WHAT MAKES A GOOD ORCHESTRAL PIECE?

An orchestral song can conjure any emotion from irresistible romance to high tension. But when you’re composing, what makes for a stand-out? We’ll take you through the basics of how to write orchestral music, the parts of an orchestral song, and also give examples of great orchestral songs from our composers, and from the movies, to inspire you.

The History of Orchestral Songs

Orchestral songs such as cantatas and arias have been part of music since the early baroque era. However, full orchestration, enabling a song to really hold its own in a concert environment, developed from the 1840s onwards, with Liszt experimenting with orchestration, but not publishing or performing his compositions.

He finally published his own orchestration of ‘Jeanne d’Arc au bucher’ in 1874, and the form was popularised by Mahler.

The original orchestral songs were most commonly song cycles, such as Berlioz’s ‘Les nuits d’été’ (1856) and Ravel’s ‘Sheherazade’.

Writing Orchestral Music

‘Orchestration’ can have many meanings, but in its simplest terms, it means ‘writing music for an orchestra’ and assigning the instruments to the various parts in a musical piece.

If you want to write music for film, TV or games, or for concerts and the stage, orchestration is a vital aspect of the job.

A good start is to have experience of performing in an orchestra, together with proficiency in music theory, harmony and ear training.

When it comes to understanding how music creates its emotional effects, these are the critical elements to study:

1. Melody– the effect of the single line and how composers approach writing melodies
2. Harmony– how notes and lines sound together at the same time
3. Form– how any section of your piece can sound like a beginning, middle, or end, and therefore how you can organise it in ways to tell your unique musical story

And as part of this understanding, as the artofcomposing.com site says, you need to understand ‘the grammar of music’:

‘You need to be able to read music notation. There are many resources for learning to read music out there, and you’ll quickly find there isn’t all that much to reading music. The challenge lies more in becoming fluent, than becoming familiar.

‘But also part of the fundamentals are the basics of music theory. Things such as scales, triads, and seventh chords. These are your building blocks. If music notation is the alphabet, these are your words. And much like a child, you probably already have an aural knowledge of these “words”. You know what a major chord sounds like, or what a minor chord sounds like. But as a composer, your knowledge needs to go beyond the aural and superficial level. You need to understand exactly what they are.’

What Are the 5 Elements of Orchestra?

The symphony orchestra can be divided into five instrument families. These are:

1. Percussion
2. Woodwinds
3. Strings
4. Brass
5. Keyboard

• Percussion means hitting one body against another; all the instruments in this family are played by being struck, shaken or scraped and are used to provide a variety of rhythms, textures and tone colours. ‘Pitched’ percussion instruments can play specific notes (and, thus, melodies and harmonies). These include instruments such as xylophones, chimes and glockenspiels.

‘Non-pitched percussion’ instruments, such as sticks, drums and tambourines, can play different timbres, but not specific notes.

• Strings have gut, wire or nylon chords stretched over, or attached to a hollow sound box (the exception being the harp). Striking, bowing, plucking or strumming the strings produce musical sounds. The violin family is the largest section in the orchestra – comprising violin, viola, cello and bass. Harp and guitar are also grouped with the string family.
• Woodwinds are instruments which use vibration when air is blown across the top of them to create their sound. The flute and recorder use air alone to create the vibration, whereas clarinet, oboe, saxophone and bassoon need reeds to create the vibration.
• Brass instruments also need buzzing lips, but have a mouthpiece, a long brass tube and valves – or a slide for the trombone – to change the notes.
• Keyboards are not always seen in an orchestra, but many orchestral pieces use the piano, harpsichord or organ.

Want to see a maestro in motion, bringing together the orchestral families, together with melody, harmony and form, whilst having a lot of fun? Watch Ben Folds composing a song live for an orchestra, in just 10 minutes:

What Are the Parts of an Orchestral Song?

The parts of an orchestral song can be broken down into:

• Rhythm – the pattern of movement in time
• Beat – the pulse of the music and how quickly or slowly it’s going (measured in beats per minute, or BPM)
• Tempo – the speed of the beat, from slow to fast. The easiest way to measure tempo is with a metronome that clocks the number of bpm by clicking or tapping at the same speed as the music
• Metre – regularly recurring patterns and accents, such as bars and beats
• Melody – this is defined as ‘a coherent succession of pitches’ – when you hum, sing or play a melody, you’re performing a series of pitches/notes/tones in succession. A scale is a pattern of notes used to create a melody, most of which are either major (which sound happy or uplifting) or minor, which sound melancholy, angry or frightening

• Harmony is the relationship of pitches as they sound simultaneously – i.e. there needs to be more than one note sounding at once. An interval is two notes sounding simultaneously and the distance between them, whilst a chord is three or more notes sounded at once. The interactions of the intervals within a chord is what creates its musical mood. Harmony can sound consonant (the pitches sound pleasant together) or dissonant (the pitches sound unpleasant together)

Jacob Collier explains harmony in five levels, according to how familiar you are with harmonic theory:

• Timbre – if two or more voices or instruments are performing exactly the same melody, how do you tell them apart? The answer is their timbre, or tone. The instrument’s material (wood, metal, vocal cords) and how hollow or solid it is, together with its size, all play a part in whether a sound is booming or breathy, strident or subdued, warm or cool
• Dynamics are the degrees of loudness, from pianissimo (very soft) to fortissimo (very loud)
• Texture is dependent on whether the music is solo or being performed in unison, or homophony – with two or more voices, where one voice is the melody, and the other voice(s) serve in support roles. This is the texture of most western classical and pop music

Form – the overall structure of a piece of music – phrases which combine to create sections which have a similar feel. Music is composed of contrasting sections, each of which are given a letter.

What Makes an Orchestra Sound Good?

If you want that big, Hollywood sound, (think the The Lorne Balfe Collection), then put in plenty of brass and double bass, to create depth.

And if you want an explainer on orchestral composition using samples, watch Christian Henson’s useful tutorial:

How to Write an Orchestral Song

Once you’ve mastered the basics above, it’s time to break down how to write an orchestral song into a few step-by-step elements.

Create a Piano Reduction

Put together your musical idea on a piano or keyboard to block out the main parts of your piece.

This will be composed of the melody or musical motif (the main idea) and the bass line.

Strings

Use your strings wisely – in an orchestral piece, the strings are often the most iconic part, but they can be the most challenging element to compose for. Study a range of other composers’ works for inspiration – Beethoven’s string quartets are great examples of how to use strings.

Less is more – a useful tip is not to write more than four parts at any given time. Work with melody, bass, a rhythmic element and some moving harmony if you need it. Add more, and you risk confusing the listener.

Using Libraries

Another tip is to write and sketch your music with libraries that inspire you. Grab a sound that you want to work with and carry on with your piece – it can be an experiment to learn from.

And above all, listen to a lot of orchestral and film music! The more you listen to, and think about, music, the more expertise and ideas you’ll have.

Learn From the Experts

When it comes to how to write orchestral music, we’ve got a host of expert composers on tap to give their advice. We asked Debbie Wiseman to share her views on what makes a good orchestral song.

Debbie Wiseman

Debbie Wiseman OBE’s music has been used everywhere from films to the Coronation of King Charles III. The Grammy and Ivor Novello-nominated composer studied at Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Debbie has credits on more than 200 film and TV productions and her orchestral music vividly brings the human experience to life. Listen to ‘Chaos’, from the suite of music she wrote to accompany Stephen Fry’s bestseller, Mythos, for a taste of Debbie’s skill in bringing and building drama in an orchestral piece.

Debbie, What Do You Think Makes a Good Orchestral Piece?

"It's important that the piece connects with the listener, with the structure and orchestration in perfect symmetry. There's beauty in simplicity and getting the message across in the most effective way, creating unity within the orchestral forces so that the different instruments of the orchestra complement each other.

The layering of the sections of the orchestra should feel balanced and in perfect harmony, with everyone having space to play their part while still integrating with the orchestral sound as a whole."

Discover More from Debbie Wiseman

Orchestral Songs From the Movies

Some of the most iconic movie moments are synonymous with the orchestral music that accompany them. Here are our top three picks:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ‘Sull’aria’ from The Marriage of Figaro - The Shawshank Redemption

The turning point in The Shawshank Redemption comes when Andy Dufresne locks himself in the warden’s office and blasts this stunning duet through the speakers to the whole prison, transfixing the inmates. Fellow prisoner Red’s monologue tells us just how transporting opera can be:

‘To this day, I have no idea what those two Italian ladies were singing about… I tell you those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away. For the briefest moment every last man in Shawshank felt free.’

Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Turandot - Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

As an assassination scene unfolds in the opera house in the fifth Mission: Impossible film, the dark spaces, lofty walkways and hidden viewpoints backstage create the perfect set-up; wild-card Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) is one of three assassins toting a lethal weapon – we particularly liked the repurposing of an alto flute.

Ilsa brings a score with her to choreograph her killer shot to the crescendo molto at the end of ‘Nessun Dorma’ – all the fight sequences are expertly timed with the music’s tension and dramatic high points. It’s a brilliant use of music to create action and tension, and vice versa.

‘No Time to Die’ – Billie Eilish

Singer Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell might have recorded the title track for the most recent Bond film in their bedroom studio, but Classic FM pointed out that there are several nods to classic Bond motifs and themes, together with ‘harmonic ambiguity and Eilish’s trademark subtle layering’, which adds a touch of modern grit and strangeness.

The orchestration begins with a haunting piano motif and then the brass brings in that classic Bond ‘sound world’, followed by the full orchestra, recorded at London’s prestigious AIR Studios. Tension builds with ostinato strings and the track uses the classic ‘Spy Chord’ – E minor Major 9 – to finish.

There might have been numerous nods to previous theme songs, but Eilish’s trademark whispery vocals tipped fans off that this – Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007 – wasn’t going to be just any Bond film.

The Best in Modern Orchestral

A key element of a successful orchestral song is its quality. The orchestral tracks in our catalogue are created by the best composers, arrangers and musicians, and recorded in the best studios around the world.

Our high-end orchestral music is perfect for film, TV and advertising – check out the latest in our Epic Orchestral collection, which is ideal if you’re on the hunt for a grand, sweeping or emotive track. Plus, we have new releases every fortnight.