What Orchestrators Need To Know
- The playing range of each instrument
- What instruments playing in various combinations will sound like (how to voice instruments in harmonic textures)
- The limitations of each instrument's playing capabilities (i.e., oboes have difficulty playing softly in low registers, flutes cannot play very loudly in low registers, lowest note on the violin is G, etc.)
- Strings sound better playing in certain key signatures for certain effects. Create certain emotions or feelings with flat key signatures vs. sharp key signatures. D# sounds slightly different than Eb. John Williams likes to write in A major.
- Orchestrators need to know the characteristics of all musical styles, and possess additional experience of knowing what works for a given scene and what doesn't work
- Having the ability orchestrate and arrange for various styles of music and types of instrumentations
- With hundreds of possible and correct ways to orchestrate a piece of music, orchestrators need to synthesize all of the information in order to come up with an orchestration that best suits the situation
- Listen with scores in hand and get to know the music of Mahler, Strauss, Shostakovich, Copland and Holst-A large amount of film music is generally derived from these composers. (Example Copland's Fanfare for A Common Man with Heroic Template)
- Work under tight time schedules
- Most film composers know how to orchestrate their own music. Time pressures of delivering a completed score on time does not allow for this. Most Hollywood composers will hire one or more orchestrators (Hugo Friedhoffer)
Film Composers
- Music cannot be louder than the dialogue except when intended
- Music must immediately communicate to the filmgoer subliminal messages or shading paralleled with intellectual engagement
- If a composer's score is rejected, he or she will still be paid the full amount agreed on in the contract.
- No composer no matter how prestigious they are, ever has the final say on how their music is to be used within the film
- The filmmaker makes the final decision
Actual score used in the film composed by Danny Elfman....
Original Score by Tangerine Dream as heard in the film.....