Thomas Goss On Orchestration

Not sure how many have seen this, but a professional orchestrator out of New Zealand named Thomas Goss created a great youtube channel with quite a few excellent videos about his take on orchestration. It also has some neat "featurette" videos on certain instruments and has a whole lecture on his concept for successful orchestration- Texture, Balance, and Function. Regardless, anyone interested in working with an orchestra or even part of one should definitely check it out- if not only to see what he has to say about the manuals and materials out there that can help you.

I can't stand that he calls himself a "professional orchestrator" when no such profession exists. He's a composer with opinions, that's all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestration#Film_orchestration

But that's not what he does...

I'd dare to respectfully dissent, Justin. Many professional composers, especially in tight time budgets, hire people to orchestrate their ideas for them. This is, at least according to the books I have read, quite common in the film industry and, according to those random e-mails offering to orchestrate my music for me (yeuch!) I get every other month or so from random person somewhere, it's a rather far reaching one too. I think the reason he calls himself that is that it is in Orchestration that he does MOST of his work, but not all, which he mentions in his 50th birthday video (titled ironically "A Composer Turns 50").

Yes, Thomas Goss is rather opinionated (if not VERY), but he has some very good points and years more experience than most people I know. He also has studied scores religiously and seems to understand the elements of orchestration as well if not better than the principles of composition. For that reason, I think he has a bit of a right to be opinionated and authoritative (his video where he berates Bernstein for being this way made me laugh a little).

I really enjoy his insight on texture, balance, and function.  However, my favorite thing about his videos is how he feels the need to wear the same outfit for every video!  Reminds me of a cartoon where the characters always wear the same clothes.  I'd love to see his wardrobe, I imagine he has 20 of the same outfit nicely organized across his closet.

"Hmm... I'm stuck between grey flannel/blue shirt and grey flannel/darker blue shirt... Maybe I should just flip a coin."

He also almost always has the exact same hairdo.

I think his texture/balance/function thing has a lot of applications really- not just writing music but also playing it. If one section is too loud for a background part, remind them that they need to balance and that their function is less than the melody or whatever. Definitely food for thought at the least, hence why I shared it. :)

I can't stand that he calls himself a "professional orchestrator" when no such profession exists. He's a composer with opinions, that's all.

lol, wut?

I found his channel in 2009 where I myself was stuck a bit in studying orchestration by myself and had not written anything for orchestra yet. His videos and personal comments on my first piece made me change my view on scores and how to work... Now it's all I do :)

I can't stand that he calls himself a "professional orchestrator" when no such profession exists. He's a composer with opinions, that's all.

...as are you.

Are you guys out of your mind? The guy is an excelent orchestrator, composer and musician, and all you do is insult his clothes and his personality? What the gently caress is wrong with you?

Meh, i shouldn't have digged this deep in the older posts, i knew i would find bullshit like this.

Going a step further with Goss's viewpoint on score literacy, as in learning a foreign language. You need to read it, speak it AND write it. Therefore, it is worthwhile to take a piece that you can play by memory, like Bach for example, and write it out on paper from memory. There is something about this transfer from mind to paper that cements certain synapses in your head together. This is harder to do than your think. Much of performance memory is motor memory by your fingers or your lips, not so much your mind. Once you start this exercise you will see what a challenge this shift is.

One can be anything one wants to be... If you orchestrate for a living, then you're a professional orchestrator. It isn't that hard to imagine this category into existence (even if it didn't exist before)...

Oy... Let Goss do what he wants to. Opinions are super, SUPER cheap.