Frank Bridge - A Fairy Tale: The Spell (orchestration)

Greetings once more.

I've just completed another movement of "The Fairy Tale" by Frank Bridge.

This may be my favourite piece so far that I've orchestrated!

Have included a proper engraving this time, minus the front matter. Any tips on layout very welcome.

The original piano piece had some weird bitonality at Bar 15, which didn't work in an orchestral arrangement. So I had to rewrite that bar, and change some of the pitches.

Also added a bit of extra counterpoint in Bar 25.

Bridge - A Fairy Tale 3. The Spell (orchestration) #20.pdf

Edited September 6Sep 6 by Alex Weidmann
Score improvements

Hi Alex,

First of all, I’d like to say that I wasn’t familiar with this piece. Nor, I must confess, with this composer, although his name rang a bell.

So I went on YouTube to listen to it and look at the score, and I absolutely loved it.

This third movement in particular is so delicate… And it’s one of the trickiest parts to orchestrate.

I really liked your orchestral arrangement and, to be honest, I’m not going to comment on anything in particular as I’m not in a position to assess it in such depth. I like the way the woodwinds unfold in bars 24, 25… the oboe mingling with the flutes, and so on…

I just have one thing I’d like to learn. When the vibraphone comes in – which is a lovely element – how does it produce such big chords? I imagine it’s two mallets per hand…

Best regards.

Hi Luis,

Many thanks for your lightning fast review!

It would indeed be difficult for the vibraphonist to get round those big chords; but I think they are just about playable. A good vibraphonist can do incredible things with just four mallets!

I did consider putting those passages in celesta, where the spread chords could more easily be accomplished.

As it happens, Benjamin Britten was a student of Frank Bridge. (In fact he was Bridge's only composition student.)

After Bridge died in 1941, he was largely forgotten about; until Britten led a revival of his music back in the 1960s or 70s.

He seems to have been forgotten again now; though he does have a prolific canon of works.

His piano pieces seem to be particularly well suited for orchestration, and they always come out sounding really nice.

I posted the first movement of this suite here the other day, and am planning to orchestrate movements 2 and 4 next.

Best,

Alex

Thank you so much for the award Peter, and Luis for nominating me.

I'm very honoured! 😃

Hi @Alex Weidmann , I really like your arrangement! The orchestration is very vivid and colorful, and I overall found it very enjoyable to listen to!

The only thing that seemed odd to me: in measure 20-21 the divisi in the violins seems odd. You have effectively four voices, but you have the entire Violin II on one voice, half the Violin I section on another voice, and the other two voices split between the other half of the Violin I section. It would seem simpler to just have these four parts split evenly between the Violin I and II?

Either way, great orchestration and very fun to listen to!

Hi @gmm ,

Many thanks for listening.

I'll take another look at that divisi, and revise. It was optimised for midi rendition, as were the dynamics: so I will have to make quite a few adjustments when I come to make a proper orchestral score. Otherwise the dynamic balance doesn't work well for real musicians.