Orchestration and Arrangement Portfolio
About
This portfolio consists of five orchestral arrangements.
The first four arrangements feature a different instrument family each time, and the fifth piece features all instrument families.
The pieces consist of each of these instrument families: Brass, Woodwind, Strings, Percussion.
The final piece uses instruments from all families.
Each piece has its own unique style, but they are all connected through similar techniques, such as layered long tones and cadences.
Brass and Woodwind
Brass - A Cold Ending
The intention behind the brass piece was to create a cold, harmony-focused composition with rich, brassy chords played by only a few instruments. The piece features French horns, a trumpet, and a tuba.
Woodwind - Cinders
The woodwind piece was intended to represent a drastic change in mood. This was done by including a key change from C major to E flat minor. This piece features flutes, piccolos, an oboe, cor anglais, clarinets, bass clarinets, and a bassoon.
Strings - Adagio for Eleven Strings
The intention of the string composition was to create a slow, sombre string ensemble piece. This was done with long, drawn-out chords and increasing tension. The piece features four violins, two violas, three celli, a harp, and a double bass.
Percussion - A Tense Flight
The percussion composition started with the kalimba melody, but later turned to focus on building tension through rhythm. This piece features kalimbas, a kick drum, a low tom drum, cymbals, a celeste, and tubular bells.
Strings and Percussion
Full orchestral piece
Full Orchestral - The End: A Beginning
The full orchestral piece is titled fittingly. Its purpose was to encapsulate the feeling of an ending and a beginning, all at once. This was done by gradually building through repeated arpeggi. The repetition builds tension and leads towards a climax, and can be interpreted as an ending or a beginning. The instrumentation in this piece includes a flute, an oboe, two clarinets, a bass clarinet, a bassoon, five French horns, two trumpets, three tubas, a kick drum, a three-part choir, nine violins, a viola, two celli, and a double bass.