PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRATION. VOLUME 1 The First Key: Solo Instruments & Instrumentation Notes
BY PETER LAWRENCE ALEXANDER
Professional Mentor workbook for Volume 1 and downloadable audio package from eClassical.com containing a majority of the book’s examples are available from www.alexanderpublishing.com/musictraining.
Professional Orchestration. Volume 1, 3rd Edition The First Key: Solo Instruments & Instrumentation Notes Copyright ©2008 by Peter Lawrence Alexander Alexander Publishing P.O. Box 1720 Petersburg, VA 23805 www.alexanderpublishing.com Alexander Publishing is the Publishing division of Alexander University, Inc. Professional Orchestration is a service mark of Alexander University, Inc.
Digital eBook edition published 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-939067-18-3
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced, in any way, including but not limited to: photocopy, photograph, magnetic or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher. Every effort has been made to supply complete and accurate information. However, Alexander University, Inc., and its affiliates, assumes no responsibility for its use, nor for any infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties which may result from such use. FILE SHARING This eBook is ONLY available from www.alexanderpublishing.com. If you have this file, or a print out and didn’t purchase it from Alexander Publishing you have an illegal copy and are depriving the author and publisher of their rightful royalties. Please visit www.alexanderpublishing.com to purchase a legal copy and inform us of file sharing abuse. Your honesty is much appreciated.
Cover design and layout by Caroline J. Alexander
Alexander, Peter Lawrence, 1950-
For Henry Mancini who helped start the process, & Jerry Goldsmith who helped polish it.
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PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRATION . VOLUME 1 PROFESSIONAL MENTOR & AUDIO PACKAGES TM
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The Professional Mentor
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More than a workbook. The Professional Mentor™ is the heart of Professional Orchestration™ Volume 1 because it turns Professional Orchestration™ into a complete home study course that you can do on your schedule at your own pace. Here’s how it works. With the Professional Mentor™, rather than taking a self-test to see if you know the material, you write one piece for each of the 13 solo instruments covered (the equal of roughly a semester’s worth of work at college) before you do your “final” project – a full symphonic orchestration. With this approach, you create 13 publishable works that become the basis for your own publishing company, and, you can go to the next step, and create your own CD by doing a MIDI mock-up of your piece. For electronic scoring, you get 13 solo compositions with MP3 and MIDI files created by composer Jay Bacal for the new Vienna Instruments sample library. Just load the MP3 and MIDI file into your sequencer. You’ll see how Jay created the composition by studying velocity, expression, and mod wheel data. By the time you’ve gone through each instrument, including solo strings, you’ll know how to approach doing a MIDI mock-up.
Professional Orchestration . Volume 1 Audio Package #1 TM
Learn on the run with our Professional Orchestration™ Volume 1 Audio Package #1 covering a majority of the book’s examples. You asked for portable learning! Now it’s here. Thanks to eClassical.com, you can download DRM-free MP3s covering a majority of the book’s examples, so you’re free to learn “on the run”. That’s because all the MP3s that we’ve licensed from eClassical.com are unrestricted. You can play them on your computer (Mac or PC), iPod or other MP3 player, your cell phone, or even convert them to an audio CD to listen to on your home stereo or on your car’s CD player. With this portability, you’re free to choose when you want to learn and where! You get the complete movement the book example is found in. This means you hear the technique being studied within the context of the whole movement so you can judge its dramatic impact within the score. Because Professional Orchestration™ comes with full page/full score examples, you can boost your MIDI mockup skills by importing the MP3 into your sequencer, locate the position, then key-in the excerpts to recreate them using your favorite sample libraries.
New! Professional Orchestration . Concert Package TM
To develop your familiarity with each solo instrument, the Professional Orchestration™ Volume 1 Concert Package gives you an average 20-minute concert with each solo instrument. Total number of MP3s - 78!
Available only as a digital download from www.alexanderpublishing.com/musictraining.
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PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRATION . VOLUME 2A TM
The Second Key: Orchestrating the Melody Within the String Section Imagine learning the scoring techniques creating the “Hollywood Sound” usually known by only a few top professional film orchestrators and composers. Now for the very first time, starting with Professional Orchestration™, Volume 2A, Orchestrating the Melody Within the String Section, the hidden doors on the techniques you’ve been hearing in the scores of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and others for years, are, at last, finally open. Thus, after months of painstaking research, the “secret formulas” are secret no more. Loaded with references from 35 works in a large full page/full score format are 63 techniques referenced meticulously in the low, medium, high and very high registers which are matched to the optional MP3 audio package where excerpts are heard in the musical context of the scores. “The skills imparted by the studies presented here will be of enormous benefit and will give you a professional advantage for your entire career.” - Garry Schyman, Composer, BioShock ISBN: 978-0-939067-06-0
Order from www.alexanderpublishing.com/musictraining or through your local book s t o r e .
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PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRATION . Pre-Ruled & Unruled Sketchbooks TM
Score anywhere with our new Professional Orchestration™ preruled (4-bars to the page) and unruled 16-stave Orchestral Sketchbooks. Perfect bound. Printed on heavy 50-lb white paper on an A4sized page (8.3 11x7) in a perfect bound book. Fits into most briefcases, book bags or backpacks. Laid out left-to-right so there’s never an awkward page turn. Empty space on top of front cover for labeling your current project. Dedicated Projects Page inside lets you make notes on the project’s scope and needs.
Pre-Ruled Sketchbook ISBN: 978-0-939067-68-8 For your convenience, instruments are pre-labeled on the left. Organized top-down for Piccolo/Flute, Oboe/English Horn, Clarinet, Bassoon/Bass Clarinet, French Horns, Trumpets, Trombones/Tuba, Timpani, Percussion, grand staff for Keyboards, Harp or Vocals, Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos, Basses. Can be used for score analysis or direct composition.
Unruled Sketchbook ISBN: 978-0-939067-69-5
Order from www.alexanderpublishing.com/musictraining or through your local book s t o r e .
A LS O AVA I L A B L E F ROM ALEX AND ER PU BLISHING
HOW RAVEL ORCHESTRATED: MOTHER GOOSE SUITE Alexander Publishing’s How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite is a breakthrough in orchestration instruction. For the first time ever, an American publishing company has completely re-engraved the classic work with the condensed piano part at page bottom in an oversized 8x14 format packaged with a complete downloadable performance of Mother Goose Suite from eClassical.com by Sir Neville Mariner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Thus, one book gives you a total portable package letting you learn onthe-go, anytime, anywhere. For fast referencing, each bar is numbered at the bottom of the page (original rehearsal marks are also included). By including the piano part at page bottom, students of counterpoint will see specific devices that Ravel used, where, and how he orchestrated them. Jazz musicians and composers will also see how Ravel composed and orchestrated using altered DOM7 chords, mixolydian chord scales, and triads with the added 9th.
ISBN: 978-0-939067-12-1
How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite is a good read. Preceding each movement is the complete short story that movement was based on. Now you can look at Mother Goose Suite to better understand the dramatic composition and scoring techniques that went into each work. By comparing back to the original story, you gain a better understanding of Ravel’s approach. Following each movement is a brief orchestration analysis based on the Eight Keys To Learning Professional Orchestration as taught in the Professional Orchestration™ Series.
REVIEW: All I can say is fantastic! My students, and I were completely enthralled by the analysis you provided, as well as the score with the included piano part. Two of the students are jazz majors and were very excited about how Ravel was approaching harmonization from a chord/scale jazz harmony perspective. They really started to make a connection with Ravel’s approach and what they have been learning in arranging class for big band; especially the jazz harmonization and line writing aspect of the score. The piano part at the bottom of the score is a great teaching tool for orchestration students. All of my students stated that they would like to see more scores presented in this format. They all felt that they were gaining a better understanding on how Ravel approached orchestrating this movement because of the piano part that was included in the score. The next time I teach my orchestration class, this will be required reading for all of my students, it is that good. I love the new approach. Dr. Rik Pfenninger Plymouth State University
Order from www.alexanderpublishing.com/musictraining or through your local book s t o r e .
AL S O AVA I L A B L E FROM ALEX AND ER PU BLISHING
ALEXANDER UNIVERSITY, INC. E-LEARN ONLINE SELF-STUDY CLASSES Writing For Strings Self-Study Class Writing for Strings, 4th edition, offers a comprehensive resource to the orchestration student, rich with detailed string techniques, QuickTime examples, some of the best scores from the classical repertoire and the opportunity to hear a recording of the examples played in context by a real orchestra. A must have! Patrick de Caumette www.decamusic.com Berklee Alumnus, USA The huge amount of study scores and recordings that are included at this price and the very clear and detailed explanations make this a no brainer in my opinion for anyone looking to acquire this knowledge. Paul Thomson www.synesthesia.net Bournemouth University, UK
Master MIDI Mock-Up Self-Study Class Learn the secrets of great MIDI mock-ups from one of the great masters of the art, Andy Blaney, in our exclusive selfstudy package. With this package, you’ll learn dozens of mock-up techniques for the full string section from Debussy’s Jeux de vagues from La Mer and Jupiter from The Planets by Holst. Start by listening to the live orchestral recording of each piece, then the MP3 of Andy’s mock-up. Using the Excel spreadsheet (your Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices), look up how to execute a specific writing technique, then import the MIDI file into your sequencer to see how Andy did it, then apply the concepts to your own work. Full PDF scores, MP3s and MIDI files provided for both pieces being studied.
Available only as a digital download from www.alexanderpublishing.com/musictraining.
