Rameau - Allemande in A minor (orchestration)

Welcome all!

I've gone back to the Late Baroque with my latest orchestration.

I chose Rameau's Allemande in A minor, because I don't think it's been orchestrated before. (At least I can't find another orchestration.)

I made a controversial choice to soup up the tempo: so I'd be interested to know whether any of you have different opinions on this?

I had to write a short linking passage at Bar 37; otherwise the transition to the next section sounded too abrupt.

Haven't put in the repeat of the second half as yet. I wonder if you think I should? And if so, what instrumentation would you suggest.

Started putting in slurs; but haven't finished yet, because it's a long tedious job!

Hope you enjoy listening,

Alex

Rameau - Allemande in A minor (orchestration) #21.pdf

Edited September 27Sep 27 by Alex Weidmann
Improved score

I really enjoy listening to this. I play the keyboard version, so the difference in tempo struck me at first. But your orchestrated version works really well. It's just fast enough. It doesn’t have all of the ornaments the keyboard has, and that might have something to do with how it can be faster without sounding too fast. Yours doesn't feel rushed in any way.

The choice of the instruments works very well. It never feels weighed down with too many instruments sounding at once. I like that you didn’t double so much as to have these walls of sound that make the lines less distinct.

I particularly like the Eng.Horn, Clarinet and Bassoons combo in measures 9-15. They are very clear and distinct but still in consort with each other. The same for the strings in 19-27. I’m far from being a sound engineer, but I think you know what you're doing when it comes to using the digital tools to make an overall realistic, coherent sound.

Hi, many thanks for your review.

Great to hear from someone who's actually played the piece!

I did try adding more of the trills and mordents initially; but they didn't sound good: so I took them out again.

I feel like these are idiomatic for the harpsichord; but don't work so well in an orchestral setting. Especially given the very dense ornamentation of the original score.

I can hear some issues with the pitching of the celli and violas around Bars 19-27. Can't seem to get rid of this problem, despite trying several different instrument libraries. Could be a bug within MuseScore, but I'll probably have another go at fixing it.

Hi @Alex Weidmann , really great orchestration here! I thought your treatment of the voices was very good. And I really liked how you gave each instrument family (woodwinds, strings, brass) their own section, it really highlighted the piece’s overall structure.

I think it would be a good idea to add the repeat, and maybe end with a more full tutti orchestration? That would give the ending more finality.

Thanks for sharing!