Path of the Reindeer

Totally forgot about updating the music blog :P This above piece was the assignment I chose to orchestrate from a piano score to a full chamber orchestra. Must say working on this took a long while, and highlighted how little I know about orchestration.

In the end, I hunkered down, wrote the string parts first, added in the other parts in. I think the starting few measures are quite good, but halfway through, it loses its focus and appears lost (now that I think about it, it may be good to see where I went wrong, if I ever need that!) then picks up at the end.

IIRC, this is near 100% vsl - apart from logic and a limiter plugin from toneboosters.

The next assignment is on harp and percussion, which again is unknown territory for me. On the flip side, this assignment had me pick up the Harry Potter And The Scorcerer's Stone Suite for Orchestra. Have had it for almost a year now, and haven't done more than flip through it.

Starting slowly going through the score to examine how John Williams orchestrated it. My OSTs don't seem to match the score, but I did a quick search on youtube and this orchestra appeared to have played it exactly note for note.
Something to do over xmas break? :)

Rule Britannia for Wind Ensemble

So, after finishing up the quartet version of this piece, I was about to submit the assignment when I realized... I did it wrongly >.>

It was supposed to be for 8 woodwind players, and obviously scoring for half of that wasn't going to earn me brownie points. Sigh.

In anycase, I decided that the original instruments would still be the main players, and the extra instruments for added punch. The piccolo I used to add ornaments - I really love the trill patch - and the english horn for some back and forth with the oboe.

I kept the bass clarinet and contra bassoon mostly out of the piece till the end, using them to add more weight to the lower end, as well as filling in the harmonic gaps.

I also took this chance to add in one of the melodies heard in the Ultima 6 version of Rule Britannia, so that was fun :) 

Also used the vsl miracle plugin, which I thought added alot of mid range thickness, and made the piccolo really sing. Unfortunately, it seems like my notebook is at its limits; 8 vsl instruments, mir pro (conductor and rear mics)  + miracle have the cpu over 80%+, and that's with the buffers at 1024 samples.

Oh well, chugging on to brass next :)

Rule Britannia for Wind Quartet

Spent a few minutes each day the last week to finish this piece, and spent a good half day today sequencing it in Logic. I think overall it's ok, though I am very pleased with the short moment when the flute trill came through, I thought that added alot to it.

Woodwinds!

Been studying woodwinds lately, having played the sax and flute helps a little, but now properly learning to orchestrate for a woodwind in pairs or for quartets, it's a very different beast altogether.

For one, I never really knew the ranges of the other winds - the clarinet is one very impressive instrument! Bassoons too. Mixing all the different timbres together has been quite interesting.

Basically following one of the exercises from the Kent Kennan book: The Technique of Orchestration. Putting up 8 bars of one of Bach's masterpiece chorales, and layering the with those notes.

Really fast feedback in Finale, and with the new GPO4 setup, I think sounds great! I am, thinking of loading up VE Pro and letting the vsl instruments come through though. We'll see.

Pizzicato - not the same IRL

Attended a live orchestral performance today, and one thing that stood out a lot to me was the pizzacato strings. They sound totally different from the samples I have. Very smooth, not like the very percussive samples I have. I'm probably playing them at high velocities, lower velocities hopefully will yield what I heard this fine evening.

Looks like I will want to allocate some budget over to attending live performances. I'm not only interested in a full symphony orchestras, small performances like string quartets are also very interesting to me.

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I've been giving some thought about my music pursuits lately. I really have no idea where I want to take it. I don't believe I have a deep seated passion in it. Yet I pursue am wading yet deeper into it like.... er... a spatula mixing a... a chocolate cake mix. Yeah..... oh wait, I think I prefer pancakes. Damn.

Looking back, this all started with the Winter Jazz course I attended. That really sparked a flame in me, I really wanted to improvise and stuff. During that course, it was evident that every single instructor there could compose and play the piano at a high level. I pretty much went down that route.

But what do I really want? It seems like I have not only gone off course, but went off the motorway, crossed some borders, and jumped onto a highway in another country.

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Since beginning harmony and counterpoint, my music tastes appear to have changed as well. I'm beginning to feel unsatisfied with nearly everything I listen to. Especially after I started score study, I am really appreciating what kind of amazing art goes into classical music. And at the same time, alot of the pieces are just too damned long for me to "get" in their entirety.

And then older stuff I used to like, I'm slowly picking out bits that are now feeling very... uncomplicated. No, not sure what kind of word would describe it.  Perhaps repetitive? Ah, don't know.

What I do know, is what I am learning is both fun and challenging. So, I'll keep at it.

Bow techniques for the Violin

Having no idea what "spiccato" is - bouncing the bow off the string sure, but I found this lovely set of vides off youtube that gives examples of what the various bowings are.

Another video covering some other bowings.

A new chapter begins

Bought "Orchestration" by Cecil Forsyth on a whim. Well, kind of on a whim - I caught sight of a review that this was not your regular orchestration textbook, but has a bit of English humour in it. And it does! So, I'll learn and have a laugh too, win!

Also, as it was used (my 2nd edition is from 1966?!), cost only a few quid off amazon.

Also finished off my first two studies of Bach chorales. They are a work of art in their own right, seriously.