Favorite Orchestrators and Orchestrations

bkshepard · Post by **bkshepard** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:38 am

I'm not always a big fan of violin concertos, but the Barber concerto is amazing for its musicality, fireworks, AND orchestration--brilliant all the way around!

Elektroakoustika · Post by **Elektroakoustika** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:09 am

bkshepard wrote:I'm not always a big fan of violin concertos, but the Barber concerto is amazing for its musicality, fireworks, AND orchestration--brilliant all the way around!

I'm a bit opposite of you my friend; I always get excited when I see a composer has a concerto for violin on a piece for violin and orchestra.

Since you enjoy Barber's Concerto I would highly recommend checking out The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is a brilliant albeit restrained piece for orchestra and violin. My favorite recording thus far is the one with Hilary Hahn and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Another brilliant piece is Alexander Glazunov's Mazurka-Obéreque. It also has a brilliant recording with Itzhak Perlman and the Abbey Road Ensemble on his A La Carte CD.

If you're in to more Americana/Folk music, modern-day violinist/fiddlist Mark O'Conner has some very enjoyable pieces he composed for violin and orchestra. The man is extremely talented for not just being one of the world's best fiddle players let alone composing very enjoyable pieces. His orchestrations are also very interesting. Blending tradtional folk elements with elements of Beethoven, Copland, and others. I really enjoy Call of the Mockingbird and Fanfare for the Volunteer.

I could list more violin pieces all day long (Mendolssohn, BACH BACH BACH, Shostakovich, Corigliano, Elgar, etc), but I'll spare you.

Movies · Post by **Movies** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:13 pm

DJC: I have Gardner Read's "Music Notation" which has been invaluable for sticky situations.

As far as orchestrations that kill me, the first movement of Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta" is truly one of the most haunting pieces of music I can think of.

Rimsky-Korsakov, for sure -- he literally wrote the book!

FMiguelez · Post by **FMiguelez** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:44 pm

.

STRAUSS, STRAUSS, STRAUSS!!!!!

This man's genius is insulting! The more I analyze his scores, the heavier my jaw drops to the floor.

It's not fair... sometimes I start sensing I'm improving my orchestration chops, and I'm getting decent results... but when I open one of his scores, it makes me feel as an amateurish enthusiast of music

It's healthier for my ego not to compare myself to THE Master, I suppose

bdr · Post by **bdr** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:42 pm

For you lucky New Yorkers, there's some great programs on soon at the NY Public Library

Monday, October 19, 2009, 3:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
Broadway Orchestration
Panel discussion. Panelists include Larry Blank, John Kander, Harold Prince, and Sid Ramin. Steven Suskin, moderator.
Monday, October 19, 2009, 6:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
The Composer and the Creators
Panel discussion. Panelists include Larry Blank, John Kander, Harold Prince, and Sid Ramin. Steven Suskin, moderator.

Monday, November 2, 2009, 3:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
Arrangers and Music Directors
Panel discussion. Panelists include Paul Gemignani, Donald Pippin, and others. Steven Suskin, moderator.
Monday, November 2, 2009, 6:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
Orchestration Today
Panel discussion. Panelists include Paul Gemignani, Donald Pippin, and others. Steven Suskin, moderator.

I emailed the NYPL asking them if they could record and podcast the sessions for us poor out-of-towners (or out-of-continenters), and they replied saying they would! So that's something to keep a look out for.

kinnylandrum · Post by **kinnylandrum** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:22 pm

Hey, thanks for this. I'm there. I worked with Sid Ramin years ago, it will be great to see him again. One of the last nice guys left in the music biz.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 2:26 am

I'm 3000 miles away, but I would vote for the panel discussions every time. All of those sound amazing!!!!!

For those New Yorkers who love music, those events are not to be missed!!

crduval · Post by **crduval** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:27 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Nelson Riddle.

+10 on that - I have a compilation CD called "Sinatra's Swinging Sessions", and his band arrangements are out of this world cool. Its so good to listen to, its hard to analyze. The playing and recording quality is also excellent.

bdr · Post by **bdr** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 5:46 pm

Just a follow up...went to the library site today and found that indeed they did follow through and there are vidcasts and podcasts of all the sessions.

Thank you NYPL for this wonderful resource. Internet WIN!

http://www.nypl.org/av_display/series/71013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

bdr wrote:For you lucky New Yorkers, there's some great programs on soon at the NY Public Library

Monday, October 19, 2009, 3:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
Broadway Orchestration
Panel discussion. Panelists include Larry Blank, John Kander, Harold Prince, and Sid Ramin. Steven Suskin, moderator.
Monday, October 19, 2009, 6:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
The Composer and the Creators
Panel discussion. Panelists include Larry Blank, John Kander, Harold Prince, and Sid Ramin. Steven Suskin, moderator.

Monday, November 2, 2009, 3:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
Arrangers and Music Directors
Panel discussion. Panelists include Paul Gemignani, Donald Pippin, and others. Steven Suskin, moderator.
Monday, November 2, 2009, 6:00 PM
The Sound of Broadway Music: The Craft and Art of Theatrical Orchestration
Orchestration Today
Panel discussion. Panelists include Paul Gemignani, Donald Pippin, and others. Steven Suskin, moderator.

I emailed the NYPL asking them if they could record and podcast the sessions for us poor out-of-towners (or out-of-continenters), and they replied saying they would! So that's something to keep a look out for.

KenNickels · Post by **KenNickels** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:59 pm

** Igor Stravinsky and the other hand, gets his own category.

While many people gush over Rite of Spring, I gush over Petrouchka. If you look at the score, I always find it interesting which instruments he gives the melody to and which he has sustaining the harmony (especially the Russian Dance in the first part where he has half the orchestra moving while the the other half sustains the chords) LOVE IT!!!
**
This is an old post, but a good one. And I just now saw it. I had to respond because Stravinsky is THE MAN. I practically majored in him in college and I know his scores very well

Petroushka! What can I say? Brilliant. Heart pumping. Just as audacious as The Rite, but in a different childlike way. The opening, 3/4 time against 7/8. What the ••••! But he pulls it off. What an ear for clarity and balance. The Shrove Tide Fair flurry of endless sixteenth notes in the woodwinds - one horn blows while the other breathes, makes a continuous sound, (copied later in the Wizard of Oz as they awoke from their stupor of poppies and ran towards the Emerald City). And the pulsing brass behind the 'dah da dah da da dah' theme. Inane and brilliant at the same time.

I would be happy to go on and on ... check out some of my Stravinsky transcriptions here.

Petrouska
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnhjdfBjdOA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
L'histoire du Soldat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROqxHd_t ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:36 am

Man, you so fit in here!

Funny thing, while I always lean toward the grwat symphonists and usual classical icons, by chance Sousa popped up on iTunes while I was doing some mundane bookkeeping and I was stopped in my tracks.

For all the simplicity of his orchestration and homophonic leanings, it's remains enjoyable and effective and just as stirring in its own way as Igor or Gustave in their sublime and often complex ways.

No point here, except that the power music has can be felt even in a simple one line phrase on a string of cat gut and a buch of hair pulled from the rear end of a horse.

I doubt I could ever pick a single favorite anything in music. I mean, dang, last night I dreamt all night I was playing pieces by Kander & Ebb and Cole Porter.

And then there's Bernstein and Arnold Bax. Seriously, how can I pick just one?

Rick Averill · Post by **Rick Averill** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:17 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:I mean, dang, last night I dreamt all night I was playing pieces by Kander & Ebb and Cole Porter.

Ah, that was my college days--playing guitar and banjo in the pit orchestras for "Cabaret" and "Anything Goes." What a shame that you can never go home again.

cuttime · Post by **cuttime** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:20 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote: Sousa popped up on iTunes while I was doing some mundane bookkeeping and I was stopped in my tracks.

If I recall correctly, JPS was a student of Offenbach. I hear a lot of similarity in their music, especially in the winds.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:57 am

You folks knock me out. Seriously.

Strauss? Are you kidding? His writing is so seductive and so intoxicating that I can hardly sit still to listen to his works. His music forces me stand up!! It's Wagnerian, but it's not Wagner. Strauss was sipping some other kind of unknown elixir and the results slay me every time.

Here's a "less famous" example of brilliantly, carefully gauged polytonality in chromatic Romantic idiom. Woman Without A Shadow

OMG. That orchestration!!!! The brass writing alone bops me in the gizzard. What'na heck inspired him to come up with the passage at 11:21?!!

Yes-- Petroushka is almost freaky in its innovation. Good old Eye Gore. Le Sacre is not to be underrated, but Petroushka is so intense that it works amazingly as a solo piano concert piece. IMHO, Maurizio Pollini tops the heap in that regard. I have no opinions about favorite orchestral readings.

Sir Arnold Bax? There's another. I was in the car one day and one of his works came on the radio. I had to pull over because I couldn't handle it safely. I had to just sit there on the side of the road and take it until it was over.

It's so great when that happens.

Moreover, I'm honored to be in such honored company as all of you. Thanks for reigniting "the spark". Keep it going! Keep it going!!

VitcoMusic · Post by **VitcoMusic** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:31 pm

Great topic. Stravinsk's 'Firebird Suite' comes to mind.

How did all these great composers hear these textures in their head with no VSL Libraries to test it out? Just pencil (or quill pen) and paper?!?!

Amazing.

DV

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