Orchestration Lesson: Rachmaninoff, Part 1

[@willcwhite]

Another phenomenal video. One request: could you please try to 'equalize' the volume between music and voiceover? I find myself having to turn the music portions way up and then I'm blasted with the voiceover. Would be greatly appreciated, especially in soft music sections.

[@wesleycurryii3341]

Thank you, tremendously thank you. The tone of your voice is like portato tenor horns with a touch of reeds, and the pedagogy is clear, distinct, and effective. I have only begun orchestrating in the last year, and though I listened intently to Symphonies my entire life, at 57 years of age, am only beginning to understand the balances of instruments in the Full Orchestra as an instrument having been orchestrating daily for about 8 hours a day, over the last year. Incredible knowledge in your lessons, extremely well described. I am committed, and hope to be a patron for you to continue these lessons. Last year I achieved my first contract to score a feature length film (Had Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad), Tom Arnold, Jim O'Heir (Parks & Recreation) Nick Searcy (3 Billboards outside Edding Mo.) Jim DuMont (Trumbo, Deepwater Horizon, Jurrasic World). And went into the project having absolutely no experience in orchestration, only the drive, and solid history of Piano Perfomance in The Second City. So, as a full time composer, I will be going through each of your lessons, having experienced this one, and gaining the feeling like I am ever more familiar with the instrument that I love, the Symphonic Orchestra. Thank you again, and My Brutish Cadenza. Wesley Lawrence Curry II

[@pessilevanto8074]

Thomas Goss - a gift that keeps on giving.

[@GnuSCello]

Great lesson!

[@maxtofone]

Thanks Thomas for this series on Rachmaninoff 'Isle of the Dead', what an amazing composition...

[@Tobiax123]

Great lesson again! Maybe you could leave the colors in so it would be easier to follow your points while listening the score.

[@EnriqueGiliOrtiz]

Rachmaninov was a true genius, sometimes misunderstood by german oriented/contemporary musicians. Thank you for sharing and best regards from Spain.

[@MattLamPiano]

Great video! This is such a haunting piece, I find it very related to his 2nd symphony and 3rd piano concerto, certainly some motives are reused within the 3 works

[@dariuswilkins4984]

These lessons are extraordinary! Such depth and detail and all for free!

[@maxtofone]

Thanks a lot Thomas for this great Rachmaninoff orchestration lesson and analysis... Cheers, Max T.

[@ManuProduktions]

Perfect timng! We are beginning to play this work tomorrow in our university orchestra.

[@ethanelseth7438]

Christmas came early! Long live the Rach! Thanks Thomas!

[@providief]

Incredible insight. Many thanks !

Just fantastic, wonderful work!

[@RenaldoRamai]

This was excellent. Thank you very much.

[@Jiwpgakis]

I wish he had done more pieces like this or his 2. symphony (at least the 1st movement).

[@sashakindel3600]

10:01 In 100 Orchestration Tips, you warn against writing stopped horns lower than written middle C, but the lowest pitch here is over an octave below that. I get the impression your admonishments there are directed primarily at loud stopping - is that right? It's not totally clear.

[@OrchestrationOnline]

This passage will be played with a stop mute. It still won't sound ideal - a sort of flabby, starchy sound as opposed to the crisp sound you'd hear above middle C. In new notation, those pitches would read an octave higher, sounding down a 5th - so they're pretty low all right. My wife speculates that Rachmaninoff was aiming for a ghostly sound here, and he's certainly going to get it.

[@Apfelstrudl]

OrchestrationOnline 12:19 you clearly can hear it's not ideal! The sharpness and loudness of higher stopped tones gets very unreachable in the lower and here lowest registers (even with stopp mutes) and it sounds veeery unbalanced towards 1st horn.. I think here rach wouldn't have wanted that sharpness (p) of stopped tones but more a balanced piano accord.. Greets from a hornist from austria!

[@Flatscores]

Especially in the tuttis I can see how my countryman Eller developed his orchestral sound in the context of Russian composers and works like these.

[@TomLaPointe]

Love thks

[@TheMindCrushGroup]

Hey Thomas! Really nice and appreciated video. Could you, sometime in the future, dedicate a single video to each section of the orchestra? Brass for example is one of the most difficult for me.

[@OrchestrationOnline]

Hi there! Go to macProVideo or AskVideo and search up my courses on orchestration! :)

[@TheMindCrushGroup]

OrchestrationOnline great, ill probably purchase a month or two. When is the Brass section course coming out? :)

[@melindaphoenix7380]

Thank you so much for your videos they mean a lot, I swear one day when i make enough money I'll donate to you

[@videnteloco]

Great video !!!

[@simonalbrecht9435]

I think it would be nice to see right at the beginning of such a lesson what recording you used, both to give them credit and to inform us-after all, approaches vary considerably…

[@timflatus]

Have to slightly disagree with you here. I think Rachmaninov's finest orchestration is his Symphonic Dances and Symphony #3. If you ever do more on Rachmaninov, please consider one of those. That said I love the Isle of the Dead and Symphony #2, so I'm very happy you've covered this.

[@edenetuk1608]

Wow

[@lamplight111]

Could you please add subtitles to this video and its counterpart! It would be greatly appreciated.

[@sfbirdclub]

I am confused by your speaking of "a [ah] two". Since this is Italian (right?) shouldn't it be A[AH] DUE? Or, in English, "BOTH" oboe/flute etc.?

[@OrchestrationOnline]

I don't see how you could be confused. It's plain what I mean. Also, it's commonly spoken that way by copyists, composers, and conductors in English-speaking countries. I would confuse far more people by having a purist approach to language.

[@tomwheeler1082]

Can you do a orchestration lesson but on a score of a composer from these day, like alan silvestry, micheal giacchino, john william or danny elfman?

[@hadenplouffe3976]

I'd personally love to see something like Let Me Tell You by Hans Abrahamsen or Andrew Norman's Play.

[@OrchestrationOnline]

Hi Cinetube, the problem is that it would be a huge amount of work to get permissions for those scores. But if you study enough scores, then you'll hear where many of these greats got their inspiration, and that's even better I think.

[@oscarmike1131]

Cinetube TSL same here. Or Don Davis music for the first Matrix movie. Only one of the 3 to have the sheet music published

[@tomwheeler1082]

OrchestrationOnline yes that true! Thanks for the answer! The probleme is I don't know how to achieve the big brass sound that super hero song make! Can you help me?

[@oscarmike1131]

Cinetube TSL I have sheet music for Phantom Menace, Matrix 1, Hellboy 2 and other brass heavy scores if you want.

[@hugeda876]

Can you put subtitles? Thank you

[@JuanLopezMarquez]

Pleasee add spanish subs! :(

[@oscarmike1131]

This was my first time actually hearing anything from him. Only thing I knew about him was that James Horner used his 4 note motif a lot

[@SpaghettiToaster]

You're in for a ride!