Orchestration progress (Day 54/365)

OK, so this morning I’ve whined and struggled and come to accept the fact that my little PowerBook G4 isn’t going to be able to handle even a small orchestral ensemble (although actually as I look at it, it’s pretty much a full orchestra with a whole bunch of percussion).

So I took “Blake’s Wonderful Car” and muted everybody. Then I added instruments back in one at a time, testing the opening to see if the distortion returned. I got the strings and the woodwinds, the bass drum, the harp and piano. The cymbals brought back the distortion, but if I deleted the roll in the second measure, we were OK. The xylophone blew it out, so it stayed mute. I got the two French horns back in, and that’s where I’ve stopped for the time being.

I’m still missing the trumpets and trombones, but I may not need them. The tubular bells are probably gone for good.

Some discoveries: If I create markings for pizzicato and arco, then Finale automatically switches the GPO strings back and forth. This is good, because otherwise I have to input, in a second voice, a note so low that my keyboard won’t go there. It’s a pain. Also, the solo flute has flutter tongue available, which I needed for this piece, but it only plays one note. The “flute player 1” will play the two parts, but has no flutter tongue.

Anyway, here’s the resulting mp3. Here’s the old SoftSynth instrumentation. Preference, anyone? I’d really like comments on which one is more appealing. Here’s the piano score if you don’t have it.


UNRELATED UPDATE: There was a photo on the front page of the paper this morning that I thought was instructive, so I’ve included it in a previous post.

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