La Campanella 1838 For orchestra (Read description)

This is my first orchestra arrangement ever. I have probably made some heinous mistakes regarding the layout of instruments, capabilities of instruments and other stuff, so please feel free to point them out. I have never taken music theory but I am considering it. (I know the instrument samples are trash and I will search for better ones.)
Sheet music: musescore.com/user/67520497/s...
#piano #liszt #lacampanella #music

[@vodkat07]

This is like arranging two violin concerti into an etude, then rearranging it back for orchestra, like a composite function

[@philippe573]

Great job. Keep up your efforts. Sounding awesome

[@cookieenjoyer8967]

since you mentioned it in the description, the layout of orchestral scores goes woodwinds at the top, then brass, then percussion, then strings.
more specifically
(piccolo)
flute
(other flute variants)
oboe
(english horn)
(eb clarinet)
clarinet
(bass clarinet)
bassoon
(contrabassoon)
horns
trumpets
trombones (in order of type)
(other low brass)
tuba
timpani
(other tuned percussion, glockenspiel xylophone etc.)
(untuned percussion, snare bass drum triangle etc.)
(piano)
(harps)
(solo instrument if concerto)
violins 1 (if there is a solo section and the rest of the section is still playing something else, usually there is a separate staff for the solo instrument above the one for the rest of the section)
violins 2
violas
cellos
basses
if there's a choir it can either go beneath harps or beneath violas

[@cookieenjoyer8967]

also as far as other criticism:
get rid of extra clefs everywhere
do not use bass clef on violins or flute or cornets ever, or treble clef in tuba (and treble clef on trombones is questionable)
cellos can go quite high but they shouldnt be at the same octave as the violins and use it sparingly
you should specify how many of each instrument you are using. if you intended for all of them to be 1 instrument, then firstly woodwinds and brass cannot produce more than one note at a time, and secondly its typical for strings to be in a section, not all solo unless its a chamber orchestra maybe
dont just copy paste the piano part onto things, instruments act very differently and read things differently (especially slurs, strings read them as bowing, brass and woodwinds read them as not tonguing except in some circumstances, and other instruments just read them as phrasal markings)
many of these stops for the strings are (probably) pretty difficult because of a flat minor (and somewhat ab major) being very far out. double stops work best in keys like c, g, d, or e and their minor versions
do not use 8va markings on non keyboard or harp instruments, it makes it much harder to read
double bass is an incredibly thick sounding instrument and really shouldnt be used for patterning (like arpeggios and stuff) unless its like purposely low and thick
word markings to indicate style should go on every instrument that needs them since people will not be looking at the full score when they play it
try not to have big jumps, especially in brass (except in some cases its ok but it really depends on the instrument)
be careful about tuba range going too high if more amateur groups would perform it (and in general try to use other brass instead in that kind of situation)
dont overuse harp
dont limit yourself to the exact same notes that the piano has, because moving around octaves or changing voicings may suit instruments better
dont make double bass or trombone passages really fast because it can be a struggle (good players can do it tho)
bass drum staff only needs to be one line unless they're playing other instruments too
umm, yeah sorry if i scared you or this came off harshly lol, it sounds good and dont be too worried about fixing all of this at once, everyone starts somewhere (and im not that great at orchestration anyway). for a first attempt it is pretty good

[@Jartious]

​@@cookieenjoyer8967 Oh damn. Thats a lot but it covered everything I was curious about.(I will definitely sceenshot this comment) Thanks so much!

[@cookieenjoyer8967]

@@Jartious np lol, also i was typing in a rush i meant to say brass and woodwinds cant produce more than one pitch, not they cant produce one pitch lol
brass actually can but just... dont

[@Jartious]

@@cookieenjoyer8967 yeah I was thinking that but I didn't know how to set it out. Now knowing that I should specify how many instruments to use makes everying a lot clearer!

[@WitchKing-Of-Angmar]

Word of advice, print this out into each part and give it to an orchestra, these computer programs are a hell to listen to, I gave up composing on them because it just offers zero percent of what I strive for. Great work!

[@SisselOnline]

"Give it to an orchestra" I don't think any orchestra could accept any randomish composer lol

[@Jartious]

Well maybe my school orchestra, but 100% not this thing. This was just a trial run. I will look for better samples though

[@WitchKing-Of-Angmar]

@@SisselOnline Well at least they don't have to worry about the pages being laced with MDMA so it couldn't hurt to just take a page. If my orchestra wants a free composition, they don't have to buy a copy from a library for every piece, and can take liberty either in composing a piece myself, or someone else making a piece for them to use. Obviously music isn't a hand-out or an invitational gift, but it's all not so constrictive in how we get music to read.

[@WitchKing-Of-Angmar]

@@Jartious Perfect, if you're in school, and you give your teacher a nudge and say "hey, can you add the piece I arranged into our selection for the concert" I'm sure the band teacher would be tempted to read it.

[@Jartious]

@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar I'll show it to my piano teacher and director of music and see what they say. They might even help me improve it. Thanks for the comments!

[@benedicvelasco]

For someone who hasn't taken any formal training, this is good orchestration. Good job.

[@frederickthegreat4801]

it's not. The harp part is nearly impossible and the cello divisi would sound poor.

[@shadmium3471]

i havent done any formal training either and I KNOW this is HORRIBLE. i agree with Frederick. there's probably other issues in some other instruments (but i don't know what are the other instruments because the score wasn't arranged in orchestral order, nor does it have names for instruments)

[@benedicvelasco]

@@shadmium3471 i have seen waaaaaay worse.

[@shadmium3471]

@@benedicvelasco oh god id like to see

[@Jartious]

I'll try and do better next time 😭. That one guy who wrote an essay on things I could improve on will definitely be of big help to me in the future. Maybe I might make an improved version of this in like, a year when I'm more musically educated...

[@SisselOnline]

violins are simply too high lol (unpleasant.png)

[@Jartious]

What do you recommend I use instead of violins for really high stuff?

[@SisselOnline]

@@Jartious piccolo + violin (not in double stops), or just simply add glockenspiel as, Campanella xD

[@Jartious]

@@SisselOnline understandable. Thanks!

[@felixclm]

@@JartiousDownload MuseSounds! You’ll have to export the audio manually but it helps with the violin’s high notes. The default audio of MuseScore just doesn’t cut it. It’s very clear with trumpets and trombones.