Hi, this is an old Composition I recently Orchestrated and mocked-up, and fixed a bit (well I say recently but that was a few months ago by now...). The original harmonies in the piece were a bit simple, but I didn't change them much, as they were supposed to be happy and playful anyways. Still, I don't feel too sure about some changes I made to the original, for example I felt some of the original String parts sounded a bit weak (although I'm not sure if the problem was my mockup...). At first some of the Violin parts were regular octave doubling (V2 in middle range, V1 above the staff), so I tried double octaves using the violins 1&2 and the Celli and/or the violas... but I'm not sure if this muddles the composition too much (seeing as they overlap other parts...) I'm not sure if I should've used thirds or something to avoid too much doubling there... I also worry I may have overdone it with some of the glock and vibraphone parts, I ended up adding extra doubling of the main lines using the percussion because I wanted to add some more attack to the sound, but I'm not sure if that was a mistake... Also I'm not sure if the harpists (I was thinking of two harps) have enough speed to make the pedal changes to play the part close to the key change, and if so, I'm not sure what other instrument could play that line (seeing how I used them to glue the key change/modulation)...
Anyways, any opinions or tips would be greatly appreciated. Ah, and sorry for the lack of feeling in the playback, that's just Finales Human playback using custom rules and sometimes exaggerated expression marks, it ends up feeling better than default HP but still nowhere near as a good as using a midi keyboard (or a real orchestra)...
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I gather that this was an exercise in orchestration, and to that end IMHO it was successful. It sounds like it could be the prelude of a soundtrack, before a main theme makes its appearance; As I listened, I expected that at any moment the diatonic noodling would cease and it would lay down a solid melody, something memorable and glorious. But... then it ended.
So, as an experiment to practice putting voices together and balancing the sections, I applaud a job well done - you evidently have a good ear for it, because it sounded good to me. But as a composition, I must say it didn't leave an impression. I just listened to the entire thing twice, before starting to write this. Yet if you asked me right now to hum its melody, I wouldn't be able to do that.
Yeah, this is the orchestration of a very old composition of mine (especially since I just started learning music about two or two and a half years ago). My knowledge of balance comes mostly from Rimsky-Korsakov's book, online version, and some other online sources. My aim in this exercise was to orchestrate the dynamics and accents as much as possible. But I still haven't made anything I could really call very thematic Per Se. I'm fully aware that there's a lot I have yet to learn about composition. Anyways, thank you for your post!
I really enjoyed this, Alvaro. I don't know about orchestration (I compose for piano) but your piece was a pleasure to listen to. I particularly liked the bright little melody.
Thanks! I originally thought it as a background for an imaginary, cheery, semi fast paced scene. although I did imagine it with a little more ooph.... but I have trouble giving emotion through Finale's human playback.... Still, I'm happy you liked it. Thanks you!
Nice! Really like it. Sounds great. Thanks for posting.
Thank you, your comments mean a lot to me. I'll try to keep it up.