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, rewritten 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 Piccolo = Picc.Flute = Bass Clarinet = B.ClBassoon French Horn :
= VlaCelli =
FlOboe = ObEnglish = BsnContrabassoon = C.BsnF.HTrumpet =
VlcBassi = C.B
Horn = E.Hrn
TrpTrombone = TrbTuba
= Tb
Clarinet = Cl

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 jazzstandards 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 fillins, 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!