Writing For The Real Orchestra, should I study Logic SCORE or books..... Options

[tokyoroland]

In the not-to-distant future, I may have the opportunity to score a film using a real orchestra. Now, I took a theory class at my junior college last semester, and I know the basics, but when it comes to writiing for the real thing, I am completely new.

My question is, should I rely on the comprehensive SCORE section of Logic platinum to automatically write it FOR me, just paying attention to recording... provided that I learn the whole SCORE section first, so I can detect errors...

Or should I go the traditional way, and read books on HOW to write for the orchestra, all of the different instruments.. because I dont know...if I give a printed score from Logic, will the orchestra play it different than I envisioned? Will I sound completely different, even if, in the future, I am using superb software instruments like Vienna and Spectrasonics?

All advice is welcome!



- jeffro

[dougdell]

One other thing - a hundred could be written about the pitfalls of writing for orchestra, but this jumped to mind immediately for me - if you haven't had some training or experience, articulations are going to bite you. Things like up or down bow, pizz & arco and many other bowing techniques (like spiccato) for the strings, falls and flutter tonguing for winds, mutes for brass, slurs and grace notes and dynamic things like sfortzandi. Writing for orchestral percussion is non-intuitive for someone who has come up through the keyboard or guitar ranks - ruffs and flams and drags and various kinds of rolls are not in our vocabulary.

Forgive me if you've already got a pretty good idea of all this stuff. Writing for orchestra certainly has the potential to be an exciting experience from which you'll learn a lot. Do as much preparation as you can, though. Invaluable for you will be to find some scores, especially for a style close to what you might be doing, and read through them multiple times while listening to the music. Learning from others that way is one of the best ways to get a handle on the magnitude of your challenge - and you'll get lots of ideas on how to fit things together (unison here, countermelody in the low strings, solo woodwinds there, etc.).

Read, read, read. I personally like the Mancini book (with the CD full of examples), and I use the orchestration books by Kennan and Piston. Alfred Publishing has a nice little pocket reference that is handy for looking up instrument ranges, considerations, and tips.

Good luck & have fun!