Posts Tagged ‘Orchestrating for strings’
Monday, April 18th, 2011
About a year ago I wrote a blog entry called ‘Bring on the Viola‘ which discussed the merits of this sometimes overlooked and under-appreciated instrument of the string family. I thought it worth adding another blog entry as in the intervening year, we have worked with a number of clients who seem unaware of the existence of the viola!
If a songwriter has written some string parts and found that three of them are in the register of the violin and the fourth down in the cello register, then it may be worth transferring one of the violin lines to the viola to create a more natural and full sounding string section.
So why do people forget this important instrument? I don’t know… but we get plenty of enquiries from people requesting violin and cello parts to be added to a track, yet omitting the viola. As an analogy, this would be like a rock band having a lead guitar and a bass player, but no rhythm guitar to fill out the middle register.
Although only five notes lower than the violin, the viola has a completely different sound. It is more rounded and mellower, making it the perfect instrument to blend with both cello and violin and it can be brought forward in a song as a solo instrument in it’s own right. A violin is more frequently chosen to perform solos in an instrumental break, but there are certain tracks where the viola would be much more at home and give the song a softer edge.
Tags: Arranging for strings, Orchestrating for strings, qualities of the viola, session string players, session viola, string arranger, violin and cello parts, violin instrumental break, writing for strings
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Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Many of the songwriters and music producers we deal with don’t read music and therefore rely on allowing programs such as Logic to print out a score of the music for them - these are then sent to us by email along with the song or track and we are asked to record the written string parts .
People often put a lot of faith in a midi score and don’t realise that the slightest discrepancy in rhythm or pitch (when played in on a keyboard) results in an inaccurate print out of the music represented. Sometimes this can take the form of many tiny note values tied onto the next in it’s attempt to rationalise the rhythm of the music. This can mean that the music is often scored with highly complex rhythms that no musician could easily read or play. Another common problem is the incorrect use of enharmonic notes. Enharmonic notes are those that differ from each other in name but not in pitch (e.g a Bb and an A#). This means that a session musician can be playing in a ‘flat key’ and half the notes are printed out as sharps which throws the musician and can mean that they are temporarily unable to understand the notes at speed. Recording has to stop whilst the players work out what the part should be - often spending quite some time re-notating the score.
On a more subtle level, a midi score is rather like a rough sketch of a painting without any of the details. There are no dynamic markings, articulations, slurs or marks of expression so providing this to a group of studio musicians is asking them to use a lot of guesswork in how they’ll play the music. All of this wastes valuable recording time and when there are several musicians involved, this can amount to money down the drain as the clock ticks by and they try and make sense of the score.
Although deciding against the professional services of an orchestrator or string arranger might seem like saving money, providing session musicians with a computer generated score means there will almost certainly be parts which are unclear, lack detail or in the worst case scenario can mean the final recording doesn’t sound as it was intended to. String parts in particular are best written by someone who understands how a stringed instrument is played (see previous blog entries on the drawback of composing string parts on a keyboard).
When we are sent a score generated by midi, there are almost always problems with clefs (such as the viola being written in the treble clef) and notes out of the range of a real instrument - despite the program saying it should be playable.
Arranging and orchestrating is something which requires training and subtlety - and a computer as yet can’t match the accuracy and detail of a trained arranger.
Tags: composing for strings, cost of a string arranger, doing string arrangements, getting the best use of studio musicians, hire a string section, live strings on a track, Logic music composition, Logic music writing, Logic score, midi scoring, Orchestrating for strings, Scoring from Logic, session musicians, session string players, string arranger, String Arranging
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Sunday, November 7th, 2010
Last weekend we spent quite a lot of time in the studio, recording some original music which I had been asked to compose for an album. We recorded three pieces, all for string orchestra and after all the mixing / mastering had taken place, I made an interesting discovery.
Having been given the brief of writing and recording a piece for string orchestra, I had composed something in nine part harmony and it had been recorded for 47 piece string orchestra - including 12 first violins, 12 second violins, ten violas, eight cellos and five double basses - roughly the same sized string section as an opera orchestra. The final mix sounded powerful, emotionally intense and quite cinematic - several people commenting that it would be ideal as a film soundtrack with quite a panoramic feel.
Nevertheless, it didn’t have quite the right sound for the album (it needed to be warm, rounded and mellow) so after scratching our heads a little, the engineer muted about half of the instruments and re-mixed it, this time with 28 parts - 8 first violins, 8 second violins, 5 violas, 4 cellos and 3 double basses. Despite being a smaller section (more like a chamber orchestra), this really benefited the music. By dropping half the section out, it became clearer, purer and less intense with all the crescendos and diminuendos becoming more subtle and less ‘in your face’ than the larger orchestra had sounded.
This came as a surprise to both me and the client who had originally been quite set on a full orchestra and it goes to show that in certain circumstances, less can definitely be more. So when arranging strings for a piece, or as in this case composing new music with a specific aim in mind, it’s worth thinking of what kind of impact the strings are going to have - rather than being more powerful and ‘better’, could a huge orchestral sound actually detract from the music, losing the subtlety and clarity that a smaller section would have brought?
Perhaps composing strings for chamber ensemble or solo strings and bringing it further forward in the mix can have more impact than a symphony orchestra sized sound in a track.
Tags: composing for solo strings, composing music for strings, hire a string section, hiring live string players, number of string players in an orchestra, Orchestrating for strings, recording strings in a small studio, size of a string section, size of an orchestra, String Arranging, String orchestra, strings in the mix, studio strings
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Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
‘Saltando’ is an Italian musical term used when string players are being asked to play with a rapid, bouncing stroke in the middle of the bow - rather like sautille bowing. The speed at which this is executed allows the bow to bounce slightly off the string between each note of it’s own accord. The natural springiness of the bow gives the feeling that the bow is actually bouncing without intervention (although the reality is that it’s momentum which allows this to happen).
Saltando strokes, like Sautille strokes are both rapid forms of playing ’spiccato’ (a generic term meaning any bowing where there is a lift between each note).
From a players point of view, both saltando and spiccato seem to give the impression - both visually and by the sound they make - of a vertical bouncing of the bow. The reality is actually different, with the bow being encouraged to brush the string in a horizontal way, so there is only a fractional lift at the end of each stroke. When played loudly however, there can be a much more noticeable lift (for example in the final section of Sarasate’s ‘Zigeunerweissen’ which we have a sound clip of on the home page of the String Section website) which gives the sound an energy that lends excitement and dynamism to a string arrangement or composition.
Tags: composing for strings, notating for stringed instruments, Orchestrating for strings, Saltando bowing, sautille bowing, spiccato bowing, String Arranging, violin bow strokes, writing music for strings, Zigeunerweissen
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Monday, August 30th, 2010
Earlier this year, I completed a string arrangement for a client who commented that he liked the way that every ‘verse’ of the strings had changes and variations in it. He said that many string arrangements he’d heard had made use of ‘cut and paste’ with the same string parts returning in an identical way later in the track. This struck me as quite odd as it hadn’t occurred to me to ‘cut and paste’ anything in a composition or arrangement - when you have a 3 or 4 minute pop song, the whole thing grows naturally and will benefit greatly from variety in all of the writing, a theme can develop with variation and add real interest to the track, even if it’s low down in the mix. Changes between sections can be subtle but ideally need to keep some continuity (rather than introducing a brand new melody every time).
In classical music, a composer would usually take the opportunity when a melody returns later in a piece, to transform it with different use of instrumentation but retaining the clear melody or theme which had occurred earlier on. The idea of a later section being ‘cut and pasted’ has an anti-climactic feel for the listener - if this technique is used too often, the music becomes predictable and unmemorable.
With modern music writing software, there can be a tendency to simply highlight a given area and with the click of a mouse, repeat it later on in an unchanged form. Although that might seem like an easy option, it may not be using the full potential of the strings which could have enhanced the track far more with a little creativity.
Tags: adding strings to a pop track, creative string parts, cutting and pasting music, music notation, Orchestrating for strings, string arranger, String Arranging, Vaughan Jones string arranger, writing for strings
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Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Although some clients who require string parts arranging for their tracks just give the string arranger ‘free rein’ to compose the parts in their own way and send the file over for approval or amendments, there are many people who already have some idea of how they’d like the strings to sound and have started to put together some strings for their track using Logic or other software. When this happens, I am usually sent the finished track with some ‘guide strings’ in and asked to notate these ready for studio recording (a relatively simple job), or to make them sound more natural by adding some movement or spacing the chords to allow the strings to sound fuller and more rich. When synth strings have been played in on a keyboard, it’s always a challenge to give them the characteristic feel of a real string orchestra because fingers going down on a keyboard cannot move in the same way as fingers naturally move up and down a stringed instrument. There are also clients who simply send the basic chord progression that they’d like and ask me to create something more elaborate with the strings, rather like producing an elegant frame for a painting - simply embellishing the existing ideas with the finishing touches. An example of this could be a track where the strings have all been programmed in the mid range on sampled synths and listening to the balance of the track overall, the range of the strings could be expanded. Extending the range can give the whole track a feeling of a ‘lift’ and lend it a sense of climax that it couldn’t have achieved with synthesised strings in the middle register. It’s also a matter of taking into account where the range of existing instruments and vocal lines are, then putting the strings in the ‘gaps’, weaving harmonies around what is already there.
Tags: getting the most out of live strings, notating for strings, notating from a midi, notating string parts, Orchestrating for strings, professionally arranged strings, programming synth strings, string arrangements, string arranger, transcribing synth strings to real instruments, Vaughan Jones string arranger
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Friday, May 21st, 2010
The viola (like the cor anglais) is one of those often neglected instruments that has such a unique tone in it’s own right that it’s a surprise that it is not written for more often. It’s sound is warm, mellow, thick and less penetrating than the violin. A viola is also capable (in the right hands!) of being immensely passionate and powerful and not just an instrument to ‘fill out’ the quartet sound or provide chords whilst a violin or cello gets all the glory.
Sometimes when we are approached by clients to arrange strings, they ask for ‘violins and cellos’ and seem to be oblivious to the many possibilities which are opened up by using a viola effectively. Just like a violin, a viola can be played virtuosically with rapid scales and arpeggios, or with double stops such as octaves, thirds and sixths. Up on the A string (this is the highest string with the D, G and bottom C string below it) the viola can soar with a beautiful, high register that despite only being a fifth below the violin nevertheless takes on a completely different quality.
As a string arranger, if I were looking to create a thick sound that shared most of the range of a violin but could sing out in a slightly lower register I would write primarily for the viola (or viola section) with the other strings in more of an accompanying role. The secret to good writing, whether it be a string quartet or string orchestra is the constant interplay between the various instruments - if one instrument has the melody throughout, it soon becomes slightly monotonous but if there is a constant exchange and ‘conversation’ between all of the parts, this adds a much greater texture and sense of interest to a piece. Rather than being static, when all the instruments are exchanging melodies within the ensemble, the music becomes much more fluid and alive.
So, let’s banish the days where the violin is the ‘king’ of the string section and bring forward the viola for a gentler but no less distinguished sound!
Tags: Arranging for strings, hire a string section, hiring a string section, live strings for a track, Orchestrating for strings, session musicians, session viola, string arrangements, string arranger, string section, studio musicians, studio violin, viola, viola player, violin, violinist, violist
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Friday, May 7th, 2010
Congratulations this week to the Granite Shore who have just sent us the final mix of two songs which we have provided strings for. As these two songs ‘Flood of Fortune‘ and ‘Highway Code‘ are to be released on an independent label ‘Occultation‘, our brief was to arrange and record strings to a high standard yet keep within a budget. The strings on Flood of Fortune were written for a large scale string orchestra whereas Highway Code is more simply scored for string quartet.
Both tracks are to be released on vinyl and should be available from June onwards, but preview clips can already be heard on the Granite Shore website. It’s always very satisfying to hear a final mix back (as we only really get to hear the string parts at the end of a recording session!), and we wish the band all the best of luck!
Tags: Flood of Fortune, Granite Shore, Highway Code, Occultation, Orchestrating for strings, Scoring for strings, String orchestra for song, Strings for a track, writing for string section, Writing for stringed instruments
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Marcato (from the Italian for ‘marked’) is an umbrella term that can apply to all instruments and therefore not a specific string instruction (like spiccato or sautille would be). In general terms, it is a stroke started with a fp (fortepiano) or sfz (sforzando) with a rest at the end of the stroke, meaning a note which starts with a bold attack, rapidly dying away with a gap before the next note. This can either be performed rapidly or slowly, but when performed slowly, there are big gaps between the notes. Marcato is a stroke where the bow does not leave the string in between notes and therefore is classified as a staccato bowing (as opposed to a spiccato bowing where the bow leaves the string in between notes).
My understanding is that the Martele stroke is the nearest to a true Marcato, in brief this stroke often performed in the upper half of the bow starts with a pressure (that brings the hair closer to the wood of the bow) and a rapid bow stroke with a simultaneous release of pressure. At the end of a stroke, there is a gap and the whole thing starts again!
A string arranger or composer would use marcato when they wanted to create a percussive sound with gaps in between. Slightly confusingly, an orchestrator could write dots underneath the notes to make them short - and this could be interpreted by a string player as lifting the bow off the string in between every note and could potentially be light in character. Marcato can also be written with a dot underneath the note, but on the other hand there is usually an accent with it and the length of the note is twice as long as the note is intended to be played (with the second half of the note being silence). To put it in context, Marcato is a heavier stroke and does not require the bow to leave the string. The analogy is that the spiccato can be like skipping or running and the marcato would be more like stamping or treading heavily, so a professional string player would usually know from the feel of the piece which stroke the composer intended.
Up until the mid 19th century, marcato was notated by a small downward v above the note, so if you come across very old sheet music that’s what it might be! It is less commonly used than spiccato.
As in all directions for bowings, context is everything and if written with a knowledge of what string instruments do, the players will always know exactly what stroke applies to a certain passage.
Tags: accented notes, arranging string parts, Marcato, marked bowing, martele, notating string parts, off the string bowing, on the string bowing, Orchestrating for strings, percussive string sound, sautille bowing, spiccato
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
The literal definition of the Italian word ‘Rubato’ is ‘robbed time’, which doesn’t seem to be a particularly attractive way of describing something that adds such emotional meaning to a piece of music. In essence, it is where music is slowed down or speeded up to create an expressive effect. When done with artistry and musical sensitivity, rubato can subtly ebb and flow but without distorting the rhythmic pulse. What is taken away is always added back, rubato would never slow a pulse down and then not regain it later on, it is in a sense elastic.
In the studio, the only way of effectively playing rubato in an ensemble is through playing ‘live’, where all the musicians are actively listening to each other and making minute adjustments as they play. It would not be possible to achieve a natural ‘pulling up’ or quickening with a click track. A click track is frequently used in recording situations, especially where string parts are to be added over existing instruments or vocals - it takes the form of a metronome beat heard only in the headphones of the session musicians who are working on the track. A click can be speeded or slowed to suit the beat of the music players are working on and can even accelerate or slow down, but this rarely sounds very natural.
When music is of a metronomic nature (such as rock or pop music), then a click track can be highly effective and when used well, will not be betrayed in the end result. Recordings can sound perfectly natural where a click track has been used and often can have a tightness and accuracy that could only be achieved with a lot of rehearsing. Of course, if multiple overdubs are used then a click track is an essential tool and will cut down the studio time needed.
In more sophisticated music which is ever changing, the use of a click track can be more of a hindrance than a help and in that situation, musicians opt to use their ensemble skills and the end result will hopefully be far more natural.
Tags: Arranging for strings, Click Track, composing for strings, Live strings, Orchestrating for strings, Robbed time, Rubato, session musicians, session string players, string arranger, String Arranging, String orchestra, studio musicians, studio strings, Writing for stringed instruments
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