Current Post
70. Woodwind Exploration 2
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A Wealth of Timbres at the Top of the Score |
Series
31. Careful Writing 1
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It’s all in the details, right? We examine works in which the composers roll up their sleeves and get into those details |
7. Blind Dates and Other Pairings 1
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Surprising sounds from Brahms, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Holst, Mahler… |
10. What Would Ravel do? 1
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Examining Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition and Ravel’s approach to its orchestration |
18. Triple time 1
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We’re bipeds, right? So how do we write in three? Reviewing Berlioz, Butterworth, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Strauss |
25. Debussy: Interesting Items in Ibéria 1
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Sounds from Spain courtesy of Claude Debussy |
42. Combinations
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Always interesting and educational |
45. The Colors of Melody
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A range of ways to color a tune |
48. The Richness of Thirds 1
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Overused for a reason: Examining some great thirds |
52. Kitchen Sink Orchestration 1
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Ways to score for the whole orchestra and how to get there |
56. Charismatic Woodwinds 1
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A focus on the colorful sounds a combination of woodwinds can produce |
59. Rhythmic Irregularities 1
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The title says it all |
65. Tremolo Varieties 1
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Lots of options for this (mostly) string technique |
69. Woodwind Exploration 1
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A Wealth of Timbres at the Top of the Score |
Single Posts
1. Subtle Accents
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A look at some ways that Bartok, Butterworth, Mahler and Prokofiev approach accents |
2. Hearing Voices
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Inner voices in Beethoven, Berlioz, Debussy, Holst and Ravel |
3. Theme and Incarnations: “Dies Irae”
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Use of the once forbidden sequence by Berlioz, Mahler and Rachmaninoff |
4. The Hand-off
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How writers like Debussy, Ravel, Puccini and Saint-Saëns pass the tune to another player |
5. Pre-Orchestration FAQs
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Fundamentals of scoring |
6. Score Basics
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Reviewing some orchestration building blocks in Beethoven and Ravel |
13. Got Rhythm?
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Working without a drum synth |
14. Countermelodies from the Beethoven Seven to the Magnificent Seven
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Polyphony in Beethoven, Elgar, Bernstein, Kahn and Sousa |
15. Early 60s String Fills
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Supporting hits by King and Goffin, Chad and Jeremy, The Crystals, The Shirelles and more |
22. Successful, Albeit Temporary, Unions
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Unique sonic combinations from Bax, Rachmaninoff and Ravel |
23. The Bringer of Jollity and Orchestral Shimmer
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How Holst gets a shimmer effect from the orchestra |
27. Prelude To The Afternoon In A Summer Garden
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Debussy and Delius painting the timbre of a summer day |
28. Spending Time In A Summer Garden
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More impressions of a summer day |
29. Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin
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Orchestral sounds of a nefarious city |
30. Evocative Sounds
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Similar sounds can evoke similar music – or different music |
44. Presenting Melody
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Looking at a variety of ways to introduce a tune |
51. Atop The Orchestra
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Examining the orchestra’s top wind |
58. Gershwin Variations
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So few measures. So many variations. |
63. JOBE
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A diverse group of tidbits composed within ~30 years (with a small chromatic emphasis) |
64. Divided Strings
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Sustained string parts. A lot of parts! |
68. Unisons
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All (mostly) together now |
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