Introduction to Orchestration by Thomas Goss. See my “Orchestration” category here on my blog for more music orchestration study tips.

Thinking horizontal vs. vertical and the continuity of each instrument.

Thank you Thomas so much for posting your videos. I found them very helpful in many ways. One of the ways it helped me was on my setup. I’m in Macau, China and don’t have all my gear, but I have a MacBook Pro, several sound libraries from East/West Quantum Leap (Strings, Piano, Goliath, RA, Fab Four, Ministry of Rock, etc,) and a Roland JV 2080 with several sound cards. It’s been killing me the amount of time I’ve been spending in setup and trying to get the “perfect” template for my current project setup with Sibelius music notation software. Between your videos and seeing the two piano reductions of Holst’s PLANETS -- I was shown it doesn’t matter if the sound is perfect -- I need to just hear it in my head the way it should be; and use the notation playback with a grain of salt knowing the playback is very rough. Now I’m back on track and working on my project (and waiting for the next Thomas Goss Youtube videos of course!)

Texture, Balance and Function

About Thomas Goss:

Thomas Goss’s credits as a composer include music written for dance, film, television, and the concert stage. His works have been commissioned and premiered by such groups as Marin Symphony, Earplay, Onyx String Quartet, and the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Ensemble, and he has created concerto repertoire for soloists such as violist Linda Ghidossi-DeLuca and erhuist Xiaofeng Zhang.

Goss is involved in ongoing residencies with several artistic organizations. With the Santa Rosa Symphony Young People’s Chamber Orchestra, his 4-year residency has produced a body of new work for string orchestra.

As composer/orchestrator for the Punk Rock Orchestra, Goss has arranged punk rock for orchestra, transformed classics into punk anthems, and is helping to develop a punk opera. Recently retired from the position of resident composer for Moving Arts Dance Collective, his output included collaborations with choreographers Charles Anderson, Robert Moses, and Anandha Ray.

As an educator, Thomas Goss’s activites are international in scope, with appearances as mentor and guest lecturer at Brown University, San Francisco Conservatory’s preparatory program, and at the Composers’ Association of New Zealand’s Young Composers Workshop at the Nelson School of Music in New Zealand. He helped to create the successful Composer-in-the-Schools program at School of the Arts and Lowell High School in San Francisco, now in its seventh year.

“Tane and the Kiwi,” his tone poem for narrator and orchestra, was written in collaboration with noted children’s entertainer Jennifer Moss, and premiered by Moss with the Auckland Philharmonia in several performances of the “Kiwi Kapers” series, which teaches children about both music and ecology.

In promoting the cause and awareness of contemporary music, Goss has participated in the commissioning and presentation of hundreds of works by American composers, particularly in Northern California as a director of New Release Alliance and as a member of the steering committee of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum. Goss is a well-known and prolific commentator on new music and the West Coast classical music scene. His reviews, interviews and observations have appeared regularly in the journals Sounding Board, 20th/21st Century Music, and San Francisco Classical Voice.

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Gustav Holst -- The Planets Op.32 Mercury, the Winged Messenger

Here is an example of the full score and following that is a two piano reduction. I have been racking my brain in several futile attempts to find the most economical and free way to do orchestral sketches on the computer -- and I think the two piano reduction idea is fantastic. It seems like a painfully obvious approach to me now -- but I was very frustrated with the idea of sketching with a single piano part because it’s difficult to think in tonal colors and sections with that approach. I don’t want to spend a lot of time editing -- I want to input the ideas. The 2 piano approach gives me room for counterpoint between sections -- and to insinuate different textures. Orchestrally, the counterpoint happens between sections and textures rather than just notes -- so Viola!

And here is an example of a two piano reduction of the score. Or to reverse engineer it, a composer can write a two piano version and then orchestrate later.

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Orchestrators receive music from composers in the form of handwritten or computer printed scores, MIDI files, or a combination of these. The primary role of an orchestrator is to assist the composer in delivering a fully orchestrated score from the composer’s sketch or score. The composer’s score may be minimal or almost fully orchestrated, depending on the skills, preferences, and time allowed the composer for each project.

HOW PAID

Orchestrators are generally paid on a per-page basis, where a page is generally equivalent to 4 bars of fully scored music. MIDI transcription work (translating MIDI files into workable sketches or preliminary scores) is charged in addition to orchestrating rates. Conducting the orchestra at recording sessions may be included in the fees, or charged in addition to orchestration fees (See Conductors Section)

TYPICAL PAY RATES

American Federation of Musicians union page rates for orchestration range from $26 to $60 depending on the size of the orchestra and the project budget. Typical rates for premium orchestrators can range from $75 to $100 per page depending on the project budget and the complexity of the music.

MIDI transcription and editing may be charged on a flat rate depending on the extent of editing and transcription that are necessary, or may be charged on a per page rate. The American Federation of Musicians has established minimum scale rates for MIDI transcriptions – see AF of M rate documentation for complete details

SIGNIFICANT ORCHESTRATION TEXTS:

• Michael Praetorius (1619): Syntagma musicum volume two, De Organographia.
• Valentin Roeser (1764): Essai de l’instruction à l’usage de ceux, qui composent pour la clarinette et le cor.
• Hector Berlioz (1844): Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes (Treatise on Instrumentation).
• François-Auguste Gevaert (1863): Traité general d’instrumentation.
• Charles-Marie Widor (1904) : Technique de l’orchestre moderne (Manual of Practical Instrumentation).
• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1912): Основы оркестровки (Principles of Orchestration).
• Cecil Forsyth (1914): Orchestration.
• Alfredo Casella: (1950) La Tecnica dell’Orchestra Contemporanea.
• Charles Koechlin (1954–9): Traité de l’Orchestration (4 vols).
• Walter Piston (1955): Orchestration.
• Samuel Adler (1982, 1989, 2002): The Study of Orchestration.

What Orchestrators Do

by Paul Andrew MacLean

The role of the orchestrator remains an ambiguous one to many film music fans, largely because the dimension of their creative input varies from composer to composer.

In the case of classically trained composers, orchestrators do not generally contribute anything creative. However, with the kind of schedules composers face in Hollywood, it is often necessary to employ assistance. A composer like Jerry Goldsmith for instance, although he “sketches” his cues, every creative detail is provided in these sketches–instrumental groupings, dynamics, and indications for all the notes. It is just written in a kind of compressed “shorthand,” perhaps with some occasional verbal instructions.

Such sketches however are not really useable as a conductor’s score. Also, since film scores are often written in a hurry, a composer’s handwriting may not be as neat as it could be. Therefore, an assistant is usually needed to take the composer’s sketches and transfer it to a full score. In a sense you could think of it as “paint by number,” with the composer writing “blue” or “red” on the canvas, and the orchestrator coloring it in (of course it is a bit more detailed than that but you get the idea).

Sometimes an orchestrator may make a suggestion which the composer has not thought of and the composer will use it. Some composers also may grant the orchestrator leave to add his own touches to the score. The orchestrator is also useful assistant to the composer. In transferring the composer’s intentions to full score, the orchestrator might catch mistakes (which a composer might make in the rush to meet a deadline). The orchestrator is also the only person other than the composer who knows exactly how the score is supposed to sound, and it can help to have him in the recording booth (if the composer is on the podium) to monitor the recording.

Predictably there have been a number of cases where composer and orchestrator have diverging recollections of who thought up what, but generally composer/orchestrator relationships are loyal and longstanding. Jerry Goldsmith and Arthur Morton have worked together now for over thirty years and are the best of friends, while John Williams had a long collaboration with Herbert Spencer.

Using an orchestrator is not an indication of any lacking ability on the composer’s part–”concert” composers like Sergei Prokofiev, Aaron Copland and John Corigliano all used orchestrators for their film music. In the late ’50s, the Universal music department was thoroughly exasperated by the young Jerry Goldsmith, because he did not understand how to sketch–he kept giving the orchestrators complete scores!

There are of course composers whose expertise does not extend to orchestration. Some self-taught composers do not write fully detailed sketches, thus requiring the orchestrator to use more initiative. However, I should point out that there are a number of self-taught composers (for instance Shirley Walker and Michael Kamen), who are fully capable of orchestrating their own works and provide complete sketches to the orchestrators, and even write in full score when there is time. (Kamen orchestrated his scores for Brazil and Highlander, for instance.)

An entertaining and informed insight into Hollywood orchestrating can be found in Andre Previn’s book No Minor Chords: My Days in Hollywood. On orchestrating for Hugo Friedhofer, Andre Previn says “I felt like I was stealing” when he orchestrated for Friedhofer, since Friedhofer’s sketch contained every last detail, and there was nothing creative for Previn to do. He also provides amusing anecdotes on composers who could not orchestrate, like Herbert Stothart (who one day leaned over to Previn from the podium and said “Young man, did I write this?”)

The following information is based on comments from composers and orchestrators, examinations of their music and watching them work, and is, to the best of my knowledge, accurate.

There are a number of composers who, as a rule, write (or wrote) in full score, without working with an orchestrator. They include Bernard Herrmann, John Scott, Ennio Morricone, Georges Delerue Rachel Portman and John Barry in his early work.

Composers who do work with orchestrators, but provide complete detail in their sketches would include Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Christopher Young, Bruce Broughton, Basil Poledouris and John Barry in his later work. (All of these composers, I should point out, have also composed scores which they completely orchestrated themselves.)

There are composers who are fully capable of orchestrating, but will encourage their orchestrators to be creative and add their own ideas to the fabric of the orchestration. Trevor Jones and Philippe Sarde are two who work this way (the string writing in their early scores had a beautiful “sheen” to it, courtesy of orchestrator Peter Knight). Jerry Goldsmith, in a rare instance, allowed Arthur Morton to flesh-out the choral writing in The Omen, since Morton had experience in choral writing which Goldsmith did not at the time.

Danny Elfman is a composer in a unique catagory. He knows exactly how he wants his music to sound, and provides complete sketches. However, as a self-taught composer, his sketches are not as neatly laid-out from a technical standpoint (and often written only in treble clef). Consequently, the orchestrator’s task is to copy Elfman’s “misspelled” sketches to a full score. (Elfman likens himself to an illiterate person who taught himself the alphbet and is writing a novel.)

There are some composers who can write music, but are not well-versed in large-orchestral scoring. They might provide a piano sketch, with a melody line and a fair degree of counterpoint. The linear form and shape of their cues are complete, and timed to the film. There are also probably instrumental instructions for portions of the score, but the overall “fine-tuning” of the sound and blend of the instrumentation, falls more the orchestrator. We won’t mention anyone specifically here because they’ll be babies and give Lukas a hard time.

Sometimes a composer may not have time to score the entire film, and the remainder of the score must be completed by another composer or orchestrator (most orchestrators are also composers themselves). The score for Superman IV was based on John Williams original Supermanthemes, plus some additional thematic material Williams composed especially for the film. The score was then written by Alexander Courage based on Williams’s themes. Ken Thorne and John Barry shared co-composer credit on Murphy’s War, Barry writing the themes and a portion of the cues, and Thorne writing the rest of the cues (working from Barry’s themes). Barry and Dana Kaproff similarly worked together on The Golden Seal. More recently Jerry Goldsmth enlisted the aid of son Joel Goldsmith on Star Trek: First Contact, and Joel McNeely on Air Force One. Jerry wrote the thematic material and most of the score; the Joels scored the respective remaining 20 minutes.

Occasionally a composer might be called upon to write music in a style of which he has no experience. James Horner is an acomplished scholar of classical music, but when he had to provide some big-band style music for Cocoon, he called upon Billy May for assistance (since May is one of the finest big band arrangers of all time).

Finally there are composers who are usually electronically oriented, who write/play their music into a keyboard and provide a sketch printed from a computer linked to their MIDI system, as well as a tape. In this case the orchestrator provides more of the orchestral detail (usually blending it with the composer’s synth lines), although the composers who work this way have stated that their complete music is there in the computer. Hans Zimmer, Marc Shaiman, Tony Banks, Brad Fiedel, Stewart Copeland, Kitaro and many other current composers–including Elliot Goldenthal, who has an extensive classical training–fall into this category.

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Piano sketches by Aaron Copland of his Fanfare for the Common Man orchestra work. A look into how the composer prepares an orchestral sketch before full orchestration.

More sketches by composer Copland are available at:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/copland/index.html

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Insight into how Aaron Copland would sketch his music before full orchestration.

Appalachian Spring rough sketch page 15 by Aaron Copland. Copland wrote his orchestra sketches at the piano at a slow pace, often at night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland

Aaron Copland sketches can be found here:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/copland/index.html

Appalachian Spring second sketch, a little cleaner with more notes and info on score:

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“Speculation has circulated that Cirque du Soleil would create a Las Vegas show based on Mr. Jackson’s music, as it already has done with Beatles’ music. If it does, a soundtrack album of some kind would likely be part of the deal.”

That is an excerpt from an article released today. A $250 million dollar deal between Sony and the MJ estate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704588404575124023860735864.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Jackson’s music is very much about love and my experience has been that Cirque shares this vision. Music that “lifts our eyes to the mountains”. It will be exciting to see what happens with this.

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An update on current activities. I’ve received a couple emails asking why I’m not blogging so much. After  making it through Chinese New Year here in Macau, China I was able to take a long overdue vacation and return to the United States for the first time in two years. (Beloved Skagit County, Washington USA – I didn’t visit down in Southern California). The break gave me a chance to bring some more gear back to China and to set new goals and aspirations for myself – pretty much like starting a new year.

So here’s what I’m doing. Still doing 8-10 shows a week with Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA in Macau, China as keyboardist and assistant bandleader. Also brought an Excelsior accordion back with me so I can practice and improve my chops (along with 10 volumes of Palmer – Hughes accordion books and another 8 pounds of polkas and waltzes).

But the big excitement for me is my renewed studies in orchestration. I am studying specifically the orchestrations of Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Mozart, Mahler and assorted others. This all as background work for a personal project that I am reading on voraciously. It is all consuming for me because there is no ceiling to what can be done – it’s all up to my own focus and commitment.

I am putting a hold on working on my internet networks because frankly it bores me right now. But orchestration and creativity are what call me at the current time. So I will follow that voice for now.

And as I work in my Macau apartment at my new mega workstation setup with keyboards, computers and reference books – I can look out from my penthouse and view the water in Macau as I drink Starbuck’s coffee. I would say life is good and it would be a crime not to use this opportunity to push myself to the limits and see what I can offer creatively.

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In central Guangzhou, China (about a 3 hour bus ride north of Macau where I currently, live) you can go to the Han River Dog Meat Restaurant and order dog soup, dog with tofu, dog steak and many more delicious recipes. You can even have spicy dog in your hot pot.

But the Chinese government is considering finally banning the eating of cats and dogs. One person spearheading the campaign to make eating dogs and cats illegal in China says: “Cats and dogs are loyal friends to humans. A ban on eating them would show China has reached a new level of civilization.”

Now I haven’t eaten dog in China but I did try dog meat several years ago in South Korea when I was working there. The only reason I ate it was so I could say “I ate dog meat in South Korea” and then watch people’s faces sour in disgust; kind of like I’m doing right now. If I eat something weird then I at least want to get my mileage out of it. (People don’t seem impressed I ate Grasshoppers and Larvae in Thailand, so I’m going to stick with my Korea dog meat story).

My vegetarian friends will delight in the news that China may make eating dogs illegal. But I think it’s sad. It’s one of the things we can still make fun of China for. They eat dogs, they spit on the ground, they pee everywhere – it’s a small solace to us as they slowly take over the world. If they get rid of all the disgusting Chinese social graces and we have nothing to coil in horror about then it takes the fun out of their world domination. And that’s about as political as I ever get…

And for those of you whining that I haven’t posted to my blog in three weeks, may I suggest you go out and eat a dog. You’ll feel better and you’ll have something fun to talk about with your friends.

Read more about the Chinese government possible ban on eating dog and cat meat here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/09/china.animals/index.html?hpt=C1

UPDATE:

My friend from the Great White North sends me an email that says “Turnabout is fair play” with this photo:

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I have my 2010 Tiger decorations up around the house (which I’m told can stay up all year) and received my lucky three oranges as a gift from a friend. We’ve been giving out the lucky red Lycee envelopes filled with Macau money (Patacas) to our doormen and women as a sign of good luck for the coming year and declaring “Kong Hei Fat Choy” to all of our Chinese friends.

My Chinese friends say I am “only half Chinese, but maybe someday 100% Chinese”. 愉快的中國新年2010年

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“Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own,” he said. “Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you…failure has to be an option in art and exploration because it’s a leap of faith.”

“In whatever you’re doing, failure is an option, but fear is not.”

- James Cameron – TED Talks 2010

Just read these words today and they hit me so strong. Like if you’re reading the bible and a verse jumps out and you think God is speaking directly to you.

Personally I have my own daemon (daemon – not “demon”) tormenting and taunting me on a personal artistic project and I keep backing away from it because I am afraid of failure. If it fails it hurts no one. The only price paid is my personal time which I gladly give. But I’m shackled by other self imposed commitments that force me to put it on the back burner. All really an excuse for the truth: I am afraid to fail at this project. (It is a personal side project – nothing to do with current work).

I remember being maybe four or five years old and taking swim lessons at the Samena club in Bellevue, WA. Our final exercise was to jump off the diving board. Most of the kids jumped but a few of us were afraid. So then the instructor swam out below the board to catch us and the rest went – except for me. To my dramatic child’s memory it took me years to get the courage to finally jump off the board (was actually probably a couple days). Even then I was embarrassed that our swim teacher had to catch me. The look in her eyes trying to be patient but really exasperated “Just jump kid!”.  I finally did it, but I have no grand memory of a moment of glory.

I think about that experience often and my memory is not one of triumph that I confronted my fears and conquered them. My memory is embarrassment and shame that I did not just jump. It make me mad – I do not want to be the person that doesn’t jump. I saw other kids do it. Surely the adults could be trusted. But I hesitated. Someone else with the same experience might remember the glory of following through. But I remember wasting people’s time as I faltered.

When I look back on the times in my life I really put myself out there and failed; I have to admit I’m very proud of those walks. And when I ask myself if I wish I had not tried so as to not know the feeling of failure – my answer is always no. Because in my heart I just HAVE TO KNOW if I can do it. I cannot live with the regret of not knowing.

I have had great falls in my life. The kind of falls where everyone around you writes you off as “finished and done” – and you realize you have few friends. And those are the moments I truly treasure. They are my secret treasure.

So I read those words by James Cameron and it reminds me again of the thrilling ride of failure as a consequence for really taking a chance and putting yourself out there. And that brings me back to my project: To know it’s failure as a result from giving it my all will be another secret treasure to add to my memory box.

And if it succeeds? Well, the counterpart to having many failures is that I have also had many successes. Usually also as a result from taking a chance and giving it my all. And I’ll tell you the memory of success also happens to be a treasure.

I guess I should add that the post-op after a fail is the most important time. For me, I just be still and wait for the next calling. And that next call always comes. Later when I connect the dots of my life it is an amazing puzzle of dots and I can say “Wow, for this to happen I had to fail here and that brought me to this and then this brought me over here” and on and on. So personally I need to follow through so the next fail can propel me forward – or (crossing fingers) the success can propel me forward.

Thank you Mr. Cameron for inspiring words at a time when someone needs to hear them.

Because in the end it’s not the sting of failure that you remember. What you remember is that you put yourself out there and gave it your all. That’s the treasure…

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