Orchestration 101Part 1 scorecastonline.com by Stellita Loukas February 1, 2012

The idea behind our orchestration articles is neither to re-invent the wheel nor to

overpopulate the net with yet another repetition of what has been written, re-

written and written once again in several blogs, sites, forums, etc. The idea is to

bring you the same material, re-structured, re-organized and enhanced.

Through a series of articles, I will present some instrumentation and

orchestration principles not in the textbook approach adopted by various other

sources, but in a meaningful more structured and concise mannerexactly as I

would structure my personal notes for fast and easy reference. Being a geek at

heart, I got into the habit of note-taking early on in my academic life and I have

found that concise and easy to browse notes can save A LOT of time. If you are

like me (i.e. without a 30-year experience in orchestrating), there must be times

when you dont remember something and you find yourself browsing through

several books or online sources to find it. Thats exactly what we are looking to

avoid here (as well as any bald patches from excessive head scratching)! So, the

idea behind this series (or of any other article in the SCU channel for that

matter) is to make our lives easier and help us focus our time and energy in the

actual task for writing music.

What This Is

Taking Rimsky-Korsakovs approach and the excellent framework/structure of

Principles of Orchestration Online, I will present the essence of

instrumentation and orchestration in as a concise, quick and easy manner as

possible, adding material from other sources and a good dose of humor where

needed. Additionally, our resident musicologist Yaiza Varona will offer an extra

dimension to everything; a behind-the-scenes look to help you better understand

why orchestration has come to be what it is today.

What to Expect

For each orchestral section you will get two things : instrumentation notes

(ranges, registers etc.) and orchestration techniques (how to use the section to

play the melody and how to orchestrate the harmony within the section). After

the examination of each orchestral section, we will provide you with sequencing,

mixing and production techniques relevant to the instruments of that section.

Do not expect to learn to orchestrate like a pro merely by reading these articles.

It takes a lifetime of studying, researching and applying to master the art of

orchestration. But, we all have to start somewhere, right? Take the notes

presented here and try to apply one technique at a time. Study how the greats

have done it and try to understand why. Unfortunately the pill for the ultimate

internalization of knowledge has not been discovered.yet. Dont expect like

me a few years back! to learn everything overnight. Give yourself a break and

most of all, ENJOY that you can spend time doing what you love!

A Clarification

When referring to specific pitches, the Roland MIDI system is used, where

Middle C=C4.

Also, instrument names and abbreviations come in many different shapes and

colours. The ones used here are :

Violins = VlnViolas

= VlaCelli =

VlcBassi = C.B

Piccolo = Picc.Flute =

FlOboe = ObEnglish

Horn = E.Hrn

Clarinet = Cl

Bass Clarinet = B.ClBassoon

= BsnContrabassoon = C.Bsn

French Horn :

F.HTrumpet =

TrpTrombone = TrbTuba

= Tb

So, grab a cup of coffee and lets get started!

Instrumentation VS Orchestration VS Arrangement

Three different but easily confused terms. Lets get them straight :

The term Instrumentation is used to describe two things; 1) the selection of

instruments used in a composition, and 2) the properties of musical

instruments (construction, timbre, sound production, ranges, sound

characteristics etc).

Orchestration is the distribution of roles to different instruments in a

composition. Orchestration usually entails the writing of countermelodies and

accompanying lines.

Arrangement is the process of taking a composition/song and

altering/adapting it to another form, style or orchestration. The term

arrangement is very common in jazz music where the so-called jazz-

standards can be found in many different arrangements.

So, what does all this have to do with us composers? Lets say you sat at your

keyboard or picked up your guitar and came up with a nice melody and a chord

progression. How do you turn this into a full-fledged composition? Having in

mind the mood and atmosphere you want your music to exude, one of the main

decisions you have to make is what instruments to use in your composition; i.e.

choose your instrumentation. That requires a good knowledge of the particular

characteristics and capabilities of the instruments available to you.

Having chosen your palette and having in mind a general outline of the form of

your piece, next step is to decide how to distribute your material. There are three

very basic elements in each orchestration : the foreground material (i.e. your

main melody), the middle-ground material (the countermelodies and certain fill-

ins, runs etc) and the background material (accompanying lines, mostly the

harmony and rhythm). Keep in mind that generally, the ear cannot discern more

than three elements at any given time. Therefore, you must have at most 3

different roles at the same time otherwise the listener will get lost in

translation. This is where a good knowledge of orchestral devices (doublings,

instrument combinations etc.) comes in very handy.

One of the most important rules of orchestration is variety and surprise. Keep

your listeners alert by giving them little surprises every few bars. A good rule of

thumb is to change the orchestration or small bits of it every few phrases or at

every new section.

Orchestral Ensembles and Mixing Principles

The seating of the orchestra did not come to be what it is today for no reason.

The careful placement of each instrument on stage and the size of each section

has been carefully determined with mixing in mind, In the time of Beethoven

and Wagner, Neve or SSL consoles were a tad expensive and hard to transport

and folks preferred to do the mixing completely out of the boxwithout any box

really!

The main principle underlying the nature, formation and seating of the orchestra

is balance. Louder and more dominant instruments are placed in the rear and

come in small numbers. Instruments with less carrying power (e.g. strings) come

in larger numbers and are placed at the front of the orchestra. By learning how

to orchestrate you will make the mixing process much easier. Remember that a

bad orchestration cannot be fixed in the mixing phase.

Stay tuned for the first installment of String writing coming shortly as well as

Yaiza Varonas Musicological look into the origins of the orchestra!