Clemency

Composer • Improviser • Theorist

Music philosopher, humor theorist, burgeoning Street Fighter player and wannabe Dad. Seeking harmony.

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@clementcomposer
Mastodon: www.zirk.us/@clemency


I've been thinking a lot about clarity in orchestration design, and producing some quick done-in-a-day material to practice. Here is a practice sketch featuring the interesting oboe-vibraphone doubling.

I wanted to keep the pingy nature of the oboe attack, but round it off a bit, and the reedy sustain too. The result is, I hope, a bright character enhanced by the playful bassoon-marimba duo and glockenspiel accents.

Clarinet is doubling the melody as well, but not altering the oboe + vibes tone much. Just helping it carry.


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in reply to @Clemency's post:

That's part of what's so interesting to me about orchestration as a craft (doublings and devices in particular). You can't unravel the vibraphone from the oboe when they are in unison, yet you'd hear instantly if the vibes were suddenly missing! The sound-character of the oboe alone would be tangibly different, drier and rougher as well as simply weaker.