Principles of Orchestration - Core

ALL IT TAKES IS ONE (Core)

All IT TAKES IS ONE (Core and Melody)

Part 2. Or...Part 1. Depending on how you look at it.

The Core.

So what do I mean by the core? Well, essentially, it's the primary rhythmic support for the melody. Often, it will be the bass line...supported by other instruments. Not always, of course. Sometimes you won't want to use a base line. In rock music, the core would likely be the rhythm guitar part (many times doubled by the bass). For those of you familiar with ostinato based composition, the ostinato would be the core.

For this composition, the core is played by the basses. It's doubled by the cellos, the trombones, and the timpani.

For context, I've added a clip of the core playing with the melody as well. One thing you might notice, the melody has a few less instruments playing. That's because in developing some of the other parts I made decisions to use those instruments in other ways. In short, the melody is now the trumpets and the violas...which leaves only the 1st trumpets (for now) on the "melody" melody and the 2nd trumpets and violas on harmonies.

Note as well that the core has no harmony at this point. This may or may not change. We'll see...but I don't think so because for this piece I want the core very strong.

Another note: you may notice the tempo is slower. I realized I had set the tempo faster than I intended it to be, so this is more what I had in mind.

Last of all, I wanted to discuss the simplicity of the piece. Anyone musically savvy will notice that the entire piece basically uses a single chord - sort of two, depending on how you look at it. Yes, there are other chords therein...but they're very clearly passing. If you were to accompany this on a guitar, you'd likely just play a C chord repeatedly - maybe jumping quickly to a G now and then. As I add parts, other chords will come out...but mostly they'll just be for color or dissonance.

It's also very repetitive. The same line 4 times in a row. The melody was composed this way prior to my decision to do orchestration principles. But I decided to use this part of this piece because of it's simplicity. The reason for the simplicity and repetitiveness of it is based in the artistic approach I'm using for writing much of the music for STEALTHMAN the musical. Many themes will have a simplicity to them and have a sort of fanfare-style. Not to say that every bit will be simple and repetitive. In fact, the song All It Takes Is One, as I have it right now, will be one of the more complicated songs other than these four repeating lines you hear.

I felt this was a great piece to use for demonstrating the building blocks I use for orchestrating because of its simplicity. You will notice, however, as the orchestrations progress that they are not so simple.

ALL IT TAKES IS ONE (Core)

All IT TAKES IS ONE (Core and Melody)