Download Creative Orchestration

Creative Orchestration
(Course description, April 2012)
by Leonardo Balada
This course is a follow up to Orchestration II (in which the students orchestrate
fragments of already existing compositions for piano, encompassing classical,
romantic, nationalist, impressionist, neoclassic, atonal and avant-garde-aleatoric
styles). In Creative Orchestration students orchestrate their own ideas thinking
orchestrally and writing directly for the orchestra. Throughout the course the
students have to write their exercises in a traditional music language and in a
contemporary-avant-garde one. There is discussion of art and its parallels in
compositional styles: impressionism, cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism,
collage etc.
At the end of the course, students should be able to achieve the following:
1. Orchestrate their-own ideas directly for the orchestra.
2. Demonstrate their technical versatility with the two extremes of the music
spectrum.
There are several steps from the start to the end of the semester’s work:
1. Discussion and example-analysis of orchestral textures. The students write
several measures with their own ideas in a traditional language, and also in
a contemporary one for full orchestra. These textures are: timber blending,
contrast of pitch locale, contrast of articulation, overlapping, pointillism,
motion as sustaining floor, monophonic texture, choral texture, polyphonic
texture, contrast of chord and line, homophonic texture, polythematic texture,
polyrhythmic texture and spectral and onomatopoeic texture. In the
onomatopoeic exercise the students have to transcribe real sounds and noises
from the outside world and reproduce them with sounds of the orchestra in as
realistic a manner as possible (not an artistic one) forcing them to assess the
orchestral possibilities. By outside world I mean things as diverse as the
sound of an accordion, street traffic, rain, a flamenco guitar etc.
2. “Mood” character composing exercises, again in the traditional and
contemporary mold. Among the composing exercises the students write some
of the following: 1. the beginning of two waltzes , the first in the style of
Johannes Strauss with all its glamorous touches, exquisite melodies, sensual
orchestration and the second a very contemporary one in which the concept of
a waltz is stretched in form, sounds and rhythm. 2. the composition of the
beginning of two funeral marches, a traditional one and a contemporary one.
3. composing two fragments of funny music, one traditional the other
contemporary. 4. composing two fragments in which horror is suggested in
traditional and contemporary orchestral sounds etc. Depending on the time
available, other subjects are added.
3. Surrealistic writing. Here the exercises stress gradual transformation of the
music: A. From one mood or structure to another very different one. B. From
one style-traditional- to a very contemporary one not only in its technique but
also in the orchestral sounds.
4. Cubistic interpretations. The students look at the “Las Meninas”, a
painting by Spanish classic artist Velazquez and compare it with the
cubistic recreation of the same painting by Picasso. Similarly, the
students take a
classical orchestral composition-Haydn, Mozart or another composer- and
recompose it in an avant-garde style.
5. Collage, composing contemporary textures as a painter would do following
the art of Rauschenberg.
6. Given a short text for chorus and solo voice, the students must: A. analyze
the content, character and prosody of the text. B. compose an introduction for
orchestra that prepares the psychological atmosphere of the forthcoming
entrance of the chorus and helps in a technical and practical way its
entrance. C. compose the music for the chorus, with the orchestra supporting
or challenging the singers depending on the text. D. compose the music for
the vocal soloist who may or may not alternate with the chorus, depending on
the text. Special attention is given to technical peculiarities of the choral and
vocal writing as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the orchestra’s
presence in the music.
If time allows, other exercises are assigned such as: 1. To orchestrate a C Major
Chord using a full orchestra in: A. open chord position pp (classic and
contemporary- using unconventional orchestral sound production-), B. The same
but ff. C. The same in close position pp D. The same but ff. 2. Make a piano
reduction of a complex existing contemporary composition for chorus and orchestra.
The exercise is intended for the students to synthesize the essential elements of the
existing music using the constraints of a piano for practical rehearsal situations. It
should provide the chorus with the important elements from the orchestra like
pitch, cues, and other essential elements in the orchestra.
This course is taught by the teacher exclusively, without the aid of a T.A.