Ned Bouhalassa
Senior Member
Debussy.
That's a good one. Work through it diligently, and you'll be glad you did... even if you never intend to write like Palestrina.
For orchestration texts, I recommend the Adler. I still reference it.
Franz Joseph Haydn. Why? Because you can most easily see the skeletal structure of the music. His simple (although brilliant) orchestration works because the music is working so well.
**snip**
It's all in the writing.
Have to back up (at least) Brahms (here I would recommend symphony no.2) and Beethoven simply because they wrote some of the most beautiful symphonies in my opinion (absolutely arguable; but thats just my taste in classical music).I would start with Beethoven, symphonies no.3, 6, 7 and then number 9. This will give you insight in some good basics.
Then move on a bit and check out works from Brahms, Schumann, Elgar, Grieg to get a good grip on the romantic era of composing and orchestrating and finalize it with studying Mahler, Wagner for much more advanced orchestration techniques.
Only then I would move to Ravel as Ravel is a master, but he mastered it all and knew his legacy and if you want to build cars, it is hard to start with building a Ferrari straight away, better learn the basics first.
After that the world is yours and so many things to discover from the 20th century
And try to grab a copy of Samuel Adlers his book The Study of Orchestration (edit, I see its already mentioned)
It means a lot since the prelay tracks take up Sonic space that you have to be aware of. However you should have a good idea about that in the composers mockup demo.Also a question for all professional orchestrators: do you orchestrate film scores differently when you know that the composer likes to add synths/sounddesign and layer the recordings with samples or is that irrelevant for your work?
I'd suggest Rimsky Korsakov's Sheherazade.
His "principles of orchestrations" are must-read even if a bit outdated now.
He's illustrating most of the rules with excerpts of his own work.
Hi,
I'm just starting to learn about Orchestration. Have never thought how much fun it is.
I'm wondering if you have any advice which composer / song has a more "easy-to-follow" orchestration. Not sure how to specify my request.
I'm talking about not to complex orchestral music.
Maybe you can post music which helped you a lot when starting out.
Or maybe you can give some advice like:
"Composer X = easy to follow,
Composer Y = advanced stuff,
Composer Z = crazy complex"
I would appreciate some answers
Thank you for that!In particular Dave Connor, Bryla, and JJP: I have read your posts over the years and I have an absolute tremendous amount of respect for each of you both professionally, and personally. How you don't drop F-bombs around here I will never know.
you are about to make a pizza. It's dough, cheese and sauce. Really how bad can you f*** it up ?
Very much this! Studying Beethoven early symphonies will demonstrate great economy in orchestration and will lay the foundation. I’d stay away from Mahler, Stravinsky and Ravel until much later as they didn’t conform to standard practices because of their skill at writing for orchestra. I’m still wrapping my mind around Das Lied von der Erde after 20 years. Sublime but extremely detailed, textured, subtle arranging.I would start with Beethoven, symphonies no.3, 6, 7 and then number 9. This will give you insight in some good basics.
Then move on a bit and check out works from Brahms, Schumann, Elgar, Grieg to get a good grip on the romantic era of composing and orchestrating and finalize it with studying Mahler, Wagner for much more advanced orchestration techniques.
Only then I would move to Ravel as Ravel is a master, but he mastered it all and knew his legacy and if you want to build cars, it is hard to start with building a Ferrari straight away, better learn the basics first.
After that the world is yours and so many things to discover from the 20th century
And try to grab a copy of Samuel Adlers his book The Study of Orchestration (edit, I see its already mentioned)