Forum

How to notate a chromatic glissando?

Hi all,

I'm cleaning up the score of one of my orchestral pieces, and I'm stumped by how to notate the following: I have the strings play long descending chromatic scales (fingered, not a sliding glissando) in 32nd notes. For the purposes of MIDI I wr

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Which scores are great to study when learning to write for strings - and where to find them for free?

Hi everyone,

I would like to learn how to write for strings.

i thought i would recreate some scores in my DAW (Cubase Elements 9.5) to do so.

(I have the "Cinematic Studio Strings" Library)

i searched for scores, but i didn't really know where to st

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How fast can bassoons tongue?

I'm writing a symphony and there are some couplets of thirty-second notes in 6/8 at 60 bpm. Is this doable?

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Cello high range limitations

A discussion on this topic at https://composersforum.ning.com/forum/topics/sonata-for-duo-cello was recently curtailed so I thought I shold clarify myself for anyone else writing for cello.

The highest note that is reasonable to writw for is E6. This i

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Cloth on Piano (Salonen)

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String Bowing explained-videos

Hi All,

String bowing is an essential part of the compositional process as is all phrasing and articulation, because it  reveals your true musical intentions. .You don't have to be precise about string bowing as players will sort out any issues, but

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The Development of Extended Piano Techniques in Twentieth-Century American Music

Reiko Is

http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:182093/datastream/PDF/view

Thanks Bob https://soundcloud.com/bob-morabito

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Composition study materials

What do you think is the best book on instrumentation, that describes in a concise relatively easy to understand way, the ranges and abilities of each instrument for the purpose of teaching? 

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How to deal with mid-bar tempo changes in orchestral parts

I'm working on an orchestral piece where there are several mid-bar tempo changes. I have several questions:

1) Is this even a good idea to begin with? Or is it something that should be easily coordinated by the conductor?

2) How should the parts be w

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Help with timpani writing

Are there any timpanists on this forum? I'm reviewing the timpani part for a piece I'm working on, and I'm having doubts about whether it's either impossible to perform, or requires too many retunings or too many drums, etc.. I googled around for mor

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Double Bass Solo

Hi Guys

Writing bass solo in the middle of orchestral piece.

Showed it to a bass player who said it was unplayable. Not fast but goes up to written D5 (sounding as D4).

Admittedly he was an experienced but non-professional player.

I've seen parts by

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Open strings and hand positions- How much of a bad thing?

Hi. I was wondering if anyone has thoughts on the use of open strings; I suppose this discussion applies mostly to live performance, since digital orchestrations can be manipulated easier after the fact. I get the sense that playing higher open strin

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Question for String Players.

I have a piece I'm working on where the cello section needs to be able to sustain a note for ~45 seconds.  I know the players will need to change bow directions to make this possible and that it can be done.

The question I have is how to mark the sco

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Question about string articulation use.

Hello everyone!

I listen to songs, and I try to breakdown the techniques and articulations there, and try to apply that to my tracks, but in that, I found a particular one that I don't know.

In these tracks, at the indicated time:

Ivan Torrent - The

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Horn fluttertongue swells

I wrote some fluttertongue swells into a French horn part for a double wind quintet I recently workshopped, and the players had a hard time with them on the quiet ends of the swell. I know this technique is very possible on flute (I used it in the sa

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Methods of working

I usually write quite short stuff but have recently been trying to stretch to a longer format. Mostly to get the time to develop more thematic ideas. How do you go about planning and composing a longer piece of music?

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Orchestration for BRASS

Hope this is the right subforum to write/ask about this ...

The only time I tried to write for woodwinds and brass together I was about 13 years old and nobody told me how to write to sound the best-the result was that it sounded terrible, especiall

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