How Ravel orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite

224 Pages·2008·25.436 MB·English

by  Alexander, Peter L.;Ravel, Maurice

HOW RAVEL
:
ORCHESTRATED
MOTHER GOOSE SUITE
by
Peter Lawrence Alexander
Score Edited by Massimo Tofone
ALEXANDER PUBLISHING

CONTENTS
Introduction: The Composer In The Art Store 1
A First in Many Ways 2
The Stories Behind the Music 2
Analysis For the Working Composer 3
Jazz, Baby 3
From the Piano to the Orchestra 3
French to Italian 3
Score Layout 4
How Ravel Worked 4
The Influence of Edgar Allan Poe 4
Finale 4
How Ravel Worked 5
Composing 5
Orchestration 6
Listening to New Works of Other Composers 7
From One Who Contracted Ravel to Compose 7
The Eight Keys To Learning Professional Orchestration 9
Seeing How the Melody Is Handled With Solo Instruments 10
Seeing How the Melody Is Treated Within Each Orchestral Section 10
Seeing How the Melody Is Treated by 10
Combining Orchestral Sections
Seeing How the Melody Is Harmonized 11
With Three or More Parts in Each Orchestral Section
Seeing How the Melody Is Harmonized 11
With Three or More Parts by Combining Orchestral Sections
Solving Practical Scoring Issues 11
Writing For Voice and Orchestra 12
Voices 12
More Than a Framework, Your Personal Mentor 12
The 8 Keys and Ravel 12
Order of Study 12
What About MIDI Mock-ups? 13
Story: The Sleeping Beauty In The Woods 15
Score: Pavane For The Sleeping Princess In The Woods 23
Practical Analysis: Pavane For The Sleeping Princess In The Woods 27
Orchestral Setup 27
Melody and the 8 Keys of Professional Orchestration 28
Dynamic Range 28
Counterpoint Applied 28
Bars 1 - 4: The First A and Orchestral Weighting 28
Bars 5 - 8: The First A1 and Orchestral Weighting 29
Bars 9 - 12: B and Orchestral Weighting 29
Bars 13 - 16: A Repeats Re-Orchestrated 30
Bars 17 - 20: A1 Repeats Re-Orchestrated 30
Stage Seating Position 31
Electronic Scoring Observation 31
Story: Little Tom Thumb 33
Score: Little Tom Thumb 41
Practical Analysis: Little Tom Thumb 55
Orchestral Setup 55
Form 55
Melody and the 8 Keys of Professional Orchestration 56
Dynamic Range 57
Bars 1 - 4 57
Bars 5 - 11: Apprehension 57
Bars 12 - 22: Consoling 57
Bars 23 - 39: Apprehension Restated and Builds 57
Bars 40 - 50: Consoling 58
Bars 51 - 54: The Woods At Night 58
Bars 55 - 59: The Woods At Night 58
Bars 60 - 66: Apprehension 58
Bars 67 - 74: Out of the Woods 58
Bars 75 - 79: Apprehension 59
Electronic Scoring Considerations 59
Story: The Green Serpent 61
Score: Little Ugly, Empress Of The Pagodas 85
Practical Analysis: Little Ugly, Empress Of The Pagodas 113
Orchestral Setup 113
Form 114
Melody and the 8 Keys of Professional Orchestration 114
Analysis Comments 116
Bars 1 - 8: What’s This? 116
Bars 9 - 23: Entrance of the Pagodas 117
Bars 24 - 31: Hail to the Princess 117
Bars 32 - 37: Greetings 117
Bars 38 - 55 117
Bars 56 - 68: Ensemble 117
Bars 69 - 80: Fanfare 117
Bars 81 - 108: Green Serpent Theme 118
Bars 109 - 136: Endearment 118
Bars 137 - 156: Green Serpent Theme 118
Bars 157 - 164: Hail to the Princess 118
Bars 165 - 188: Pagoda’s Theme 118
Bars 189 - 201: Ensemble 118
Bars 202 - 204: Finale 118
Electronic Scoring Considerations 119
Story: Beauty & The Beast 121
Score: Dialogue Between Beauty & The Beast 133
Practical Analysis: Dialogue Between Beauty & The Beast 153
Orchestral Setup 153
Overall Form 153
Melody and the 8 Keys of Professional Orchestration 154
Beauty 154
Beast 155
Chart of String Devices 155
Orchestrating a Waltz 156
Bars 1 - 48: Beauty’s Theme 156
Role of The Harp 156
Bars 49 - 69: Beast’s Theme 158
Electronic Scoring Considerations 158
Story: The Fairy Garden 159
Score: The Fairy Garden 161
Practical Analysis: The Fairy Garden 171
Orchestral Setup 171
Form by Orchestration 172
Melody and the 8 Keys of Professional Orchestration 172
Dynamic Range 173
Analysis Comments 173
Bars 1 - 22 174
Bars 23 - 39 176
Bars 40 - 49 176
Bars 50 - 56: And They Lived Happily Ever After 177
Electronic Scoring Considerations 178
Putting To Work What You’ve Learned 179
Learn to Work the Melody 179
Ask Questions & For Musicians to Perform Parts of Your Composition 179
Learn to Apply Counterpoint 180
A Note to “Jazzers“ 180
To those Who Would Write for Film, TV, the Stage or the Internet 180
It’s a Wrap 180
Edgar Allan Poe: The Philosophy of Composition 181
Edgar Allan Poe: The Poetic Principle 191
Bibliography 211

I
NTRODUCTION
The Composer In The Art Store
Iw rote this book to alleviate the jealousy I was feeling every time I walked
into an art store with my wife, or the graphics magazine section in Barnes
and Noble. In either location, Caroline could find books or magazines on
drawing mouths, smiles, eyes, hands, the anatomy, the brush strokes of Cezanne,
the sketchbooks of Da Vinci, coloration and Degas, the Pre-Raphaelites, and on
and on for literally hundreds of square feet. In the magazine section, there’s row
upon row of graphics magazines for all the programs which included tutorial upon
tutorial upon tutorial!
Back over in the music book department I had the latest 28 rock biographies, the
third edition of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, 263 different guitar books (with
pictures), the occasional Dover score and…that’s about it. So, off to the magazine
racks. There are tons of music magazines mostly dedicated to rock, one or two on
jazz, a couple on drums, recording, and of course the few publications that deal
with music production software.
But no brush strokes. No smiles. No coloration. No neat and cool tutorials for writing
music like Caroline was finding for creating art in Photoshop and 3D software.
So back to the table we sit, each with our own Café Mocha.1 For upwards of two
hours I hear my wife say things like, “Coool. Oh. Wow. Ahhh, so that’s how he did
that!” And so on.
By comparison, my music magazines read like a tech manual for GE’s newest jet
engine. No brush strokes there. I leave the table to wander around hoping I’ll find
something to feed my art and craft. After half an hour of wandering, the only thing
I find that mildly interests my creativity is Stupid Yo-Yo Tricks.2
Having had enough of that, I look for the newest Spenser For Hire book by Robert
B. Parker and meander back to the table. I finish my Café Mocha. Read. Stare at the
cheesecake selections. Read some more. Look at the 10 or 12 different varieties of
Starbucks coffee cups. Finally, it’s time to go. As we check out, Caroline has a stack
of useful magazines on her craft, and I’ve got a paperback about shooting someone
in Las Vegas.3
1 Venti’s in case you’re curious, or for historical reasons - should this book still be around in a hundred years.
2 Not a book by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma on the quirky things you can do with a cello bow.
3 What happens there, stays there.