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Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:45 pm
by jbordxyz
Hi, all, I'm a newbie to this site--just found it while I was looking for answers. From what I see so far, this is a fabulous project! So here's the question: I'm scoring an original piece of music, which really should be scored into 3 movements. But I don't know the rules for laying out the score (like does each movement have to start on a new page, do you use double bars or Final bar lines at the end of each movement...etc.) So what I need is both an answer to the immediate need, and also a way to learn the standards so that I can get this music ready for copyrighting and then publishing.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:05 pm
by allegroamabile
It depends whether each movement would have to start on a new page (answer based on score or parts) with final bars ending each movement. But with the publishing, that will be very tricky. I have known professional composers that couldn't get their works published.
What is the instrumentation?
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:57 am
by Yagan Kiely
Just letting you know, it's already copyrighted there is no specific activity to copyright it. And have you considered a CC license? It allows your work to get an audience.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:02 am
by jsnfmn
There are a number of books which answer your questions, and then some. Some that I would consider essential for the budding composer looking to typeset their own works and have them look professional are:
Gardner Read's Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice (Read was a prolific writer on the practicalities of composition, several of his other books would be worth the read as well)
Norman Del Mar's Anatomy of the Orchestra (I find it especially helpful in remembering all of these things if I know at least some of the history behind why things are what they are, and why there are so many exceptions to be found in scores out there)
Also, a number of more modern books on orchestration have a section dealing specifically with laying out the score and parts. Samuel Adler, Alfred Blatter and Stephen Burton come to mind; the first two being widely available and frequently a required purchase in many conservatory orchestration classes anyways.
There are many more obscure and not so obscure texts out there, but one or more of the above would be a good start. Hope this was helpful.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:47 am
by Lyle Neff
Aesthetically speaking, having each movement start on a new page is nice for the performers. It makes no difference to the audience.
Then again, it looks a little silly to have one system or staff line on one page to end a movement when several could be present.
The main thing is to make sure that page turns are practical for each of the parts extracted (or for the piano part, if playing from chamber-music score).
As to double vs. final bar lines at the end of movements: Use final bar lines unless a movement continues into the next one without a formal break. (Again, this is a nice visual courtesy for the performers; the audience wouldn't care.)
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:38 pm
by allegroamabile
Speaking of books to read, the great composer Walter Piston wrote several, one being called Harmony if I'm not mistaken.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:31 pm
by jsnfmn
allegroamabile wrote:Speaking of books to read, the great composer Walter Piston wrote several, one being called Harmony if I'm not mistaken.
He wrote three that I'm aware of, Harmony, Orchestration and Counterpoint. None of which has much on score preparation, and his orchestration book is slowly becoming out of date, though it is certainly still very useful.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 4:33 pm
by vinteuil
Ahem - IMSLP has the Front translation of the Strauss revised Berlioz treatise, which is basically up to date, and one of the most useful in the field.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:25 am
by Yagan Kiely
However, that only helps if you are writing 'traditional' orchestration. If you want something like Penderecki you'll need to go somewhere else. That said, undeniably helpful resource to all composers.
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:58 pm
by vinteuil
Hmm...learning how to orchestrate like Penderecki... *drools*
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:35 pm
by Lyle Neff
perlnerd666 wrote:Hmm...learning how to orchestrate like Penderecki... *drools*
Not to pick on Penderecki, but this little article by Cesar Cui always brightens my day:
CONCISE DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO BECOME A MODERN COMPOSER OF GENIUS WITHOUT BEING A MUSICIAN (1917)
[Note: This is Cesar Cui's last published musico-critical article.]
One must nevertheless have some musical knowledge:
1) One needs to be able to write notes, rests, and to know their duration;
2) to write sharps, flats, naturals, clefs -- treble and bass;
3) to be able to designate duple (4/4, 2/4), triple (3/2, 8/4, 3/8, 6/4, 6/8 [sic]) perhaps, and quintuple (5/4, 5/8) time;
4) to know terms which define the rate of movement (allegro, andante, largo, etc.), acceleration and deceleration (accelerando, ritardando), and signs which define the strength of sound (p, mf, f, etc.), and also its reinforcement or slackening (cresc., decresc.).
And that is all.
One does not need to learn by heart the names and range of instruments which form the orchestra, since it is easy to look this up in A. Petrov's little book, "Instrumentation".
Let us notice further that the ability to read notes and acquaintance with the sonority of each of them are undesirable.
Thereupon one should buy music paper (the more staves, the better), on each of which write down the name of an instrument of one's choice from the table of that same Petrov, p. 47, rule the measures, set the time, designate the tempo, changing every now and then one or the other, and place notes where they happen, indiscriminately (for each of the winds no more than one at a time, and for the strings one may put groups of two or even three); here and there start a small number of instruments during a few measures, and here and there fill all the staves, observing only that the sum of durations of all the notes which are included in one measure are strictly equal to the duration of that measure (an easy arithmetic problem). Having thus used up 30-40 pages and entitled this as "Symphony", take the score to Siloti or the Russian Musical Society, where it will be courteously received and brilliantly performed.
The extraordinary novelty of the sounds and the unprecedented boldness of the harmonic combinations will startle the public, and the criticism will not be slow to rank the debutant among the assembly of modern geniuses.
English translation copyright (c) 1994 by Lyle Neff
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:55 am
by vinteuil
You should find a good agent - very tongue in cheek translation.
I wish that there were orchestras that would preform anything really well...the things I could do (I wish that my family had been able to rent an orchestra like Mendelssohn's...)
Re: Rules of scoring music question of a "newbie"
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:58 am
by Lyle Neff
perlnerd666 wrote:You should find a good agent - very tongue in cheek translation. [...]
Thanks.
Actually, sarcasm was a regular feature of Cui's feuilletons, so it's not so much a result of translation.