To get in touch with me for Zoom composition or piano lessons, commissions, collaborations, or just a friendly chat, you can use the email jjayberthume@gmail.com
"I don't want to minimize the contribution of orchestrators but, on the other hand, I try to be very careful about my sketches so that I get just what I want: winds on two or three staves, horns, brass, low brass, piano, percussion, etc, in the middle, and then three or four staves for strings, so that on eight or ten staves you can get almost a note-perfect accurate score. But the sheer labor of laying it out in full score for symphony orchestra would greatly slow me up, so here orchestrators help. When you consider that Star Wars had some 90 minutes of orchestral music and had to be written in some 6+ weeks...about half the length of an opera...well, to do that without even stenographic help from an orchestrator would be physically impossible. On Star Wars I used four: Herb [Spencer] was contracted to do it and he receives the credit (he must have done about 500 of the 800-or-so-pages of the score), but Arthur Morton, Angela Morley and Al Woodbury also helped a lot. I even did some sequences myself, so I hope that's a compliment to my sketches that you can't tell who did what!" - John Williams Excerpt from John William's Film Music by Emilio Audissino: "The Boston Pops percussionist Patrick Hollenbeck debuted as an orchestrator after Williams had asked for his help on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: "When I got out there I heard these horror stories of orchestrators being handed a page with a title, a key signature and a number of bars and nothing else on it; so orchestrators have developed a mystique as, allegedly, 'the secret composers,' and in many cases it may be true - but not with John Williams. With him, orchestrating means taking his notes from the little green paper and putting them on the big yellow paper.""
John Williams worked in Hollywood studios for years as a pianist and is listed on many films (back when they used credit the guys) as "Johnny Williams" (LOL!) on piano. He did this for years, and it's one of the best ways to learn what the instruments sound like, individually and in various combinations. He also did formal study with some very good teachers. Additionally, he took many projects along the way, working with major composer/orchestrators in Hollywood and cut his chops on a lot film and TV scores. Jaws was his 63rd film score. So...lots of listening, and lots of writing. Respectfully, PMH.
When will the next episode be coming out!? Can't wait to see which JW score you'll be doing. I've already watched this video 3 times with my own HP score and gone through other parts of the sound track to pick out features you've mentioned in this video!
i'm always amazed when i see kids your age that are so intelligent and well spoken. It gives alot of hope for the future. You should have millions of subs.
This is a fantastic video, thank you! John Williams is a very sophisticated composer, and I can see how his writing is much more influenced by the great classical composers, and he really knows what role every instrument plays in the orchestra. Whereas a lot of the nowadays' film composers tend to rely more on big sounds, simpler harmonies etc. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the latter approach, obviously, but I just tend to gravitate more towards the more refined and detailed compositions like John Williams' works.
Man I love your videos. You articulate yourself so well, and I enjoy that you use experienced terminology but not so deep that intermediates wouldn't know.
If I might suggest that you play the instrument once before the explanations and once you've finished with this instrument. Sometimes you do it and it just really helps to consider your analysis afterwards because we do not always have the instrument's line in mind. Just a viewer's point of view ! Thank you for your rich analysis
Fantastic video! I found this at the perfect time for me. Just the perfect level of nerdiness for where I am at right now. Thank you very much for this. I will look into more of your videos!
you are a born educator! Loved the few tutorials I have listened to and watched this evening! Bravo. BTW, you are also a brilliant composer and arranger. Haven't listened to that much this evening.....but you have held this aging former educator, arranger and keyboard musician in the palm of your hands! Loved every minute!
Awesome Jjay. I remember years ago before I started composing hearing this and thinking this section sounded so cool and.. totally bonkers. So insightful to have it broken down. Thanks!
Thanks so much. I've been studying this piece a lot and trying to understand it. I wanted to add that up bow is used in the low strings because it has a built in crescendo. Tip has less weight, as you move to the frog you get more hand weight/ weight from the frog. It's automatically a crescendo. Nice touch with having basses on a down for more clear articulation
for someone who is just learning note reading as an adult, this was very useful and enlightening, as something of a starter to do deeper orchestration. thanks.
One note about the 'sideways' accent mark is that it's literally a very small diminuendo mark - start loud and get softer quickly - while _marcato_ just means marked; getting softer isn't necessary. Edit: then again this depends on the composer. Some composers use _marcato_ to mean louder & staccato; others like Williams arguably used it to mean more accented than an accent mark.
You are the first person I have heard mention the xylophone in that piece from TPM! That has always stood out to me and honestly makes the piece in my opinion. His use of xylophone in all of his music is great. Overall great insights and I learned a lot from you (as a listener and composer) just from this first part. I'd definitely be interested in more series like this.
Awesome video and great tips and analysis! I love Williams and HP is one of my favourite scores. I hope this won't be the only Harry Potter video you do. ;) Cheers!
Wow, I really like your video(s) they're great, and don't take this the wrong way, but I find it utterly amazing how you've made a 37 minute video based on four measures of music which take about FIVE SECONDS to play in real time. I just wish you included the next four measures which has one of my favorite parts, the runs in the high winds transitioning to a new theme.
Just found this video! For anyone who truly wants to practice the craft of film scoring and orchestration, and not just produce generic "epic orchestral music" they should be following you. Awesome job!
Thanks. Great vid. Learned so much. And had a chuckle too when the sub-titles wrote 'beat it up about a table' for your "be-da-ba-bu, be-da-ba-du" singing. :)
holy shit i honestly think I have pooped myself (just a tiny bit ;) ) when I saw this video come up! John Williams is my favourite film composer and JJ is my favourite music youtuber... this made my day!
As an arranger for Big Orchestra's (see Steengroeve Theater) I love this video. And bought Adler's Instrumentation book, Thanks for THE tip! greetings from The Netherlands, Europe.
Really great rundown man im learning so much from these!!! The info about which instruments are strong where and why and what works well is very informative for me. Thankyou
10:15 I think that he wanted an up bow on the 4th measure just because up bows are much easier to crescendo on, and I would assume both the cellos and basses would do the same bowings. At this tempo, a down bow on beat 4 is fine for a bass (coming from a bass player)
Sibelius has two shades of red. The *dark red* note you indicated just means "It _MAY_ be difficult to play" (probably just to compensate for those writing for the old oboe instruments) while *light red* indicates notes outside of the instruments range which with most sound libraries you won't hear anything unless it is not a real recorded instrument or the programmer stretched notes across several notes (so it isn't one sample per note, but overlapped instead).
大宮忍 Yep! Often times the dark red is still inaccurate even for good high school players. It's convenient for newbies, but it shouldn't be a crutch. One should have a much more in depth understanding of ranges and relative difficulty as it relates to grade level without relying on Sibelius, which doesn't account for how context or dynamics can make certain notes more or less difficult.
That's true, it's very difficult for Sibelius to understand as it's only a computer software not human. That's why I like to think of the dark red notes as a warning rather than a strict "no, you can't have it" and for a newbie or a person like myself who can't seem to remember everything they can do some research before ignoring it. I keep a few books with me in this case.
_(dark red notes as a warning rather than a strict "no, you can't have it") this is because every player has different capabilities and make of instruments_ Either ignore it or use it as a suggested warning but not a "can't do that". I've worked along side people who play these kind of instrument and I can tell you that not everyone is capable of playing certain ranges and passages. I had a duet with a person who played the tenor horn who found it very difficult to play the higher and lower registers but then there was the other person who could do it with no problem at all both of which are professional players. You can imagine how difficult it is arranging a score without everyone there all at the same time making sure it's actually playable so you need some kind of guideline that suits everyone (not specific people) and make adjustments' later if needed without the risk of composing a score only to find you're going to go back and redo everything, especially when you have a deadline to meet. I play piano and my hand size is quite small so some piece are almost impossible for me to play unless I make some arrangements/simplifications. These are the things a computer program like Sibelius can't do. All it can do is give suggestions so the non-red note are likely based on what the most comfortable range for the average (or basic) player is. It can't tell you if a scale degree would be difficult, for the same reason, so it shows it in black still. If that makes sense.
It's good to know that Sibelius let you customize your instrument ranges as you like. So if you find annoying to see those red notes where trey're not supposed to be you can always do that! ;)
Fascinating content, very interesting. But you can really slow down! That will deal with the hesitations and 'dead ends' where you can't fit your words into a sentence, and make it easier to listen to. Looking forward to seeing more episodes!
Actually the extra down bow indication for the celli might be better explained so as to allow for an easier crescendo on the half note leading to the sfz. (Bowing for double bass should be the same if that were the case, but it may be obvious and so it wasn't marked on both staves.) Amazing video btw, on my way to parts 2 and 3!
19:45 Clarinets actually prefer to jump up in most cases, especially when we're crossing from the clarion into the chalumeau or making big leaps in the clarion. Sometimes the attack on the lower note is fuzzy or "chipped" and it sounds kind of bad. Clarinets always seem to be the odd one out among the woodwinds so it's important to keep in mind that composers should make considerations for their quirks. Either way, great video and orchestration analysis.
Great video! Just referring to the Sibelius saying the oboe can’t play that low C. On Sibelius a dark red colour means the note is obtainable only by peopl(generally) of grade 5 or above standard, however if it colours it a light red colour that means it’s pretty much impossible to most people
You know your stuff. From one JW loving Composer/Orchestrator to another. Nice Job! Super Helpful!. If you could do something on Theme Writing, That would be the penultimate video!!!
JJay Berthume One other thing, not that they had much effect on the music since Williams orchestrates almost all sounds on his sketches. have you ever considered just for fun, comparing orchestrator outside of Herb Spencer. (John Neufeld, Eddy Karam, Conrad Pop, I met Conrad and he provided some interesting input in orchestration for JW.)
Great job! Many great point although I think you get the down bow marking in the cellos wrong. Bowing marking dosen't make any solid string player to make any extra push if there isn't any articulation or dynamic marking as well. Basically it just gives you the information if you should pull your bow to the left or right (just a little joke haha :)) I'm pretty sure though he put the down bow marking there because of next bar. One thing is that it is more natural to make cresc. by playing up bow and second even more important it is much more effective to make accent on the last note down bow as you mentioned later in Violin part. As well I don't think he wants basses to play different bowing. I am a bass player myself and the usual attitude for basses is to play the same bowings with cellos, if we are playing the same music. Either he forgot to put the same marking in bass part or he count on fact that we will match cellos. Once again - Great job I'm looking forward for next videos!
+JJay Berthume About Sibelius marking that Oboe note red - Sibelius has two "red" markings for notes. Dark red (like what this oboe was) seems to indicate that this note may be more difficult to play than others, or that some versions of the instrument may not be able to play it - this also happens when you notate string instruments at the very top of their ranges, especially the cellos and basses. Sibelius uses a plainer, lighter red when the note is simply unplayable. You can also test this by noticing that it will still play audio for the dark red note, while the plainer red note (unplayable) typically doesn't have audio for it - at least with the VST pack that I have. Anyway, awesome video, thanks for the upload!
Samuel Kristopher Thanks for the info! I was aware of that, and both are still often inaccurate. For example, most flautists nowadays have a B foot, and most double bassists have a C extension, which extends their range beyond Sibelius' "impossible" color, so I still think it's always a much better idea for a composer/orchestrator to rely on his/her well-studied knowledge of the instruments' ranges rather than Sibelius' warning coloration.
JJay Berthume Sure, I guess Sibelius can't account for every variation! Sorry to presume:) I took so much away from this video and I can't wait to watch more!
JJay Berthume I'm studying composition with a teacher here in Russia but between the language barrier and their very formal style of education, it's really nice to watch a solid and well-informed youtube video:))
I want to note that the F (Eb, concert pitch) below the treble clef staff _does not_ work well for trumpets. The F# does (E, concert pitch). I'm sure the confusion is somewhere around whether JJay was speaking in terms of concert pitch or not, but i wanted to clarify.
thank you for the video! to me it was always a question how does JW gets this complex, complete feel in his score. so this video explains this at some level, that's really cool!
The bass has a shorter bow than a cello, (not longer as you mentioned), in fact shortest of all orchestral string players. In reality, most bass principals would add the upbow marking that was not in the score to make sure the last note in the phrase is played downbown to get the accent.
This is a great video! Sometimes I have just little problems to follow, because I'm not a native speaker and it's challenging to follow your speed of speech ;-) But other than that: This is a grat video!
20:50 Sibelius hasn't marked that as unplayable, as unplayable notes are marked bright red. That dark red only indicates that you are approaching the limit of the range. On many instruments the high end has a lot of those dark red notes, as they are hard to learn and even harder to make sound good. If you're orchestrating for beginner bands for example you'll know where to stop.
Wow. You cover a lot of ground quickly, which is great. I wish all tutorial videos were as concise as yours. Thanks for that. I'll subscribe and donate. Looking forward to exploring more of what you've posted. Would you be able to make orchestration videos like this for other film composers like Elfman or Zimmer?
