Forum: Principles of Orchestration On-line

Is it a viola?

I am a composer who often like to imitate the style of classical/early romantic composers, such as Mozart or Beethoven, sometimes with new twists. I read and reread the online Principles of Orchestration, and I'd like to know how best to go about orchestrating music in earlier styles. I've...

When you listen to pop music and classical music, most cases there is a recognisable melody. Is it wrong to write classical music without a clear recognisable melody? Does anyone know any composer who tried that?

Hi- I just started looking through the 'Principals' and don't understand the exercises. Exactly what does "Load two instances of GPO either as a plugin in your sequencer or into your supported notation program " mean? And "load instruments into GPO instance 1 and 2 that correspond to the score"...

Hi all, I was wondering whether anyone could help me. I'm having a problem orchestrating a Beethoven piano piece. How would you orchestrate an arpeggiated ("spread") piano chord? Would you literally (within a section, for example the strings) put the bottom note first (in the string case,...

I am still orchestrating my score for the musical theater. I have pretty much settled on my brass section: First Trumpet/Second Trumpet, doubling on Flugelhorn for a couple of numbers/ French Horn / Bass Trombone, doubling on Tenor trombone for several numbers. Regarding that trombone... The...

Hello I was wondering if anyone here has taken any courses through berklee music online before? I was planning on moving to LA this year, and was going to pursue the film scoring night classes at UCLA since I have a day job. But I was offered a better position in my home state of FL so I wont be...

Hey guys, I am Claire Stamp a student from Huddersfield University in England, studying BA(Hons) Popular Music Production. I am in my final year and for my dissertation am looking at 5.1 classical production and the use of spot mics and to what extent (if at all) they can enhance the mix. As...

I swear it seems that when ever I sit down to try and start a composition, is when I always seem to be feeling completely uncreative. Needless to say, this is something that more or less drives me crazy after sitting fiddling around for 20min or so with various ideas, realizing they aren't going...

Please discuss lesson 5 here... Gary Garritan

I've spent along time studing traditional harmony from all the best regraded books such as Piston, Kosta, Gaulding, Aldwell and Schachtner etc. But all they do is teach you how to construct four part chorals. The reason usually given for this in the texts is that all of the music under...

Firstly, may I say what a wonderful achievement this resource is - remarkable! I did however notice something that was a little concerning today - Example 25. seems to be at odds with original score: The Harp part's notes, bar three on the original score reads F, Ab, Db, F, Ab, Db, Eb, G, C,...

Hi All, Thx again for this wonderful course. I'm a pianist synth and keyboard player and can read music and chords, so I know some music basics... And as I've always been obsessed with music since I was a kid I think I will do fine If I persevere :-) - How do you best study a clef that is...

what is r4 ds?

No one seems to be commenting on the fact that only a few of the first example scores even show up, unless something is wrong with my setup. I've tried visiting the pages on a few macs, and a windows machine, with the same result. Here's a screenshot, how can I fix this? <a...

Hi there, I hv just started learning here. I find it quite hard to tell the difference in brass sounds especially between the french horn and trombone. Do you think it's necessary to be able to listen to a brass song and tell which sound is produced by which intrument? Any suggestions?...

Hello fellow Composing Rascals. I use to be able to load up lesson one, read it, and watch the performances. Now all I see is that black screen that says that I need to install flash player. Yet the most current version of flash player is already installed. I found this same problem on two...

http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Fifth-Walter-Piston/dp/0393954803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234156813&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Workbook-Piston-Devoto-Harmony-Walter/dp/0393954846/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234156821&sr=1-2 Vs. ...

Hi all, I've been recently looking into getting my hands on this book which comes highly recommended by many of you. I found it on Amazon the other day, along with the workbook, but here's my question: Does the book come with the recorded CD examples, as many textbooks nowadays include...