Nocturne No. 1 in E Flat Minor by Gabriel Fauré (Orchestrated)

Hi all -

I’m back from a bit of a musical hiatus/summer break, and I wanted to share my latest orchestration project: Fauré’s Nocturne No. 1 in E-flat minor.

Some of you may remember an earlier orchestration of this piece posted on the forum by @Alex Weidmann which I also reviewed at the time. That version gave me some ideas and eventually inspired me to try orchestrating the piece myself, although I ended up taking my own approach to it.

I still think this is a surprisingly difficult piece to orchestrate. E-flat minor is not the friendliest orchestral key, particularly for the strings, harp, and transposing instruments. The piano writing also contains a lot of overlapping lines and inner details that cannot simply be transferred directly without the texture becoming too heavy.

As an additional challenge, I limited myself to a relatively small chamber orchestra: two flutes with piccolo doubling, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, harp, and strings. I was thinking loosely of the scale and transparency of Ravel’s orchestration of the Pavane pour une infante défunte, rather than trying to imitate its sound directly.

My goal was to preserve the intimate, nocturnal character of the original while passing the melodic material between solo winds, divided strings, and occasional string soloists. I also tried to avoid using the harp as a constant substitute for the piano, saving it instead for color and continuity.

I’m interested to hear what everyone thinks. The score and audio are attached—thanks for taking a look!

Full score.pdf

Now we have two Eb minor pieces right next to each other!

Congratulations on your arrangement.

Especially enjoyed your use of muted horns, and viola solos.

Seem to remember using the harp even more sparingly in my version.

Wonderful job!!

Your orchestration really demonstrates an understanding of the instruments and timbre - the color achieved when combining different instrument groups is 👌🏾

I don't really have any other notes. It's really balanced and retains the feel of the original piano piece. Nicely done 😁

I think it sounds absolutely brilliant. And it’s an impressive piece of work, especially the detail with which you’ve crafted the strings. I also really like the fact that ‘it doesn’t sound like a piano at all, but rather like an orchestra’.

And yes, I did want to make a few observations which, as I say, are just that – my opinions.

Firstly, I’ve already mentioned the question of key. E flat minor is a brilliant key for the piano, but it’s one of the worst for the orchestra. Berlioz said as much in his treatise, as did Rimsky-Korsakov in his. I don’t know, it seems there’s a bit of a fear of transposing the work a semitone up or down, as if it were sacrilege or as if we were straying terribly from the composer’s intention. I believe that if we’re orchestrating, we have to make the best decisions to ensure it sounds as good as possible. But I’ll say it again, it’s up to each individual.

The second point is the choice of the English horn as an instrument throughout the work. It’s not that I think it’s wrong, but I do wonder whether it’s really necessary. Apart from specific cases (Impressionism, etc.) where it can serve as a distinctive ‘colour’ instrument, in the orchestra I believe it is an instrument of extension and should only be used when the two oboes cannot cover the lower register. The opening line, for example, could be played very well by a second oboe. In other instances, even where it is possible, I feel the English horn is in a rather high register.

Thirdly, another instrument where I would sometimes have assigned its part to a different instrument is the flute. In bar 15, it is in a low/very low register and will be completely drowned out by the English horn, even with the flutes in A2. I can see the intention to add a different colour to that phrase, which is why they’re doubling, but I’m not sure – in this case, I would have doubled the C an octave higher with a clarinet, for example.

The octave doubling of the A-flat flute in bars 52–53… There, Flute 1 completely drowns out Flute 2 because it’s in its brilliant register, and Flute 2 is doing its best. One of the things I was taught on the woodwinds is to try not to double at the octave with the same instrument, because the difference (imbalance) in tone and volume is very great. It’s better to double with another instrument whose range in that other octave is optimal.

Well, please excuse all this, as these are minor details in the context of such an extensive and beautifully crafted score, which sounds absolutely marvellous.

Finally, a question: what software do you use....

In bars 73 and 74, the clarinets haven’t been condensed

I don’t know if you do this manually or if the condensing is automated. I sometimes have those problems and when the programme won’t...

Edited August 15Aug 15 by Luis Hernández

On 8/15/2026 at 6:40 AM, danishali903 said:

E-flat minor is not the friendliest orchestral key, particularly for the strings, harp, and transposing instruments..

My composition tutor has advised me that Eb minor is not a problem for professional or semi-professional orchestras. So I don't think you need to worry about the key.

Thank you all for the feedback! The past couple of days have been busy, so I’m only just getting around to responding.

On the choice of key

@Luis Hernández I did consider transposing the piece to E minor to make it more comfortable for the musicians. Ultimately, I decided against it because I think the key contributes to the harmonic “color”—something that becomes even more significant in orchestration.

Speaking from a string player’s perspective, the reduced resonance from open strings and the frequent need for vibrato help reinforce the piece’s somber, melancholic mood. There are also contrasting sections that modulate to more string-friendly keys, such as G major. In those passages, I use open strings and natural harmonics to make the contrast more pronounced.

@Alex Weidmann , speaking as a semi-professional string player, I’d say it’s definitely playable. That said, it’s an uncommon orchestral key and creates plenty of intonation challenges for the ensemble. I can also confirm from experience that orchestral players generally aren’t too thrilled when they see a key signature with five or more flats or sharps!

Orchestration choices

Thank you for the detailed feedback, @Luis Hernández

• I agree that I may have written the English horn parts a little too high in places. Honestly, if I’d had the option, I might have scored the piece for two English horn players, since the instrument’s tone and timbre fit the atmosphere so well. Strangely, I’ve never been especially fond of writing two oboe parts—but maybe that’s just me.

• You’re probably right about bars 52–53. My intention was to thin out the upper octaves so that the viola-and-cello octave line would come through more clearly, with the upper voices adding a kind of “shine” to it. In a live performance, I think it could work reasonably well, depending on the strength of the flute players.

• I’ve been using Dorico since Finale went bust. I used its automatic condensing feature for this score, but I’m not always happy with the choices it makes. I usually go back and manually condense or uncondense the parts, but I didn’t have time to do that for this piece.