4 Steps To Compose Romantic Orchestral Works

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing many composers when they want to write a romantic piece of music is, namely, the size. Of all classical styles, Romanticism allows for the most freedom and variety in harmonic practices.

When somebody has a great idea for an orchestral work, the task might originally seem very daunting. But, just because you want to write the piece for orchestra, this DOESN'T MEAN, that you have to write out the entire orchestral score in one sitting. THrough experimentation, this is what I have discovered is perhaps one of the most effective, and straightforward methods of composing music.

STEP 1:

Compose entire piece on one single staff. Like a leadsheet. This does not just necessarily mean the melody, but include the melody and every prominent part of the music on one single staff. If there is any counterpoint, you can divide that single staff into two or more voices. To understand what I mean, what you would put on the single staff would be what you would hum if you had to hum the entire piece, or babble, or skat. You can write notes above or below what instrument should be highlighted in that passage, what other instruments should be doing IN GENERAL. To harmonize the single staff, add chord symbols above.

STEP 2:

Once the complete, "hummable" version is written out. It is time to transfer this to the Grand Staff. Because the "hummable version" is the most basic of basic rough copy, more of a simple sketch, the Grand Staff will allow you to be more specific with your instrument choices, create more interesting counterpoint, and voice out the chord symbols that you've already chosen. If you so choose, you can include two grand staffs, and make it a piano duet, though this is more completed than a single piano, of course.

STEP 3:

Now, it is time to orchestrate your work on a 16 staff system. In order, the staves should be:

Picollo and Flutes

Oboes and English Horn

Clarinets

Bass Clarinet and Bassoons and Contrabassoons

French Horns

Trumpets

Trombones and Tuba

Percussion I (Pitched percussion)

Percussion II (Unpitched percussion

Harp or keyboard instrument (you might need an extra grand stave if you want both, making the total of staves 14)

Violins (combine 1 and 2)

Viola

Cello

Bass

By doing this, the woodwinds have 3 staves, the brass have 3 staves, the percussion including the harps have four staves, and the strings have 4 staves. Perfect balance.

With this score, known as a condensed score, you can be even more specific with this one than with the piano version, and can now write individual parts. Unfortunately, before you can say your composition is complete, it might look pretty messy to an outsider, which is where step 4 comes in.

STEP 4:

Full orchestration.

This is where the hard work comes in particularly, and neatness is key. But since you have your rough copy complete, and most of your creativity almost used up, you can place down all of your complete ideas on a perfectly legible, large score, with each instrument usually given its own stave. Now, an entire score for orchestra no longer feels as daunting as it did before, and you are ready to start extracting parts for the musicians.

That's basically the end of that. Any comments, questions, concerns?

Thanks :)

Ben

Yes, I believe this method would probably work better by hand, no?

It is qute useful, thanks for sharing :) composing directly into full score can, indeed, be frustrating. You've helped.

Could this work for non-romantic orchestral pieces as well, or simply with smaller orchestras?

Good tips!

I'll maybe start sketching orchestral scores a bit more like this..

Btw, I changed your Step 4 to Step 3, because I think you made a type - is that ok?

So, Lord Qccowboy, what is your opinion? :)

well, it could work for anything, but the topic was geared primarily for those who have trouble writing for large full out orchestras. For a classical orchestra, it's much smaller, so you can probably combine stage 3 and 4 together.

More instruments just require more staves. If you have a choir part, just add two staves to the condensed score, and write in SATB format. Then, for the larger score, although not really necessary, you can expand it so that each voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) has its own staff, or you can just keep the reduction. It's all a matter of preference really.

To be perfectly honest, I've never tried my own method before completely. Just recently, I realized how commonsensical it is, and have been using it ever since.

well, it could work for anything, but the topic was geared primarily for those who have trouble writing for large full out orchestras. For a classical orchestra, it's much smaller, so you can probably combine stage 3 and 4 together.

More instruments just require more staves. If you have a choir part, just add two staves to the condensed score, and write in SATB format. Then, for the larger score, although not really necessary, you can expand it so that each voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) has its own staff, or you can just keep the reduction. It's all a matter of preference really.

To be perfectly honest, I've never tried my own method before completely. Just recently, I realized how commonsensical it is, and have been using it ever since.

And what about orchestral music with soloist(s)? :)

if its a solo for a particular orchestral instrument, just mark solo and then tutti.

If you are writing a violin concerto, for example, then in the condensed score there should be a seperate staff for that violin. If it's an operatic area, that stave would belong to the singer.

These 4 steps are pretty flexible, and can work for anything really.

So, Lord Qccowboy, what is your opinion? :)

obviously, you disagree with me on some fundamental level.

which I guess is your right.

I see nothing wrong with this set of guidelines, if they work for you.

it's not my way of working, so to each his own.

are you happy Lord M_is_D?

obviously, you disagree with me on some fundamental level.

which I guess is your right.

I see nothing wrong with this set of guidelines, if they work for you.

it's not my way of working, so to each his own.

are you happy Lord M_is_D?

I guess that can work for the ups and down lists, only I'm not sure in which group..."perceives humour and jokes as serious and actually debatable matters." :innocent: