An Orchestration Duel

[jesshmusic]

It would be a good exercise too.

It brings up another point... Composers can be notoriously thin skinned, which is something we should get over. Publishers can be pretty harsh in their form letters!

Count me in. (Everyone cringes with fear and awe....not!)

[Garritan]

We did something similar where different people did their interpretation of "Air on a G String" in this thread There were about 20 different interpretations. We also did something similar with Pachelbel's Canon. In those exercises, we heard different interpretations and how the same peice of music can be so diverse. It was a learning exercise rather than a competition.

Competition implies winners and losers. In this forum we're all winners. Then there are other considerations. Would it have to be true to score? Or subject to interpretation or Hollywoodized?

A competition can be fun - like the Worst Demo Ever Competition but sometimes it can pit people against each other if its not in good spirit.

What do others think of having a "competition"?

Gary Garritan

[Kanjika]

Lol do a worst demo #2...or make it so we have to use GPO in the most akward song...or just pick a really impossible to improve upon classical piece

[SeanHannifin]

I was hoping for a good-spirited competition. If there is no prize, I don't think there'd be much to fight over. You simply compete for the fun of it, to help bring out the best in yourself. Yes, somebody would "win," but everybody would win in the sense that hopefully everybody learned something, or at least got some practice in.

Also, instead of doing an entire classical piece, we could do just one theme or two from one piece. It would be pretty short, only about one minute or two of music. But then we could do it again with a different theme, to give people another chance . . . like a continual way of helping yourself practice orchestration.

As for "Hollywood" or "true to score" . . . I would say "true to score." I mean, if you want to practice orchestration, why practice a method that an orchestra can't play? (okay, I know there are some good answers to that, but I would certainly benefit more from "true to score." Perhaps a topic for more discussion.)

In the end, it's a learning exercise in the form of a competition . . . no prize, just fun.

[SeanHannifin]

Oh, better yet, if people want to do this more than once (it could be a monthly thing, or bi-monthly, or tri-monthly), we could take turns submitting in our own themes. Of course, if your theme was the subject of the competition, you'd have to sit that one out . . . but you'd get to hear your own theme in a variety of orchestrations!

EDIT: In fact, perhaps the person who submitted the theme would get to chose that month's winner (of course the submissions would be anonymous, so he would not know who orchestrated each piece). That way, everybody would get a chance to not only submit a theme, but also chose a winner . . . and everybody would get a chance to win . . .

Perhaps FireGS will post another idea . . .

[southportJim]

It was a learning exercise rather than a competition.

Competition implies winners and losers. In this forum we're all winners. Then there are other considerations. Would it have to be true to score? Or subject to interpretation or Hollywoodized?

Count me in. I've been spending my morning "musical free time" trying to do exact reproductions of Danielle's versions of the "Canon in D" in an attempt to better learn GPO and Cakewalk Home Studio, so the idea of another learning experience (with different material) would be great.

I would think that we could leave it open to interpretation, and thus not "true to score"...the major requirement being that only GPO instruments could be used. Just my thoughts...

[FireGS]

Hey guys, being co-founder, as it were, Sean and I have also came up with deadlines for the compititions. The songs will be due by the 2nd friday of each month. The deadlines for the votes will be by the last day of each month. This way, it gives people enough time to vote.

Also, as an example for the competitions, the original piece to duplicate would be something like this:

http://www.samferrara.com/RealNo9.mp3

The piece you would enter would end up like this:

http://www.samferrara.com/SymphonyNo.9.mp3



~Fire

EDIT: Of course, the deadlines could be changed, extended, etc, were flexible

[allend2010]

Defenitely count me in.

[SeanHannifin]

Hey guys, being co-founder, as it were, Sean and I have also came up with deadlines for the compititions. The songs will be due by the 2nd friday of each month. The deadlines for the votes will be by the last day of each month. This way, it gives people enough time to vote.

Also, as an example for the competitions, the original piece to duplicate would be something like this:

http://www.samferrara.com/RealNo9.mp3

The piece you would enter would end up like this:

http://www.samferrara.com/SymphonyNo.9.mp3



~Fire

EDIT: Of course, the deadlines could be changed, extended, etc, were flexible

Just to avoid any mis-understanding . . . I was thinking that the themes to be orchestrated would be original . . . themes that have never been orchestrated before, unlike Beethoven's 9th. That way, everybody would orchestrate it differently, with different textures and styles. The "winner(s)" would be very subjective, of course, like music tends to be, but it would give everybody a chance to use their creativity to come up with an original orchestration.

Just want to avoid confusion . . . it seemed FireGS and I were mis-understanding eachother . . . Sorry FireGS for the confusion!

[Thud]

I like this idea... I do agree that it should be an original theme though.