-minor-by-gabriel-faur%C3%A9-orchestrated/ ).

The arguments that transposing the piece could make it more playable—for example, for string instruments—cannot be dismissed out of hand. However, as long as there is no actual performance, I would hesitate to transpose the piece to D minor or even E minor.

Although there are no longer any physical characteristics distinguishing the various keys since the introduction of the equal-temperament system we use today, there is nevertheless a strong historical and psychological connection between certain moods and their respective keys, a connection that has been “followed” and repeated by numerous composers over the past few centuries, especially in the romantic era.

One can even go back to Bach’s Welltempered Clavier where we have the wonderful E-flat minor prelude (in the first book) which is a perfect example for the mood of a „Nocturne“ or „Elegy“, whereas the pieces in E minor are much more „harsh“ and therefore bear the absolute contrasting characteristics.

Wieland