How To Write For Orchestra | Rachmaninoff

After a long wait, I am happy to publish the 3rd instalment in the How To Write For Orchestra series and it's all about Rachmaninoff and his influence over the musical canon.
This has been in the pipeline for a long time and has taken quite a lot of effort and time out of my already busy schedule to make. I'd appreciate any support, so please consider subscribing, liking and commenting. :)
Thank you so much for watching!
I hope you like the video :)
email: [e-mail]
website: www.louietaylor.co.uk
instagram: / louietaylor. .

[@LukeFaulkner]

The 2nd symphony is painfully beautiful.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Agreed.

[@mangomerkel2005]

What I admire about Rachmaninoff (the love of my life regarding music) is that he was pianist, conductor and composer. He was first class in all three. Tchaikovsky knew the Orchestra, but didn't know the piano. Chopin knew the piano, but didn't know the orchestra. Rachmaninoff knew both incredibly well (since he was a conductor). That's why I love this man so much, that's why I love learning and playing his pieces, to upload them on KZbin. Regarding the 'light at the end of the tunnel', I want to mention the 4th movement (Allegro vivace) of the 2nd symphony. Extremely beautiful and powerful!

[@temedy413]

Great video, Rachmaninov's way of writing and orchestrating music always interested and inspired me the most of all composers. Aside from the example of the second movement of his 2nd symphony, there are just as great moments found in the first movement, using the same texture (violins playing the melody in octaves, etc.), which is pretty much really my favorite thing about his compositions, with the way he uses minor plagal cadences (the second movement) and how he's able to well cover so many different emotions and moods. Thank you for this video.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Totally agree with you! Thank you very much for the comment and for watching :)

[@TimBoulette]

@13:10 ABSOLUTELY! That section is gorgeous.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

So glad you agree thanks so much for watching!

[@miketackabery7521]

Any video about Rachmaninov is top of the list for me. His music and life are unendingly interesting to me. And this is a subject I had not the slightest idea of: thank you so much!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thank you so much for your supportive comment! I too find Rachmaninov's life fascinating and especially his orchestral music, so I'm glad this video was enjoyable for you!

[@miketackabery7521]

@@LouieTaylorMusic oh yeah: a REAL superstar in three ways. The only one I know of. Composer, pianist, and conductor. Thank you again!

[@dimitrisnikoloulis4071]

Rachmaninoff , what a brilliant composer ... '' The Isle of the dead '' op. 29 , is my top one work of his ! Really dark , macabre and gothic !

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

I agree, he was phenomenal and so is that music! Thanks for the comment

[@dimitrisnikoloulis4071]

@@LouieTaylorMusic You' re welcome man ! And so he was inspiritual mentor to many of film Hollywood composers like James Royel Horner , for example , you see the beginning motif from Symphony No.1 of Prokofiev in D minor ! Or '' The Battle of Ice '' from Alexander Nevsky of Eisenstein film and the great composer too Sergei Prokofiev ! Troy film soundtrack is Russian school endeed !, Achilles leads the Myrmidons que , Willow , Avatar , The perfect storm , Casper , and many others have it that damn alert - danger brass motiv ! Russian music school ispiration endeed !

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

@@dimitrisnikoloulis4071 did you mean Rachmaninoff, not Prokofiev? That’s what a large portion of my video was about :)

[@dimitrisnikoloulis4071]

@@LouieTaylorMusic Both of them were inspiration for James Horner ! The Russian school ! My beloved one !

[@porridgegod42]

@@dimitrisnikoloulis4071 I think your spaces are a little wide

[@looney1023]

It'd be interesting to see this kind of filmic analysis done with the works of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, both of whom composed several film scores (with Prokofiev's Battle on the Ice probably the most famous).

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Great idea and not one I haven’t considered. They’re two of my absolute favourite composers and hopefully I’ll find the time to make a video of those one day! Thanks for your comment

[@riley2120]

i'm an aspiring composer and i self-taught myself orchestration by using a study score of Isle of The Dead (as well as Elgar's violin concerto as an example of what not to do, hah) which really speaks to just how brilliant Rachmaninoff was not only as an orchestrator but also as a storyteller. there are pages i still do not fully understand. however, i love how at his core, his ideas were so simple and so malleable. truly fascinating, and incredibly well explained and interpretated on your part. awesome video!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Hi! That's really fascinating about Elgar's piece, gonna have to check that out now. Very true, Rach was an absolute master. By far one of the most creative and beautiful orchestrators in history. Thank you so much! I'm really pleased you enjoyed it.

[@twanswagten]

Great video! Rachmaninoff is my favorite composer, so I would definitely like some more videos about his music and composing style in the future!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

I’ll be sure to make more about him then! Thanks for the comment :)

[@jonguirl3942]

Thank you for the video! The 3rd Symphony has always been one for me - It seems like I hear it in a lot of those orchestrations and little parts in old Hollywood productions.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thanks for your comment! It's a beautiful work, definitely one I'd like to feature in the future.

[@jonguirl3942]

@@LouieTaylorMusic I am always reminded when someone says his music sometimes sounds like "Hollywood schmaltz" but then I ask them who came first - Rach or Hollywood LOL - His influence on scores from the big screen to TV shows is clear to me. Victory At Sea comes to mind too ... not sure if it's just me but I hear Rach in there a lot.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

@@jonguirl3942 Yeah, that's partly why I made this video, to raise some awareness about his incredible influence.

[@timflatus]

Please talk about Rachmaninov more. I have long held him to be a master of orchestration and I'm a particular fan of his later works. It would be interesting to place him in context with Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin, as well as Stravinsky and Gershwin.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

I might well make a video about Rachmaninoff in the future! Thank you for your comment. I agree about the contextual placement, certainly important to reference

[@fiveeyedfrog]

Wow. Two of my favorite composers - Rachmaninov and Horner. Thank you so much for this video. Very interesting.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

I'm really happy that you enjoyed my video! Two of mine as well. Thanks so much!

[@eloycotallo2004]

I love Rachmaninov's music and I would love to watch more videos like this about any composer

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

So do I, he was a masterful composer! I hope to make more in the future! I have some other similar videos on my channel if you're interested! :) Thanks for watching

[@AlexSonicsMusic]

Love it, Louise. This video is quite a momentous effort. I love how it turned out. Thanks for that 🎶🌞

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thank you very much for your comment. That's very kind of you to say!

[@craiglaforest]

Thank you.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

You're welcome, thank you for showing me support!

[@_rstcm]

A bit of topic.....but I personally think Debussy's Prelude to the afternoon of a faun also had an impact on the romantic side of Disney scores.....especially part of the middle section.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

You know what, you’re actually very correct to say that, it is an incredibly fantastical piece which includes much expansion on romantic harmony, expanding the pallets of film composers by a lot! Great comment thank you :)

[@lamorenalopez_obrador3888]

Rachmaninov fue un humilde marinero con el corazón abierto navegando un mar tumultuoso y amenazante pero!, se mantuvo a flote. Es un héroe incomprendido de aquel lejano siglo XX.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

¡Muchas gracias por tu comentario! Estoy de acuerdo contigo y a menudo también se le subestima y no se le escucha. Pero, afortunadamente, en los estudios académicos modernos es ampliamente apreciado.

[@patrickdineen4994]

Very interesting video - thanks very much

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thank you very much for your comment and support!

[@MichaelPigneguy]

I really enjoyed this video, thank you!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thank you very much for watching and commenting!

[@Clown321321]

Very enjoyable, thanks!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

You’re most welcome! Thank you for your comment 🫶

[@alexchristodoulou]

Great video, thank you!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thanks for your comment! Im really glad you liked the video :)

[@mistral-unizion-music]

Very interesting. Well done! Yes I would be interested to know more and have a song or part of a song fully explained. One of the best reference I may suggest in this type of music analysis is pro pianist Jonathan Biss in his awesome and superbly articulated Beethoven's piano sonatas free courses on Coursea.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thanks for the comment! I’ll add it to the list and I’ll certainly look at your reference there. Thanks!

[@sooth9]

Thanks Taylor, beautifully explained and truly inspiring for my future I deeply appreciate this documentary :D

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

You’re very welcome, thank you for watching and commenting!

[@stamen69420]

wonderful explanation and video

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thank you so much!

[@TruthSurge]

I thought his name was pronounced "ROCK mon in off" not "RACK mon in off". ?

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Maybe, not too sure :)

[@miketackabery7521]

Rack. The short A. It's an English (as opposed to American English) pronunciation. In the Russian that K sound is very soft.

[@TruthSurge]

@@miketackabery7521 Well, if it's a name of a person, that should be pronounced the same in the US or UK or around the world. If it's a word like cemetery or ask, then there can be different ways due to accents but I would think if it's a name, you want to TRY to say it like the person would say his own name. So using the softer K (almost like a clearing your throat but at the back of the tongue) would be a good way if that's how Russians do it. Rokhhhh mon in off. :) But I think Rack with a sound like bat or cat just is not correct. Oh well, lots of names are hard for UK and US people if the names are in Arabic or really many non-US/UK places. I always have to look them up or I know I'd get it wrong.

[@miketackabery7521]

@@TruthSurge England has a very long history of ethnocentric pronunciation. Americans generally try, though we're not very good at it. It's kinda the same, more or less, in all the other countries I've been to... but England def has the wildest pronunciations 😂

[@TruthSurge]

@@miketackabery7521 :)

[@valerieplushie1031]

i'm playing his second symphony and the Isle of the dead at the moment, spending a lot of time with the music. the orchestration of the Isle of the dead is fantastic, but i can't get to like the symphony at all... i find a lot of it is so dense and soupy. The second movement is the most enjoyable, but the third movement feels far too densely orchestrated, and also FAR too long. i guess i just find his orchestration in the symphony... rudimentary? in that he orchestrates with quite a linear, monochromatic pallette. the Isle of the dead is MUCH better, since it feels to me like he uses the colors of specific instruments in order to convey meaning through the timbre, rather than an abstract piece of music that is adapted for orchestra (obviously this isn't universally true in the symphony, but yeah).

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thanks for your comment, I’m really grateful for your view on this. I think you make a fair point, but I personally view his symphony as exceptionally well orchestrated, it is fairly rudimentary as a whole, but it’s incredibly hard to achieve that consistent level of clarity and impact whilst also highly developing the music. I suppose the length of the movements is personal to you, but I personally feel it’s a great length to develop and convey the ideas he wanted to.

[@valerieplushie1031]

@@LouieTaylorMusic yeah there's parts of it that i like a lot, and it's definitely grown on me a bit. i think it might just be a personal taste thing. as for the third movement, i always do a double take when listening to it. he just ... concludes it halfway through, but on the wrong chord... and then it feels like he just tries it again. (i really enjoyed your video btw, super interesting, i really hope i'm not coming across as like disagreeing with you grr). but yeah, it might just be a thing where Rachmaninoff's music isn't for me, idk. also one thing I noticed is that the conductor is so important; the only recording i really like is by Semyon Bychkov because it's so light and careful. this seems to me (after talking to my conductor) like he is combating the tendency for the orchestration to be dense and heavy and soupy (why is the entire string section playing divisi at the start of the third movement....). idk, what do you think of the role of the conductor in this music?

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

@@valerieplushie1031 totally get you there, it may well be a personal taste thing. But no haha you don’t come across badly at all, it’s very enjoyable to have conversations like this, in my opinion! I actually think you’re spot on about the conductor though, it makes a hell of a difference. I think with the third movement he’s probably looking for a really thick and powerful moment but quite early on, it is a scherzo and I think he wanted that immediate contrast and growth as the chord gradually opens up throughout the strings. I think he wanted it to sound luscious. But yeah the conductor makes all the difference sometimes

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

@@valerieplushie1031 I really like this recording spotify.link/R4qHxLnq7xb

[@Thijs-Kuiken]

dear voice over/uploader... you seem to have a problem pronouncing words correctly.. either because you talk to fast in general or because of connecting words too quickly; resulting also in an odd cadans and intonation curve. The lack of clarity in communication is off putting. Too bad because it's an interesting video otherwise..for which some research was done and you seem to be involved and knowledgeable.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

Thanks for the feedback, that's fascinating. I've been told I speak quickly before, but never in such detail. Could you elaborate a bit on what you said, I'm not sure exactly where to improve based on what you said. Have you got any examples to point out from the video which I can see your point in so I know what to avoid in future videos. Cheers

[@eleezemckenna6787]

I love love this video one of the very best in all of KZbin!!!!!!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

That is so incredibly kind of you to say so. Thank you very much!