Music Composition DUMmIES

As you can see, this is a multi-instrumental score, meant for a large ensemble

to play. Generally, the only people who would see this particular score would

be the composer and the conductor of the orchestra. The other members

of the orchestra would only receive the sheet music for the parts they were

meant to play. Therefore, if you were the second violinist, for this particular

section of music, you would only receive a fragment of the score to read from.

This separation of parts in written scores is why it’s so important for concert

musicians in an orchestral pit to pay attention to the music in front of them,

the music being played around them, and the conductor in front of them. The

performers don’t have the entire instrumental score in front of them, so if

they miss their cue, they might as well pack up their instruments and leave.

Writing for Ensembles .................................................................................

Take a look at the orchestral score in Figure 19-10 again. If you were to play

each instrument’s section straight out on the piano, you might think that

many of the instruments on here are playing completely different notes from

each other. If you got a lot of pianos together and had everyone play the part

of a different instrument from this sheet, you’d end up with a real mess. This

is because many of the instruments used in your standard orchestra are

transposing instruments, meaning that they’re tuned to different keys. (Take

a look at Chapter 14, on writing for the standard orchestra, for much more

about the specific tunings for these instruments.)

Most composition software automatically helps with the transposition for you

when you’re writing a full score like this one — which makes your Average

Joe Composer’s job a lot easier than it was even 20 years ago. Many software

programs, such as Finale, even ask how many instruments are going to be

used in your composition before you even begin writing, and present you

with as many staffs as needed, as shown in Figure 19-11.

Many such programs are also equipped with MIDI capabilities, making it possi-

ble to hear all the parts of your composition played out — in tutti, that is, with

all the instruments playing together — before giving it to a live ensemble.

Working with Foreign Scores and Ensembles...........................................

Many times, especially when working with older scores or with traveling

ensembles, you’ll have a score come across your desk that’s not written in

English — you’ll still be dealing with quarter notes, half notes, and so forth

248 Part IV: Orchestration and Arrangement