Attn: Orchestrators: Scott Smalley Classes getting filled fast!

[A.Leung]

SCOTT SMALLEY 2010 ADVANCED ORCHESTRATION COURSE
May 22-23, 2010 - Renaissance LAX Hotel, Los Angeles, CA

LOS ANGELES: May 22-23, 2010 Registration Link:
https://www.submitmx.com/crm/register.php?cid=32

*** Only 4 seats remain for Scott's only LA course for 2010 ***

If you're a composer who writes for live orchestra, you need to know what Scott Smalley has taught over 2,300 film and television composers from across the world.

This consistently sold-out course is a 2-day, in-depth look at the exact techniques and approaches that top composers use to get the biggest, best sound from live orchestras for film scoring recording. Through the intense, detailed study of the music of Jerry Goldsmith and others, top Hollywood film music orchestrator Scott Smalley ("Batman," "Mission: Impossible," "The Insider") demonstrates why some Hollywood scores sound so good, and what you as a composer can do to make your scores sound bigger and better.

At the center of your study of film music orchestration during the course are 370 pages of scores and sketches that are used as examples for detailed analysis throughout the course. With emphasis on the craft of balancing the orchestra through voicing techniques, the course provides specific, detailed information about how to achieve the most dramatic effects in each of the orchestral families.

Another aspect of this course is the importance that samplers and Computer technology have in today's environment, including specific techniques that can be used to achieve the most accurate depictions of real orchestra.

***Course price includes all materials, including a SPECIAL PACKAGE for all course attendees: 2 audio CDs and two 11" x 17" books including 370+ pages total of scores from the feature films discussed in the course.***


==> NEW NETWORKING MIXER EVENT ADDED TO THE COURSE
GET YOUR MUSIC AND ORCHESTRATIONS CRITIQUED BY SCOTT SMALLEY <==

We have added a special optional networking mixer/critique session from 7:00pm to 9:00pm on Saturday, May 22 where participants in the course can talk with Scott, network with other participants, and have their music and orchestrations - either on CD or paper score - critiqued by Scott.


Course fee: $369 including audio CDs and 370+ pages of scores

LOS ANGELES: May 22-23, 2010 Registration Link:
https://www.submitmx.com/crm/register.php?cid=32

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Here's what our students say about this course:


"Scott Smalley is one of the best orchestrators in the world, and when it comes to big Hollywood symphonic film score orchestration, he is THE MAN. And many of his specific orchestral ideas are being used all over Hollywood, either by him, or by others imitating him. This is the sound many directors want. Scott is VERY interested and motivated in sharing his knowledge with other up and coming composers, arrangers and orchestrators.

He has most definitely put a lot of thought into how to pass on his knowledge to other people, has extensively analyzed the works of the composers he has been working with over the past 20 years, and has figured out ways of "thinking about it" somewhat logically, without removing the artistic creative side. I left the course totally inspired and motivated."

"The Scott Smalley orchestration class is incredible. Just the score examples and class materials are worth the price of admission. The information and insight into the techniques of orchestration are priceless."

"The seminar was a great experience for both of my souls, the composer in me as well as the orchestrator. Smalley gave us a great inside look into the scores of different composer/orchestrator collaborations, with nice before-and-after examples.

[paulwr]

We have Hummie Mann doing one on the 22 of May here in Nashville. Scott's is supposed to be later in the year.

I'll chime in again for those in your area to say I've met a small handful of composers who have done that workshop, and it is unanimous: They all loved it and got important 'gems' from it, plus the biggest pile of high quality written scores you'll get at any workshop ever............ that's what I hear.

-Paul

[JCL]

"...high quality written scores..."
Whenever I try to find a score for standard repitoire Symphonic works, all I can find is copies of copies of poorly-printed originals in small format - barely even readable! Any ideas???

[peter5992]

Thanks for reposting this Allan - I got my ticket already (just need to book a flight and a hotel, thanks for reminding me of that ;)).

Anyone else going to this? I'd love to hook up with you while I am there. It is one of those wonderful opportunities to meet people face to face whom you might not meet in another year.

ps JCL - check out the IMSLP Petrucci online music library: http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page

[A.Leung]

3 seats left I think.

[JCL]

Wow! What a gold mine! Thank you, Thank you, Peter!

[frogfriend]

Thanks for reposting this Allan - I got my ticket already (just need to book a flight and a hotel, thanks for reminding me of that ;)).

Anyone else going to this? I'd love to hook up with you while I am there. It is one of those wonderful opportunities to meet people face to face whom you might not meet in another year.

ps JCL - check out the IMSLP Petrucci online music library: http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_PageI will be going.

[peter5992]

It's magnificent.

I am pretty pooped right now. Think I am going to bed real soon. Will report back soon!

[gstitt]

I'm also attending it. The first day was awesome.

[V o n h ö g e n]

Guys, you are SO lucky you are not living 5.6 thousand miles away from Los Angeles like me! I would have loved to attend this class. :(
It would be great if any of you could give us an idea/impression of this course. It looks really exciting.

- Jerome Vonhögen

[Freshdax]

.....$369 including audio CDs and 370+ pages of scores

Can anyone tell me which scores were included? Are these complete cues or just excerpts? Full scores or sketches?

Regarding the course, sounds great!

[peter5992]

I'm planning on posting a detailed report of some of the great tips and tricks Scott gave - here's a breakdown of the scores he used in the course (and of which everyone received a printed copy as well as the recording on CD). It comes in two volumes of tabloid size (11 x 17 inches, full orchestra conductor score size).

CD1:


Basil Pouledoris - Farewell to the King - Imperial Waltz
Jerry Goldsmith - King Solomon's Mines - Main Title
Jerry Goldsmith - King Solomon's Mines - No Diamonds
Jerry Goldsmith - Star Trek - Main Title
The Superbowl
I Love Trouble - Happily Ever After
The Pantom - Jungle Drum
Lonesome Dove - Main Title
Lonesome Dove - Nightmares
Robocom - Van Chase
Robocop - Murphy's Death
Robocop - Home
Starship Troopers - Punishment
Starship Troopers - Tango Urilla
Starship Troopers - Destruction
Starship Troopers - They Will Win
For Love of the Game - Main Title'
For Love of the Game - No Hits
Jerry Goldsmith - Basic Instinct - Main Title
The Insider - Faith
The Insider - The Silencer
Cherry 2000 - End Credits


CD2:


Men In Black - Montage
Batman - Main Title
Batman - First Confrontation
Batman - Waltz to the Death (all Batman tracks from Denny Elfman)
Mission: Impossible - Main Title
Mission: Impossible - Zoom
The Quick and the Dead - End Credit
Richie Rich - Cliffhangers
Judge Dredd - We Created You
Judge Dredd - Council Chaos
For Love of the Gmae - Last Pitch
Mickey Blue Eyes - Sotheby's
Mickey Blue Eyes - Tarantella
Mickey Blue Eyes - Auction Night
Raiders of the Lost Ark - Raiders March
Farewell to the King - Main Title
Farewell to the King - Farewell My King
NFL Theme
Land of the Barve
Conan the Barbarian - Main Title
Conan the Barbarian - Chambers of Mirrors
First Knight - Enter the Queen
Young Indiana Jones - Lightning
Psycho - The Murder
Witching Hour
Tori Amos - Anastasia
Tori Amos - Marianna


This is what is on the two CDs, of most of these tracks (but not all) there is also a score. For some of the scores he also gave the handwritten composer sketch which is interesting since you can see what orchestrators get to work with (hint: 5 lines of chicken scratch and scribbling which they have to decifer!).

I'll post more details later. One of the tracks (Basic Instinct) grabbed me by the throat to the extent that I spent the last two days entering it into Sibelius for a full harmonic analysis and to make a mockup which I plan to post in the Music Cafe. He used it to illustrate a 'fauxbourdon' technique which goes back to the early 15th century European choral music (Guillaume Dufay etc).

[peter5992]

Ok - here's what I took away from the course, based on my notes. Other than giving examples I won't go into too much detail of specific scores since that wouldn't make much sense if you don't have the score in front of you. These are my own notes so if I got something wrong, don't hold it against me. Also, he's a pretty opinionated guy, some of his more spicey comments I put in quotes, don't hold those against me either! ;)


To him, Jerry Goldsmith is the gold standard by which film scores are to be judged.
To illustrate that, he included a lot of Goldsmith scores in the course. A couple of years ago there was an honorary concert for Jerry Goldsmith, for the occasion the Goldsmith family (or whoever is administering the estate, could be a trust or foundation) gave him access to original scores and sketches. That includes the score for 'Basic Instinct' (which, by the way, is absolutely magnificent).
The orchestration for strings in the orchestra goes back to the European common practice tradition (until approx. early 20th century), going back to Carlo Gesualdo (late 16th / early 17th century), to Beehoven, Wagner, and from there to Hollywood (Bernard Hermann, Jerry Goldsmith, Denny Elfman, and continuing).
The orchestra for brass in the orchestra has also been influenced by jazz and big band music (though there are some distinct differences, eg trombones voicing).
One of his theories revolves around 'mediant relations', meaning chord changes in a score which are related in intervals of either a (major or minor) third or tritone (example: Cm - C - Ebm - Eb - F#m - F# - Am - A, from King Solomon's Mines).
Another core theory that he uses throughout the course is the 'ZED clef' theory for close voicing arrangements / orchestration of instruments within one group. In this theory, to get a powerful sound all notes for each of the instruments should be found within an interval of a sixth on the staff, the notes for the instruments being plotted on a 'Z clef' staff by taking them from the position of each instruments' own part and its own clef. To clarify: if a chord has notes for double bass, cello, viola and first and second violins, to get a good closed voicing, the notes that are on the bass clef for DB (say between third and second line), cello staff, viola (using the viola cleff), and the treble clefs for 1st and 2nd violins should all be found within the range of one sixth. (note: wonder how this works if eg the cello has high parts where a different clef from bass clef is used, perhaps it doesn't work there).
For choral music, correct voicing (no voice crossing etc) is crucial, much more so than for the orchestra.
Of all brass instruments (and all instruments in the orchestra in general), the trombones are the most difficult to properly orchestra.
Open voicings: the more you divide lines across different range in the orchestra, the more transparent and less dense it will sound. In terms of getting a strong, punchy sound it works contrary to what you might expect.
For choral scores, keep soprano and alto within a 6th of each other or it will sound out of balance (tenor and bass may be further apart).
Using sampled instruments and live players in addition you can get quite convincing results nowadays. Guildelines for minimum size of live orchestra players: 8 violins, 4 violas, 4 celli, 3 double basses.
For strings, double stop power chords are typically used for the 'devil' character in the movie.
Strings are usually recorded separately, for otherwise they would be literally blown away by the brass.
Parallel fifths are typically a 'no no' in the common practice (and sound bad for voices), but may actually work for trombones.
Avoid using unusual instruments like bass trumpet - there are few players who play them and accordingly they don't practice those exotic instruments as much as their 'daily' instrument.
Using jazzy chords can be tricky - be careful not to evoke a 'jazzy' scene where that would be inappropriate (eg in an 18th century historical or time period drama).
Temp track love (where the director is in love with the temp music used for certain scenes) - that can be a tricky animal but oftentimes what directors are looking for is a similar voicing or orchestration so if you can emulate that without ripping of the melody, you'll please the film director and you won't run into trouble with copyright laws.
For the Batman score, Denny Elfman only gave him (Scott) the melody. He worked out everything else (harmony, orchestration). It has worked out well for Denny Elfman, since Batman became a huge success, prompting the introduction of new scoring techniques (eg concert score instead of transposing score, no longer having detailed sketches in the tradition of Goldsmith and Williams, etc).
Trumpets pierce right through everything else in the orchestra (as well the glockenspiel btw).
Woodwinds are used to 'soften' the brassy sound. If you go for a piercing brassy sound, avoid the woodwinds (and bassoons in particular).
Trombone voicings are typically different for symphonic orchestra from jazz orchestra: in jazz the upper range (above C) is often used, in symphonic scores typically not.
For quick up runs in the woodwinds, flutes and clarinets works better (the oboe is a bit more difficult to play). Down runs are ok (note: according to Piston, in general up runs are easier for woodwinds).
The most difficult issue in orchestration is the interaction between strings and brass.
Excellent scores to study for brass voicings are The Phantom (David Newman), The Super Bowl and Mission Impossible.
Top 3 tips for brass: 1. make sure the top notes are supported by the rest of the instruments; 2. try to break up ostinato rhythm patterns between different players (they like to breath from time to time and might otherwise get tired); 3. make a conscious decision about how low you want the trombones to go, and spend time in particular on the inner voicings of trombones.
Top 3 tips for strings: 1. determine how much division you are going to apply (more division gets more transparency, closer voicings get a more dense sound); 2. sampled strings: the more sounds you patch in, the bigger the sound; by contrast with live orchestra it works the other way around (more players will get a more homogenous sound); 3. start with the celli part, they play most of the time in most scores.
Woodwinds: an excellent example of great woodwind voicing is Basic Instinct. Note that woodwinds can be barely audible when they double strings (by contrast to where they have separate lines).
Scott always watches the movie. Also he always strives to get the score as perfect as possible (without errors or unclear passages), fully marked with dynamic markings and tempi changes, so little or no time is wasted fixing parts on the scoring stage.
If necessary he can work *really* fast - The Phantom is 50 pages of score, on tabloid, which he did in one single day (first time David Newman used the London Symphony Orchestra).
Composers use sketches since there isn't enough time to do everything - to write out all of the notes in eg a harp glissando or flute runs would take up too much time and interfere with the creative flow of getting the score done asap.
He greatly prefers to work with traditional, hand written scores or sketches (no midi files, thank you) and in general believes that there is a great difference in quality between scores that were hand written (or with notation software) and scores that were sequenced from beginning to end. "If you rely on your keyboard skills to compose, your compositions will be limited by your keyboard skills, and not your musical imagination.'
In fact: "sequencing in a score is not composing".
And to take it further: "HZ's name shall not be mentioned during this course!" (Ok, let the flame wars begin! ;))
"Pot is good for you; pass on the bong."


He's a colorful character as you may have gathered, but very generous with sharing know how and open to discussing anything. He looks a little bit like a crossing between Neil Young and Argus Filch (the caretaker with the cat from the Harry Potter movies and novels, http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0001038/) and after walking into the room starts off by saying "No need to call security, I'll be your instructor for the next two days."

All the puns aside, this is a great course where you get a very intense exposure to Hollywood orchestration and leave with tons of materials (I have years of study materials lying on the table next to me). You may learn more in one weekend than you would in a three years college course.

This was his 20th anniversary for the course (he hung out w everyone in the bar on Saturday to celebrate - not me unfortunately, I'd barely sleps on the night from Friday and to Saturday and was pretty pooped by the end of the day). He will have the same course in future years but also plans a more advanced orchestration where he will hone in on certain issues.

His website (where you can find some interesting materials to download, ia a double orchestra concert score) is http://public.me.com/stevenscottsmalley.

[Freshdax]

Thanks for the details!

Check your pms.

[A.Leung]

HEy Peter.

Really glad you got so much out of the course! And for the record Shirley Walker had an AWEFUL lot to do with the sound of the first Batman score. In fact at the after party lots of folks were coming up to her CONGRATULATING her for the score. She said she was embarrassed and humbly reminded everyone that it was Danny that wrote the score. But industry folks knew what was happening in the 'reel' world. ;)

[peter5992]

HEy Peter.

Really glad you got so much out of the course! And for the record Shirley Walker had an AWEFUL lot to do with the sound of the first Batman score. In fact at the after party lots of folks were coming up to her CONGRATULATING her for the score. She said she was embarrassed and humbly reminded everyone that it was Danny that wrote the score. But industry folks knew what was happening in the 'reel' world. ;)

Ha - that's a good story!

I again looked at the Batman shootout scene score, and it's nearly 60 pages of densely written music on tabloid. We listened to this and Scott warned us "Put your seatbelts on for this one!". We had a hard time even flipping pages in time w the music. (He had a sound system where he would play all scores so we could hear everything while looking at the scores). Yes indeed that must have been quite something to conduct as well.

ps little aside about Danny Elfman - my take is that when he first started out, he was primarily a singer and wasn't strong in the traditional scoring / arranging / orchestration techniques, which is why he relied heavily on guys like Scott Smalley. Since then though he has educated himself aggressively and to this day is keeping up with traditional scoring technique and new developments (he is an enthusiastic user of Sibelius and was on the online South CA demo of Sibelius 6 - which shows imo that he continues to be on the ball). I'm digressing a little bit here, but for me that is a showcase of people who are not afraid to step out of their traditional enviroments and try something totally new and try to be real good at it too. I love that attitude and can totally relate to it.

pps Scott Smalley has a very precise handwriting and back in the days he used to write out scores in his own handwriting at lightning speed. Nowadays he uses Encore since apparently "that emulates the noteheads I used to write". (I am sure he would be even happier with Sibelius but what do I know!).

[Dead Man]

Some people get out of their way spreading out "insider" info:rolleyes: about composers' collaborations. What they forget is that each and every reasonable person knows that there can be no insider info in that regard. Nobody was there in the room to see the composers at work, and to take notes on who wrote what and how much, what was whose decision, etc. It's all between them (composers) and nobody else's business really.

A short but elementary piece of info for the "informed" industry folks in the 'reel' world: Film making is a collaborative process. You better stick that into your head, because ignoring that basic fact means you're not in the film but in the gossip industry.

Peter5992, that was very generous from your part, much appreciated.

[A.Leung]

Lol. Very true Peter. Also Danny Elfman is a very generous individual and insisted on Shirley doing the animated Batman gig. She contributed to a majority of all episodes.

[MPDmike]

Thank you Peter. That was very generous of you to post so much useful information for those who (like me) could not attend the course.

What I found very illuminating is that many of the points you made are things I picked up from the courses I have taken previously. A lot of this stuff is great common sense, but it needs to be stated because it is so musically correct.

[frogfriend]

Did you understand what was going on with the fauxbourdon in the basic instinct cue? It kind of flew over my head and then I forgot to ask him about it later. Also sorry I missed the message you sent me about meeting up.

[A.Leung]

Fauxbourdon implies a three-part texture, with the original tune in the middle as far as i remember. I could be wrong.

If you had the top and bottom lines being freely composed I think the center (or middle one) is the "fauxbourdon" It would typically follow the top line but exactly a perfect fourth below.

The bottom line is a sixth below the top line I think?

[peter5992]

Did you understand what was going on with the fauxbourdon in the basic instinct cue? It kind of flew over my head and then I forgot to ask him about it later. Also sorry I missed the message you sent me about meeting up.

I'm sorry to miss you too! I think you were a couple rows in front of me. There were a couple of guys from France, and two looked most familiar - was that you and your twin brother?

Anyways -- to get back to the fauxbourdon, I didn't fully get it during the course but afterwards (I am eternally curious), I googled it on wikipedia and came across this entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauxbourdon

Apparently it is an early 15th century choral technique notably practiced by Guillaume Dufay where the lead voice is traced, note for note, by the second in a perfect 4th below, and a third voice in a 6th below.

If you look at the Basic Instinct score, what seems to give it its exceptionally beautiful otherworldly character are the movements in the melody of parallel thirds (see the woodwinds in bars 9, 11, 13, 15, et cetera), doubled by the strings in 10, 12, et cetera. Thirds are also found in the variations on the theme in the woodwinds in bars 13, and the 1st and 2nd violins in bar 14. So the parallel with the fauxbourdon technique may be in the strict following of intervals in voices by the voice below the lead voice.

Going to the next level: another interesting parallel is the harmonic relationship between the various chords which also seem to revolve around thirds: Dm and F#m alternating in the first couple of bars (mediant relations!), followed by a section which feels like IV – I – IV – I in E minor in bars 9 through 12; immediately followed by two bars which feel like I – VII (or V in first inversion) in G minor (bars 13 and 14) (again Gm being mediant relation to Em); and where you expect this to be followed by Bb major in second version (III 6/4 in G minor), it instead immediately modulates to F#minor in bar 15, followed by VII (or V in first inversion) in bar 16, followed by a similar cadential harmony movement in bar 17 and 18 (E minor in bar 17, followed by VII or V in first inversion in bar 18). And in 19 it goes down one further note to D minor, followed by V in first inversion in bar 20, before returning to the main theme in bars 21 and following. So there's a whole series of chromatically downwards moving cadences, each time moving to a new temporary tonic a half or whole step below the previous one. That is interesting since it parallels the chromatic movement in successive half notes downward of the main melody.

Possibly, the slowly downward moving chromatic melody lines and harmonies symbolize the way in which the main suspect played by Sharon Stone (Catherine Tramell), slowly seduces the character played by Michael Douglas (Detective Nick Curran) into her web and brings him down.


Ok - so I emailed this analysis to Scott and he mailed me back with this reply: "Most brilliant analysis of the musical implications in the Basic Instinct score. I love your interest in the Fauxbourdone harmonization technique and your understanding of it's application. It is a useful tool in our chest."

So I guess I not too far off what he was talking about! ;)

ps what a cool guy to stay in touch through e mail btw.

[Dead Man]

"Fauxbourdon" is just a fancy word for parallel movement of first inversion chords. No rocket science here, it's very simple, almost mechanical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tOvkU1ewlA&feature=related#t=3m46s

[frogfriend]

Thanks for the explanation. I was sitting in the third row up on the left side for both days I think.

[smoothielova]

I did his course 3 years ago. Very, veeeeeryyy amazing class. Scott is a fun teacher and is always larger than life.

[gstitt]

Guys, you are SO lucky you are not living 5.6 thousand miles away from Los Angeles like me!

There were at least 5 or 6 people from Europe and Asia that flew in just for the class.

[Dead Man]

Right, everything is about the value one assigns to the time, energy, and money spent, in comparison with the value one assigns to what one gets in exchange. Attending that course was an implicit statement of belief: "It's worth it." Not attending it was a statement of the opposite belief: "It's not worth it." Both evaluations and implied statements are correct.

[gstitt]

One thing I missed when my mind wandered was his discussion of "Goldsmithian" brass voicings. Was he just referring to the the dense low voicings?

[Richard Bowling]

Anyone have any inside scoop on when/where this course will happen again?

[peter5992]

One thing I missed when my mind wandered was his discussion of "Goldsmithian" brass voicings. Was he just referring to the the dense low voicings?

I missed that one - presumably he was referring to the dense brass voicings indeed (eg the sketch for King Solomon's Mines, look at the trombones / tuba / horns staves).