Pathetique Sonata Orchestration: Instrumentation

I am working on it for the third time now, and I have a pretty good idea of where I want to have the brass instruments enter and what I want to do for each of the themes of the first movement. If you haven't already guessed yet, I am arranging the Pathetique Sonata once again. I have always heard an orchestral sonority to the original piano sonata, prompting me to arrange it for an orchestra. After a few Mozart arrangements(including arranging Eine Kleine Nachtmusik for orchestra) and arranging Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for a chamber ensemble(which wasn't as hard as I expected it to be), I feel much more confident that I can go from piano score to orchestra than I did 2 years back. Here is the orchestra that I plan to arrange the Pathetique Sonata for:

• Piccolo(If the notes get too high for the flute, the piccolo will play those notes)
• Flutes
• Oboes
• English horn?(all the other woodwinds come in family pairs, so should I do the same for the oboe?)
• Bb Clarinets
• Bass Clarinet(I added this in the case that the orchestra only has 3 bassoons, but I still need the 4 note bass chords)
• Bassoons
• Contrabassoon
• Horns in F(They will get the whole note bass line in the second theme of the exposition, where the left hand goes into the treble clef)
• C trumpets(standard orchestral trumpet)
• Alto, Tenor, and Bass trombones?(I have been told to just do 2 tenors and a bass if I am writing for 3 trombones, but would Beethoven approve that or would he prefer I use Alto, Tenor, and Bass trombones?)
• Tuba
• Tympani
• First Violins
• Second Violins
• Violas(sometimes supporting the melody in the violins, sometimes acting as a high bass instrument)
• Cellos(Both the cellos and the bassoons would sometimes be divisi)
• Double Basses(notating an octave above what Beethoven wrote to make sure it isn't out of range and still get that deep bass)

What do you think of my instrumentation here?

8 hours ago, caters said:

What do you think of my instrumentation here?

I think that it looks like an orchestra. Seriously, it's up to you what you arrange for. Unless you have been commissioned, to write this, then score it however you want. I'm going to go through it now.

8 hours ago, caters said:

Piccolo(If the notes get too high for the flute, the piccolo will play those notes)

If it's only there to play the high notes that the flute can't, then you will have a very disappointed player. The piccolo is underappreciated and can be used in a multitude of ways.

8 hours ago, caters said:

• Flutes
• Oboes
• English horn?(all the other woodwinds come in family pairs, so should I do the same for the oboe?)
• Bb Clarinets
• Bass Clarinet(I added this in the case that the orchestra only has 3 bassoons, but I still need the 4 note bass chords)
• Bassoons
• Contrabassoon

That is a very large woodwind section, and pretty ambitious. I'll be interested to see how you manage to score this. I am not convinced that such large section will work, but we will see.

8 hours ago, caters said:

Horns in F(They will get the whole note bass line in the second theme of the exposition, where the left hand goes into the treble clef)

I hope they're going to do more than that. The section of horns provides a beautiful melodic and harmonic force which blends well with both the brass and the woodwind.

8 hours ago, caters said:

• C trumpets(standard orchestral trumpet)
• Alto, Tenor, and Bass trombones?(I have been told to just do 2 tenors and a bass if I am writing for 3 trombones, but would Beethoven approve that or would he prefer I use Alto, Tenor, and Bass trombones?)

I'm assuming this will be 2 or 3 trumpets. No problems there. I would be more inclined to use two tenor trombones and a bass. Alto trombones are rare and will probably not help you much here - especially with a large wind section. Remember that the bass trombone has the same range, just a different timbre.

8 hours ago, caters said:

•Tympani

What notes are you going to set the timps to and how many? If you're sticking with Beethoven's time, then two timps on C and G would be best. However you have used English Horn and Bass Clarinet, so I assume that you won't worry about this. Four drums could work well.

8 hours ago, caters said:

• First Violins
• Second Violins
• Violas(sometimes supporting the melody in the violins, sometimes acting as a high bass instrument)
• Cellos(Both the cellos and the bassoons would sometimes be divisi)
• Double Basses(notating an octave above what Beethoven wrote to make sure it isn't out of range and still get that deep bass)

Violas - what happened to an alto or tenor voice? Even a harmonic grounding or a fast moving middle part can be great.

Double basses - you can take them higher more frequently. What happens when there's not a deep bass?

Overall, I think the orchestra you have set yourself is a little to inclined towards the bass. It will probably come across as being very heavy, and you will find it difficult to score. That said, don't be confined by what Beethoven wrote. Being an orchestrator or arranger means you take liberties - artistic decisions when transferring music to another medium.

I'd be really interested to see your solution, particularly bars 1 then 6, 7 and 8. 

The guy who watched over my earliest attempts at arranging had me do some Beethoven. It's going to take some rearrangement of the chords to sound effective. 

Good luck. :)+