Oh do not hold your breath!! There is a playlist called "Pure Orchestral" on my
soundcloud which is a permanent work-in-progress. Somehow, these tracks still sound clumsy in parts, so the rule breaking you can hear is most likely a lack of skill (or taste maybe) rather than a creative statement.
First, thank you for sharing your playlist. It takes guts to push your stuff out for the world to see.
Second, I find it interesting that you state "the rule breaking you hear is most likely a lack of skill"... I am of the mindset that studying how the great orchestrators successfully write is a way to ensure that one would not break rules due to lack of skill...
and the way to study the great orchestrators is not by ear, but by reading their scores, to see all of the nuance that goes into the passages that just jump out at you.
So, in an earlier post, you mention that you can find exceptions to the idea that you need to read/write sheet music to be an accomplished musician/composer.
I challenge you to name any accomplished
orchestral composer who does not know how to read/write and study sheet music. I can't think of any one. And, since this thread is for advice from experienced orchestrators (of which I'm one), and since it's about writing orchestral music, (which it is), then maybe it's important to listen to the advice that
you (as the original OP) asked for.
I mean, really? you asked experienced orchestrators for their opinion, then when one gives it to you, you disagree with their statement and state that . That actually smacks of serious ego.
And to say, "we need to be more flexible about learning how to orchestrate", implies a serious sense of self-importance. So, before you become more flexible, have you studied Mendelssohn's tone poems? Tchaikovsky's ballets? Bruckner and Wagner? Stravinsky's big three ballets? Copland's ballets? Debussy's tone poems? Have you actually
done the hard work?
No. No you haven't. Because, I can hear it in all three of your tracks. You've dipped and dabbled here and there, and tried to build things with pithy questionnaires, that experienced composers are trying to help you with. But here's the nasty truth.
You have to put in the flight time. You have to listen to these great scores, and figure out how they did it. And no, transcribing is not enough. You need to
see how Ravel does arpeggios with artificial harmonics in the strings in his pieces to get that glassy texture.
Okay, I'm getting worked up. I wish you well, I really do. But this cyclical argument really wearies me. People who are pro, who really want to make their craft work, know that
it takes daily hard grit work. and there is no substitute for that. So, your choice, man. You can keep listening to random pieces, and fumbling through "orchestral works"... or you can suck it up, deep dive, and start really learning the beauty and majesty of how to write colorful, emotional, dramatic, and narrative orchestral music.
Choice is yours, not mine.
Mike