Expired
The Challenge: to orchestrate an excerpt from “D’un jardin clair” from the piano suite “Trois morceaux pour piano” by Lili Boulanger.
Participation: open to all Patreon supporters and Orchestration Online website subscribers (website subscription is entirely free of charge).
After the deadline, Thomas Goss will release a public video featuring in-depth analysis of his own orchestration of the Boulanger piece.
Recommendation: for a deeper understanding of Lili Boulanger’s orchestration style, view the first eleven videos of this playlist.
Guidelines:
- arrange for orchestra of maximum size and similar instrumentation to Lili Boulanger’s orchestral work “D’un matins de printemps:” 3333 4331 timpani, 3 percussion, celesta, harp, strings.
- Restriction 1: No Harp/Celesta Concertos! Filigree, decoration, support only. Copy/pasting the piano part onto the harp part is NOT orchestration!
- Restriction 2: Standard woodwind auxiliaries only if needed – piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet or E-flat clarinet, and contrabassoon (sarrusophone as scored in Lili Boulanger’s works).
- Restriction 3: NO SEPARATE STAVES for individual brass and wind instruments. Double/triple up winds and brass like a standard published score, unless some parts are too complex. When you give me a separate staff for all three flutes, all three oboes, etc. then it makes your staff size tiny and very hard to demonstrate on screen to other entrants.
- USE REHEARSAL MARKS IN THE AUDIO/SCORE VIDEO AND TEMPLATES (if you are supporting on Patreon and going past bar 20)!
- Suggestion: don’t feel limited to transcribing every note at the exact same pitch/register as the piano score. Adapt as needed.
- Format: Screen dimensions very welcome, as your entry will be evaluated on-screen. 747mm W X 420mm H (29.41” X 16.54” in.) is perfect. Minimum staff size should be 5.1mm (.20” in.). Very small staff sizes are hard to evaluate and impossible for viewers to read.
- Use the official Orchestration Challenge Entry Form to submit your entry. Sibelius users should submit .sib files. All other notation platforms submit a PDF and an audio mockup mp3.
- Submittal Deadline: MIDNIGHT PDT, APRIL 30, 2020 FIRM.
Website Subscriber Entries:
- Entrants must be subscribers to the Orchestration Online website, which includes a newsletter announcing releases of videos, blog posts, and courses. There is no charge for subscribing.
- Entries may be any length for your own improvement of craft, but website subscriber evaluations will only be given up to the end of bar 20.
- Participants may share entries at any time on social media for community feedback, but Thomas’s feedback period closes after 31 May 2020.
- Entries will be archived on the website as a playlist for future reference, as with previous orchestration challenges.
Patreon Supporter Entries:
- Sibelius/MusicXML orchestral template with embedded piano part for copying/pasting/rearranging.
- Patreon-only video evaluations posted for each individual entry by mid-May according to the categories below…
- Minim Level: evaluations offered up to the end of bar 20 (before Figure A).
- Semibreve Level: evaluations offered up to the end of bar 31 (before Figure B).
- New Dotted Semibreve Level: evaluations offered up to the end of bar 40 (before Figure C).
- Breve Level: evaluations offered up to the end of bar 48 (before Figure D).
- Dotted Breve & Longa Levels: evaluations offered for the entire movement.