Transcribing For Orchestra
Formerly, Orchestration: A Practical Handbook
Price: $29.95
Release Date: TBA
Media - Because of lesson organization and extensive audio and MIDI files, Transcribing For Orchestra is only available on CD.
Like Transcribing For Strings and Transcribing For Woodwinds, Transcribing For Orchestra has the content for a one-semester course. Transcribing For Orchestra is an incredibly challenging course since now the student has the entire orchestra to work with. As with the other courses in the Transcribing For… Series, the student can do his work in either Finale or Sibelius, using the included Native Instrument players to perform his solutions. Since students will probably not have access to a full orchestra to perform their solutions, the use of electronic scoring is encouraged so that the student is able to hear a basic representation of their work.
About Transcribing For Orchestra
Originally titled Orchestration: A Practical Handbook,Transcribing For Woodwinds has been a book in search of an audio package. That’s because the book’s premise has always been how to transcribe piano works for strings, woodwinds, and then, full orchestra. With the original book, there came a workbook with 60+ piano excerpts. Inside the book, there were numerous unrecorded examples of piano parts transcribed for each orchestral section. The piano parts were all grade level VI and above. So unless a student was performing piano at that level, the student would have to pick his way through the examples to orchestrate them.
In working through the book individually, a student would raise the same question, “How do I know I’m doing this right?”
Using the latest technology, Alexander Publishing has solved those problems:
- All the book examples are newly engraved with MIDI file export of the original piano part. The MIDI file can be imported into the media player and performed directly within the computer. If the student has a Mac, the MIDI piano part can be imported into Garage Band or Logic Express and performed by an existing piano sample.
- The workbook is newly engraved with examples recorded with sampled piano.
- All the book examples have been recorded with electronic orchestra as a basis for also teaching the student elements of MIDI editing for strings when sequencing vs. using a notation program.
- Using either Finale or Sibelius, students can orchestrate and hear performed back all the homework assignments from the workbook.
A ONE SEMESTER COURSE
We recommend that you allow one semester for each section of this course.
The Reference Chart of Keyboard Idioms and Patterns
The Transcribing for Orchestra Series is organized in a problem/solution manner around the Chart of Keyboard Idioms and Patterns. This chart breaks down piano techniques into fourteen specific categories and then shows how to score them. From this the student learns an important lesson - there’s more than one way to score a passage. Once a student realizes this, confidence builds quickly. The thirteen categories are:
I. Broken Intervals
1. Broken Octaves
2. Broken Octaves With Embellishments
3. Broken Octaves Combined With Thirds
4. Broken Sixths
5. Broken Thirds
6. Broken Sixths and Thirds Combined
II. Broken Chords
1. Left-hand Broken Chords in Close Position
2. Left-hand Broken Chords in Open Position
3. Broken Chords Spaced For Two Hands
4. Broken Chords In Right Hand With Implied Melodic Line
5. Broken Chords With Blocked Melodic And Rhythmic Patterns
6. Arpeggiated Chords
III. Melodic Lines & Figurations
1. Large Melodic Skips
2. Outlining a Melodic Line
3. Dividing a Melodic Line
4. Melodic Lines Combined With Repeated Note Patterns; Nonmetrical Passages
5. Melodic Settings: Contrasts, Comparative Strengths, and Repeated Phrases
IV. Implied Bass Parts
V. Single-Note, Interval and Chord Repetitions
VI. Two- & Three-Part Music
1. Homophonic
2. Polyphonic
3. Style Mixtures
VII. Spacing Problems in the Middle Register
1.Large Harmonic Gaps
2.Sustained Notes, Intervals and Chords
VIII. Contrast Problems Conditioned by Dynamics
IX. Voice Leading
X. Obbligato or Added Secondary Parts Arranged From Harmonic Progressions
XI. Antiphonal Effects
XII. Tremolo Types
XIII. Dance Forms (Afterbeats)
SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS & SCORES
Professional Orchestration Volumes 3: Orchestrating the Melody By Combining Orchestral Sections
With the recommended text, students learn dozens of string combinations and in which register they work best in. When used with Transcribing For Orchestra, Professional Orchestration Volume 3 provides a ready reference of devices available giving a student a good place to start.
How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite
With piano part printed on to the score, students can learn how Ravel transcribed his own work from piano to full orchestra.
