An excerpt from the Orchestration Online Monthly Masterclass held with supporters of our Patreon project, along with detailed illustrations and sound examples charting the development of the orchestral tutti chord.
Skip ahead to the beginning of the lecture at 1:17. The stuff about Patreon masterclasses and textures has been changed since I started Patreon way back then.
Very useful for a budding composers, so thank you very much Thomas. At one point you mention the absence of G in a C chord for strings, I found early on that, back then 1700/1800's) as now, good string instruments,( partic' ) Bass & Cello had a very strong 10th overtone as well as 15th. So the G in a C triad, created a weird B note above in the mix ( when held) and also the D (15th of G ) may or may not be req'd. There are other notable clashes, like the E natural-sounding against the Eb when req'd in a Cm Tutti Chord. Avoiding the backchat of other comments, your examples are on point ! (and of course there 1ooo's of other great examples) but in my book, the chord layouts used by earlier composers, (just a few) Mozart ; Lully ; Rameau ; von Weber ; Bellini-Verdi ; Rossini..they all had good ears...& therefore good examples.
Thanks for this great channel! My comment concerning Wagner's "textbook approach": One can orchestrate a musical thought like that: a² + 2ab + b² And he brought out this: ( a + b )²
Classical music &; it's analysis has been calling me & I have finally heeded the call!! Thanks to your channel & others of the like🙏🙏🙏 High levels of musicianship can still be sought & found!!!!🙏🙏🙏🤘🤘🤘👍👍👍
A tutti chord that has particularly fascinated me ever since I first heard it is the 11th measure of rehearsal 11 in the first movement of Mahler's fifth symphony. All the violins on a unison tremolo high on the G string, the flutes, clarinets and oboes playing a tremolo together strictly below the violins, the fact that the blazing, filled-in stack of high trumpets and trombones contains the only G-sharps in the chord but none of the F-sharps, which are all relegated instead to the less cutting timbres of the woodwind and viola tremolos and the horns-all so odd, but somehow so perfect.
14:12 - 15:02 very insightful and a great point, thanks man ive been trying to find some online source like this for a few months. your content is very unique and interesting serious thanks for the effort youve put into this channel im so excited to watch more of your vids right now!
Really really really good stuff. This is weird but I love the proto-orchestral sound in Bach cantatas where you just have simple wind and strings. I also love those massive bone crusher chords though lol
Hey Thomas, I just found out about these amazing videos and I'm learning a lot of you. Thanks for that in the first place. I think I see a shifted 3rd in the transcription of your 3rd example, Berlioz. The flutes don't seem to avoid the tonic in the orchestra score. The piccolo (second staff) leads with the high C while the flute takes the E below. I think that makes it just a tad more stable. Or did I misread something? Greetings!
I'm a semibreve level pledge on Patron, but I'm not sure where I might ask this question there. One of the resources I've tried to use to learn orchestration is an online version of Rimsky-Korsakov's text, i.e. northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/77-Principles-of-Orchestration and from that I get the distinct impression that R-K insisted on chords being complete in each section, i.e. notes in one section supposedly don't fill in the chord for another. I wanted to get your opinion on this, although given your Wagner example should by that light sound "hollow" (which of course it doesn't), given the nearly 2 octaves between the upper bassoon and the lower oboe and clarinet, and your comment that the strings might as well be playing octave Cs here, a) is R-K talking through his hat, b) because the brass are filling in the chord solidly, the other sections are optional extras, or c) I've misinterpreted R-K? Thanks.
Question: what about first inversion Chords ? Im trying to write something and in my case, the 3rd of the chord is leading the melody on the bass. The thing is i tried doubling the fundamental and the fifth, but in context they didnt work... It is ok to double the third more that the fundamental and the fifth ? im afraid to do so, maybe the world will explode... I heard there was a country that disappeared because someone used parallel octaves...
Remember that percussion is the finishing touch on tutti chords! And im not just talking about cymbal clashes - a xylophone doing a short roll at the very top is something im into right now! ... I mean I have no idea what to make all the other instruments do - but at least I write well for percussion :,D
