Emmanuel

@Clemency

Composer • Improviser • Theorist

He / They
clementcomposer.com/

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

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

Emmanuel @Clemency2/5/2023, 1:51 AM

7 Practice Sketches - Orchestral 'Thickening'

https://youtu.be/yjmBGUbkZ6c

So you wrote a nice line, and you know what the main instruments are that will play it. Now what? Often, you need to support that idea with further orchestration, to help it stand out to the listener or give it more richness and character. Just like bolding some text, you can 'thicken' your line to give it more emphasis.

Here are 7 of my recent sketches from 2.2 - 2.4.2023, practicing the technique of thickening. They should be considered successful if what you hear sounds like a 'bigger (thicker) version' of the initial melodic idea, rather than just many more voices playing.

Ask me a question below, or tell me your favorite!

#The Cohost Global Feed #composers of cohost #composing #orchestration #music education I guess #practice makes perfect #flutes go both higher and lower than you think

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @Clemency's post:

Seth @esoterictriangle2/5/2023, 6:05 PM

No 2 is my favorite, but the last one with the adding of more voices in each section is my favorite thickening! That's one of my favorite things 😌

Emmanuel @Clemency2/5/2023, 6:55 PM

Oh interesting! No. 2 is one I was the least sure about =) Glad you like it! It also took some tweaking--at first, cello counterline was overpowering. Taking everybody a dynamic below the altos was needed in order to help it all gel.

Take a look at this transcription of Duel of the Fates, as a real masterclass in how to add more voices to keep an ostinato fresh! He really milks that dut-dut-duhduhduh for all it's worth. Following it in the score is really enlightening! https://youtu.be/XVNVGnK3i4U

@rem2/6/2023, 1:18 AM

in electronic production there's this temptation to just layer disparate, contrasting sounds on a line to give it "depth"/"interest" timbrally so learning about this stuff has been so helpful in focusing those impulses

oh also, #5 is definitely my favorite! so good

Emmanuel @Clemency2/6/2023, 4:04 AM

To be fair, it really is rhythm and contour more than anything else that achieves this effect. If that weird contrasting sound is truly following the main sound? It'll probably work great!

#5 is so chocolatey. I really enjoy dense chromatic writing, and this 'thickening' principle lets you do some things you wouldn't normally let yourself get away with in that regard. Specifically: the purpose of many counterpoint rules, like avoiding parallelisms, is to keep lines sounding like independent voices. Because thickening is often about reducing line independence so they sound like a fused version of the main line, parallelisms become quite suited for purpose!

@rem2/6/2023, 4:08 AM

perhaps in other words, you can definitely think about the intersection of timbre and rhythm (x-axis), and the intersection of timbre and harmony (y-axis), so to speak. obviously, an obvious example is you need a fast attack to play fast lines, and purer timbres play nicer in low registers (using a bare sine wave/very nearly to play bass notes, whose overtones might otherwise clash and ruin the idea, is a classic trick!)