Orchestral Composition Process?

Question

I'm helping my daughter research the composition process for composing for an orchestra. What we are trying to find out is about the process of composing for the multiple instruments in the orchestra. Do you just write on the piano for all the instruments and then present the finished piece to the orchestra? Or do you present the semi-finished piece to the orchestra and then make adjustments? Or do you continually write small sections and then test it with an orchestra and then re-write parts and repeat this process many times until you finish the piece? If so how many times, roughly, do you try out the piece with an orchestra? 5? 20? 100? We've not been able to find an example of an orchestral composer explaining this process so far on the web and we're very interested in the process! If you are an orchestral composer and could share some information about your process we would be very grateful.

Answer 1

This is a highly varied process! Modern tools allow us to try out our pieces as much as we want, really. Depending on how proficient you are using digital tools - DAWs and MIDI composition - you can even get a feel for organic expression in your compositions before finally submitting a score. In my experience, I begin composition at the piano and flesh out thematic ideas. While playing, and depending on the feeling you want to evoke in different sections, be mindful about the arrangement you want to employ. When is it appropriate to bring in triumphant brass arrangements, or playful woodwinds, or percussive elements? Take note of this on a pad or some staff paper, or just record it mentally for when you plan on tackling the arrangement. Once you have a basic idea of your themes and the rough form of the piece - depending on what you are composing, of course, it is time to flesh it all out on the computer. It may not be entirely traditional, but being able to compose using MIDI and hearing an approximation of how it will sound played is extremely helpful. I use Ableton for MIDI composition, just because I enjoy the workflow of that DAW for creation. BE SURE that you are abiding by the range of each instrument and the tessitura of vocalists - do not ask a tenor to be singing down at G2 or a violin to be playing down at C2, for example. By employing a DAW you can experiment with different arrangements, which is awesome. Once you have some semi-acceptable MIDI arrangements I would advise using Pro Tools and Sibelius to create the scores. This software is integrated seamlessly, so it is easy to move from the composition stage to the scoring stage without tiring out your hand and making a mess of your desk with enormous score paper. Once you are in the final stage of scoring and you have all of your notes in Sibelius (or Finale or whatever you may be using), you can continue to add nuance and expression marks to your hearts content before printing out the complete score for a conductor and individual scores for each instrumentalist. Then, depending on whether you need to make adjustments (whatever your collaborative process may be) it will be easy to return to your previous session files to alter and print as much as you want. This is the process I have used for a while now, and it has worked for me. I have not been fortunate enough to have the luxury of being able to "try out" my work 5-20-200 times with an orchestra, and in this fast-paced results-driven world I have had to do most of that work myself. So in short, midi really is your good friend in these situations, plus you can just play around with it very easily and continually work toward improving your arrangement skills.