Innovative Instrumentation

"Xenotonality?"

Man everyone's making scraggy up this days eh?

But no I don't find any of the music on that site really innovative or anything. It sounds fairly standard actually, with or without the spectral crap.

If it were easy to think of innovative things, they wouldn't be innovative. This topic is impossible.

I think that adding instruments to pieces is great!

For example: often I use Heckelphone in my pieces

In My "Ice Symphony" I use sitar

I love to use instruments such as Oboe D'Amore, Flughelhorn, (spelling?) or non-standard percussion.

I aslo think that the Percussion section is highly underused. Sure some composers like Jon Leifs use boats of percussion, and sure, there are some pieces that use a lot of them, but overall, really, how many decent concertos for Marimba are there? And who's even heard of an agogo concerto? I think that the percussion section should have the spotlight a bit more. Most of the time, it's just timpani, maybe bass drum and/or cymbals, but I think adding chimes, xylophone, marimba, ect., is worth doing.

Heklaphone

I think the percussion has gotten tons of play. Listen to some modern music once in a while and you'll see that modern composers clearly loved it.

Personally, I think the percussion section is invaluable to orchestral works but should be used moderately and with caution. Often a percussion sound will get so overbearing that it detracts from the piece. The percussion can have some lovely novel effects, but don't ask for something just because you can, do it because you actually need that sound there.

Personally, I don't really like percussion at all. I generally write softer music and percussion is just overbearing and dramatic and usually un-essential.

I listen to lots of modern music. I just mean in general, percussion really doesn't get the spot light as much as, say, even the English horn!

And personally, I don't understand how you can't like at least a little percussion? :blink:

In lots of the random ametuer/semi-professinol compositions I listen to on youtube, there is actually quite a bit of percussion. So yeah, percussion does get lots of atention, its just that people don't know where to look.

I don't think I've ever heard a marimba concerto though, I started to write a xylophone concerto a year ago, I lost the sheet music and recording files though.

I heard a Double Marimba concerto at the Philharmonic once. Was a fascinating piece to say the least.

I'm sure Keiko Abe has some sort of Marimba concerto sitting around. Best to start there.

A few months back, a friend of mine had a concerto for marimba and chamber orchestra premiered -- check it.

http://cllct.com/release/annovalis

I think that adding instruments to pieces is great!

For example: often I use Heckelphone in my pieces

In My "Ice Symphony" I use sitar

I love to use instruments such as Oboe D'Amore, Flughelhorn, (spelling?) or non-standard percussion.

I aslo think that the Percussion section is highly underused. Sure some composers like Jon Leifs use boats of percussion, and sure, there are some pieces that use a lot of them, but overall, really, how many decent concertos for Marimba are there? And who's even heard of an agogo concerto? I think that the percussion section should have the spotlight a bit more. Most of the time, it's just timpani, maybe bass drum and/or cymbals, but I think adding chimes, xylophone, marimba, ect., is worth doing.

Heklaphone

Agogo concerto? That sounds about as boring as a triangle concerto!

On 7/21/2010 at 11:28 AM, James H. said:

Because they aren't used in that video. Check here at 2:50, which is later in the concerto than the first video.

 

re@discussion: I think adding "weird" instruments and doing it well is one of the most awesome things in classical music. When it's done well there's no way you could substitute the new instruments for instruments that are already present an in orchestra. I think those ocarinas bring a colour to that section that is really spine chilling and alien, to replace them with clarinets or flutes would make it boring - the point in having those notes there at all is completely lost.

Now my idea of using different instruments is to use them sparingly. Write a piece using instruments you know you have access to with people that can play them. I could use a soprano trombone, a (true) baritone horn, a helicon, an ophicleide, a sackbut, a shofar, a bass flute, a sitar, any number of ethnic drums, a number of ocarinas and recorders, a bass saxophone, a Native American flute, an octave violin, five string electric violin, a shawm, a zither, a didgeridoo, a dulcimer, a shakuhachi, a bugle, panpipes, a fife, a turkish clarinet, a melodica, a variety of harmonicas, a sarrusaphone, a cornett, a cornet, a serpent, a tarogato, a cimbasso, a bass trumpet, a kalimba, a banjo, a ukelele, a huqin, a baroque trumpet, a quartfagott (or was it quint?), a mellophone or mellophonium, a mandolin, pan drums, and a number of other instruments that are escaping my mind at the moment... ... ... ... ... ... ... My point is, THAT'S A LOT OF INSTRUMENTS and I know personally someone in my region (by region I'm actually mostly referring to my classmates in university and connections from there) that can play and has an instrument on that list. In some cases more than one. I don't mean you have to use them all at once, but if you really take a look around yourself you'll find some interesting things at your disposal if you're willing to get the people to play along. More than half of those instruments are classmates that might just be willing to sit in on a piece. Another chunk are professors, and the rest are old acquaintances. I say if you want to use something unusual and you can - why not? And in my opinion not a single one of those instruments I put can be replaced by another instrument that is similar. If it could, then why are there two different instruments if they sound close enough to the same to not be noticeable?

So yeah, I think if you have the means, go ahead and add that flavour - experiment. Wagner had the right idea when he decided it wanted Wagner tuben. Bruckner used them too, as did other composers. It's a different sound. Not a euph., not a horn, not a tuba, not a bone, nothing. That's about as extreme as you can get - he wanted a new instrument all together and guess what? Now we have it.

 

Creating a piece using a wide array of instruments like the ones you mentioned can lead to a truly unique and diverse musical experience.