Piano Pieces to be Orchestrated for Large Orchestra

Do you have any ideas?

The purpose of this "list"?

Who should orchestrate them?

Will you give me the rights if I suggest something that then goes through?

Carlos wrote:

Do you have any ideas?

Yes

Carlos wrote:

The purpose of this "list"?

To practice

Carlos wrote:

Who should orchestrate them?

Me

Carlos wrote:

Will you give me the rights if I suggest something that then comes to fruition?

...I don't know how much you will get out of it,...

Destroyed wrote:

Yes

Fine: then start by saying which ones you would orchestrate and let's see if they are actually "orchestratable" pieces.

Let's start from there...

For the 75th anniversary of his death, I would do something by Ravel... anyway, when it comes to orchestration, I have seen in the past that no one wants to reveal their secrets.

You could also do something by Debussy, like Reflets dans l'eau

I don't know why bind oneself to Scriabin and his successors. Excuse me, but Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel don't seem bad to me at all.

Think about it, for the purpose of practicing, what matters when an opera was written?

Marzapane wrote:

I don't know why bind oneself to Scriabin and his successors. Excuse me, but Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel doesn't look bad to me at all.

Think about it, for the purpose of practicing, what matters is when an opera was written?

I agree, an exercise is an exercise.

You could even take a Schubert sonata, like opus 143

I asked our friend Destroyed to tell me/us what ideas he had in order to understand how much he knows about orchestration (since in another place he even asked about the woodwind arrangement in a score, I got the idea that he hasn't seen many scores). There are hundreds of pieces to orchestrate, obviously, but I wonder if our friend has, for example, studied the orchestration of Alborada del gracioso; or observed how Brahms moved from the two pianos of the Variations on a Theme by Haydn to the orchestra; or seen the orchestration of Brahms' Quartet in G minor realized by Schoenberg; or studied Pictures at an Exhibition etc etc etc... I asked that question ("do you have any ideas?") because I wanted him to tell us/me what his ideas are, but, as you can see, he is taking his time... Telling him that he could orchestrate Beethoven's Hammerklavier wouldn't do him much good, I think, because I haven't understood what he is capable of doing.

First of all, thanks to those who have already chimed in.

Regarding Carlos, I have already orchestrated for small and medium orchestra; I wanted to do an in-depth study by taking a piece that certainly (not just because I say so...) had the potential to have a good performance even with a large orchestra.

I could even make a large orchestra play a minuet by Bach, technicalities and definitions aside... it would just perhaps be a bit gratuitous, wouldn't it?

One candidate was Mussorgsky, but I wanted to do something different... not the usual pieces that everyone goes through... not that they aren't useful, but I take pleasure in thinking outside the box.

So, if anyone has other suggestions, please make them... in the meantime, I will try to look at the pieces that have been pointed out.

Destroyed wrote:

So, if anyone has other proposals, please make them... in the meantime I will try to look at the pieces reported.

It's already something...

So, if I were to venture myself with the large orchestra (where by large orchestra one means the one we saw from the other side, with three woodwinds etc etc etc), I would take pieces that have evidently been thought of to go beyond the instrument and, in particular, come to mind, as I already mentioned, the Hammerklavier (perhaps just the first movement); Liszt's B minor Sonata and, why not, Brahms' Third Sonata (which in fact almost always used the piano as a testing ground). Good luck with your work.

Thanks Carlos, the criterion "I would choose pieces that were evidently intended to go beyond the instrument" is interesting

Obviously the topic is always open, but I already have a lot of stuff to look at... now I know what to do under the umbrella :D

The reports seem good to me and Carlos's proposals are excellent, perhaps even too professional from my point of view. In what sense?

In the sense that someone who is learning and wants to practice is better off varying a lot in the pieces they tackle, rather than working on one long piece for a long time.

30' of a sonata in B-flat is a great milestone, but it is a lot for someone who is not familiar with the instrument. I am not talking about results, but about the real benefits that would be gained by orchestrating 10 pieces by different authors of 3' each. Of course, someone might speak again of gratuitousness, but the goal is to practice, learn a technique, and not so much to finish and present a masterpiece.

After having tasted many "panels," then one will also have more strength to seek them out in a large-scale work like a Liszt sonata or similar.

Valchiria wrote:

"Sonata in si minore" is a great milestone, but there are many for those who lack familiarity with the medium. [...]

I didn't say you had to orchestrate it all... but of course, it is very complicated to find three-minute pieces whose piano writing can verisimilarly be transposed to a large orchestra, don't you think?

One takes the first 5 pages of the Sonata in B minor and sees what comes out... it's not bad for a start, and that writing works with a large-scale orchestra."

I agree with Carlos, besides that is a cyclic piece... if one has the guts .... it's enough to learn a lot

To be sadistic, I would say to orchestrate Chopin's 1st Ballade in G minor ...

Thanks for the further insights, for now I am caught up with the B-flat sonata (actually I have a curiosity to ask)... I will see what to do

Destroyed wrote:

Thank you for the further insights, for now I am preoccupied with the sonata in B-flat (actually I have a curiosity to ask)... I will see what needs to be done

Let us know how it goes!

Carlos wrote:

Let us know how it's going!

It's going, since I've started, I'm a bit embarrassed at first in managing all those instruments having to orchestrate only some "ottavazze" ... but there is time, the sonata is long

Destroyed wrote:

Since I started, I was a bit embarrassed at first to manage all those instruments having to orchestrate only some "octavettes" ... but there is time, the sonata is long

The secret is: don't use an instrument just because you have it, use it when the moment is right. You must never (never!) think: "eh, but what should I make the piccolo (I say piccolo to mean eh) do now?" because this means forcing the instrumentation. Always think from the original to the orchestra and think only about how a passage sounds best. If an instrument plays only 15 bars, it will mean that only in those 15 bars it was necessary...

Yes, Carlos

A couple of questions

Instruments that in the low register (very low) can be agile enough to play thirty-second notes in an Allegro Energico? See measure 13

What does V. S. mean at the end of measure 17?