Intro to Orchestration Part 6: Biggest Mistakes

A constructive guide to identifying and dealing with common mistakes in orchestration, including unconscious borrowing, unbalanced scoring, uninteresting textures, unnecessary efforts, lack of emotional or intellectual depth, hysteria or over-intellectualism, clichéd or derivative scoring, uninformed instrumentation, and synthetic-sounding scoring.

Musical samples ©Tiritiri Matangi Music (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved

Category:

Music

Tags:

• professional
• orchestrator
• orchestration
• craft
• tutorial
• lesson
• contract
• commission
• conductor
• composer
• mussorgsky
• errors
• biggest
• mistakes
• score
• introduction
• series

[franklindavid]

One instrument should not dorminate over the other instruments in an orchestra, that's why we have a conductor.

[OrchestrationOnline]

@franklindavid Exactly. But there's no excuse for orchestrating a score which is so badly balanced that the composer either cannot make it work, or wastes hundreds of dollars and many many minutes of rehearsal time correcting the score's dynamics and phrasing.

Please watch the rest of my videos before leaving comments that either repeat what I say as if I hadn't said it, or say things that don't make sense (like "All the instruments should be in unison to create balance.").

[franklindavid]

All the instruments should be in unison to create balance.

[OrchestrationOnline]

@franklindavid What? I completely don't understand that statement.

Certain unisons will be completely out of balance, i.e. violins + trumpets. If the entire orchestra is playing in unison, then the brass will dominate. That's not balance. Such passages must be very carefully voiced, with staggered dynamics.

Please watch Part 4: Texture, Balance, and Function where I define balance.

[PlushChronicles]

Hello Thomas, I am a 14 year old who is just getting into orchestration and I was wanting to get some more advice on writing orchestral or string pieces. I can usually come up with a good melody but the harmonies and structure is what I fall apart on. PLEASE respond it would really help :)

[OrchestrationOnline]

@PlushChronicles I'd say, read Harmony by Walter Piston, then Vincent Persichetti's Twentieth Century Harmony. When you've got a good grounding, read Form in Tonal Music by Douglass Green. That will put you back on track.

[feedbackl00p]

Thanks for this, I found it fascinating. :)

[gr4l9um20b7o]

@OrchestrationOnline Yes, I will.

[OrchestrationOnline]

@gr4l9um20b7o I recommend that you score-read everything. Find out what it is that makes each work eternal, and how that can inform your own style and craft. Great writers read great novels - great composers should read great scores, many many great scores. Beethoven had a huge collection of scores, everyone from Palestrina and J.S. Bach up to the young Schubert, whose songs he recognized as having an immortal spark. Get going.

[gr4l9um20b7o]

@OrchestrationOnline Do you recommand us to read Rachmaninov's score?