The Five Archetypes of Orchestration in 60 Lessons — Part II
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We have organized this course very transparently in the main orchestration procedures with well-known excerpts from Western music-literature but also related to own compositions. Therefore, we have divided the entirety of the course into five major parts. Each part will be dedicated to exactly one of the five archetypes of orchestration. Each part will thus contain 12 lessons focused on that particular aspect. The whole course will cover at least 60 examples carefully discussed and analyzed. The assignments are directly related to these fragments. All relevant aspects and techniques will be covered in detail, offering you the opportunity to try everything out for yourself to gain efficient insight and become a true professional. Worksheets and reductions has been elaborated, solutions provided, but also applications into one’s own contemporary practice illustrate the relevance of traditional orchestral principles into modern classical music compositions. By imitating and emulating the masters, you will become by time a master yourself. We have carefully selected excerpts in different styles, from Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, Holst, Bizet, Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartok and myself. In the downloadable resources are 95 items provided: the whole spoken commentaries in English are completely written out and can be downloaded to gain more understanding of each lesson. We are truly convinced that this method of working, copying, imitating, emulating the masters, which has already often proven in the past that this was the method to learn craftsmanship, will help you further develop as an artist.
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IntroductionIn this first section, we offer you some free samples of the upcoming lectures of the Second Part of our course.
In this short promotional video, you have a quick overview what can be seen and learned in this series.
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Sample Lecture 13
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Sample Lecture 15
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Sample Lecture 18
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Sample Lecture 20
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Sample Lecture 23
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Beethoven First Symphony Second Theme from the first Movement
The 12 lectures of the second part deal with the second archetype in orchestration, namely textures with two elements: melody and accompaniment. It is probably the most common archetype of orchestration in orchestral literature. To this end, we have selected examples by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, Satie, Ravel, Debussy, De Falla, Holst, Bartok and also from my own work. This excerpt is from the first movement of Beethoven 's first symphony, It is the second theme that is In the dominant, in G.
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Secondary theme of Dance Macabre of Saint-Saëns
The next example shows a very different orchestral situation: Saint-Saëns puts the melody line in the middle register of the orchestra and places the accompaniment above and below it. In my violin concerto Zodiac, there is also a part where melody and accompaniment also interact but in a more complex way.
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Conventional positioning of melody and accompaniment in different options
In this lecture, we'll take not only a closer look to the main theme of the 'Dance macabre' of Saint-Saëns but we will examine as well different options of positioning melody against accompaniment in Swerts' double concerto for trumpet, piano and strings.
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Extreme positioning melody against accompaniment in Danse Chinoise-Tchaikovsky
An accompaniment in an orchestra can be orchestrated in many ways: using the extreme registers is an interesting option. This excerpt from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker suite illustrates this particularly well
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Gymnopédie N°1 of Satie orchestrated by Debussy
Everyone knows at least the beginning of Erik Satie's famous Gymnopédie. Satie earned his living as a bar and cabaret pianist at the famous café Le Chat Noir. It was there that Satie began composing and completed his three Gymnopédies for piano on the second of April 1888. In this lecture we take a closer look how Débussy orranged this pano piece into an orchestral version.
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Subtelty of orchestration in Maurice Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye
The subtlety that Debussy used for evoking the atmosphere of the Gymnopedie is even more apparent in this example in this excerpt from Ma mère l'oye by Maurice Ravel. It is based on a collection of eight fairy tales by Charles Perrault (1628-1703): Contes de ma mère l'oye from 1697. However, Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête was written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Ravel originally wrote this work in 1908 for piano four hands for Mimi and Jean Godebski, aged 6 and 7. It was first performed in Paris in 1910. Two years later Ravel adapted it for orchestra.
The excerpt we chose here is the opening theme of the waltz, Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête. It is the theme of la Belle, the Beauty.
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De Falla, El Sombrero de tres picos
De Falla 's score El Sombrero de tres picos is a fantastically orchestrated score for the eponymous ballet that is worth studying in its entirety. I can only recommend that. The ballet is based on the eponymous novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon. It was premiered on 22 July 1919 in London at the Alhambra Theatre directed by Ernest Ansermet with sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso.
This fragment is situated shortly after the introduction and is the beginning of the 'Afternoon' scene. In fact, it is an accompaniment section with an additional melodic line. The overall tenor of this phrase is thus a rhythmic rather than a melodic phrase with an introductory character. -
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Holst, Mercurius - variety in orchestrating repetitions in a section
Gustav Holst's The Planets is fantastic study material for orchestration of large orchestral settings with a huge variety of orchestral virtuoso effects. We are going to limit ourselves here though to one excerpt from the third movement Mercury, the Winged Messenger. In the selection passage, we find six times the same melody repeated but every time treated differently.
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The Harp As Accompanying Instrument - Swerts, Zodiac
The next two lectures we zoom in more on the use of the harp as an accompanying instrument in the orchestra. For this we have chosen two works that both are composed from a different angle. The first excerpt is from my violin concerto Zodiac: there, the harp has an accompanying role, but, the second work in the next lecture will be my harp concerto Etoiles. There, the harp is both solo and accompanying as well. In the excerpt from Zodiac, in the part Taurus, we have an orchestral situation where the accompaniment is carried by the harp and strings. It is actually a slow chorale with parallel triads in the strings, doubled by the harp, which is the background against which the violin will replicate in the foreground. The problem with the harp part lies in the fact that there is a sequence of triads that is quite chromatic and thus will require extra attention in prescribing the pedal changes and the notation of these chords.
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The Harp As Soloist - Swerts, Etoiles (2014)
In the previous lecture, we explained the functions of a pedal harp using a short excerpt from my violin concerto. In this lecture, we repeat that exercise again but now using the solo part from my harp concerto Etoiles. Here, studying the application to pedal position changes focuses mainly on the second movement.
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Full Orchestration Assignment on Schubert's 'Litanei'
In this lecture, we will create an orchestration of a simple but beautiful song by Franz Schubert. So, for the first time, we will now use a vocal example of a texture with two elements, in this case the singing voice and the accompaniment. Litanei auf das Fest Allerseelen is a poem by Johann Georg Jacobi set to music by Franz Schubert in 1816 (D 343).
