- I'm going to teach you an orchestration technique
to get a bigger, fuller and richer sound from the orchestra.
We will listen to examples from film and classical scores,
and then I'll show you how to actually use the technique
in your own writing.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here, my name is Ryan,
and I write music for film, TV, and video games.
Today, I'm going to talk about orchestral resonance,
which is when you put sustaining parts
directly behind moving lines to give them more body
and fill up more space.
It's kind of like using the orchestra
to mimic the sustain pedal on a piano,
but because we don't actually have that pedal
to just let notes ring out,
we have to intentionally write those resonant parts in.
(dramatic orchestral music)
In "Rey's Theme" from "Force Awakens" by John Williams,
we have this very active,
rhythmic accompaniment part in the strings,
harp and trumpet.
(dramatic orchestral music)
Behind that part, we have these long sustained chords
in the trombones.
(smooth orchestral music)
And if we look at the register,
meaning how high or low in pitch the chords are,
are sitting on top of
and in the foreground of the trombones.
They're in the same pitch register,
which we're often discouraged against doing in orchestration.
But here, instead of the different parts
kind of fighting for that register and trying to be heard,
the trombones are in the background,
adding body and substance to those moving parts.
(dramatic orchestral music)
I think this really shows that you don't always have to look
in the vertical space for a gap to fill in your chord tones.
In fact, here John Williams is doing the very opposite
and intentionally putting those sustained chords
in the same register where he put his accompaniment parts.
In this excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade,"
we have this wide arpeggio in the cellos
outlining the harmony.
(soft cello music)
And then directly behind that cello part,
we have a clarinet and two bassoons
sustaining the exact same pitches.
(dark wind music)
So listen to the low winds and the cellos together.
(dark orchestral music)
Now as you listen to the whole orchestra,
notice how those winds give it body and fullness,
but you can still hear that cello line cut through.
(dark orchestral music)
So it's a really powerful technique,
but it's also fairly easy to use.
Let's say you have this piano part
and you want to orchestrate it.
(gentle piano music)
First, we'll choose a lead instrument.
It's fairly high and sweet. So how about we go with flute?
Next, we need to decide what instruments to use
for the accompaniment.
Something I've found to be a bit counter-intuitive
is that it can actually sound really good
to have your accompaniment parts
come from the same orchestral family as your main line.
You don't always have to reach for opposite timbres.
So in this case, because we have a woodwind
in that lead melody, we could also have woodwinds
on those accompanying arpeggios.
Here, I think, clarinet and bassoon would work nicely.
(gentle wind music)
Now comes the resonance.
Because we have woodwinds on the moving parts,
I'm gonna go with a contrasting timbre for the resonance
and put those sustains in the strings.
So here I'll use the exact same pitches
as the bassoon and clarinet,
but put them on sustaining cords.
Also to keep the sound fairly light and gentle,
I'll put those strings in divisi,
and for a little accent on the downbeats,
I think we could use pizzicato in the double bass.
(gentle dreamy music)
So back to that idea of having similar timbres
in your melody and accompaniment,
we could actually flip this
and make the main sound on strings
and the resonance in the woodwinds.
And remember, in this example, I'm only using notes
that were already given to us in the piano part.
So first let's hear just those woodwind chords.
(gentle woodwind music)
And now the strings on their own.
(gentle string music)
Now, when we listen to it all together,
again, feel how those winds add body
and fullness and richness.
But you're not actually adding any new musical material.
(gentle dreamy music)
There's a great book by George Frederick McKay
called "Creative Orchestration."
In the book, he outlines eight distinct orchestral textures.
And in the Spring I made a video about each one.
So if you want to learn
about those eight orchestral textures,
check out the intro video here.