Orchestrating the Dynamic

One extremely effective way where orchestration can be used to maximize the desired musical effect is to orchestrate the dynamics.

It is a well known fact that certain instruments are louder than others, but also that certain instruments have a limited dynamic range, sometimes depending on the register. A high trumpet can not enter in pianissimo, a bassoon can not fade away into absolute silence and a low flute can effectiely barely go beyond a mild mezzoforte. You get the idea.

Our task as composers and orchestrators is to know about these properties and use them to our advantage. I quite often see or hear scores by inexperienced composers/orchestrators who create dynamics by hairpins or dynamic markings only. This sometimes leads to quite uneffective orchestration.

Let's imagine a simple example: A big chord that swells over two bars from piano to fortissimo and decrescendos after these two bars for another 2 bars back to pianissimo.

Intuitively, we would probably orchestrate a tutti chord and starts on the very first downbeat for everybody, using hairpins and ends for everybody after 4 bars.

Orchestrating the dynamic means that you would stagger the entrance and releases of the instruments according to their dynamic potential. If we talk about a tutti chord in the mid register for everybody we could use the instruments strategically. The ability to sneak in from practically nothing makes for instance the clarinets a great candidate to start, also strings can come in very softly. A little later it would make sense to enter the double reeds that can not start from true silence so sneaking them in when there already is something else sounding makes a lot of sense. Even later we could add horns, trombones and close to the dynamic climax trumpets and percussion. The same strategy you could use for the decrescendo where the brass would end first and then stagger the other instruments accordingly.

This example is very schematic and there are a lot of parameters that would influence decisions (e.g. whether there needs to be a melody transported, the desired color and brightness of the chord etc.) but I think the idea is relatively clear. Don't feel like everybody needs to enter and release at the same time for the same chord. Orchestrating the dynamic does by the way not mean to replace hairpins by that strategy but it makes them more effective.

One well known real life example of this strategy is the climax in Williams' Leia's Theme:

https://youtu.be/fdlc_Fok4dM?t=219 (ca. at 3:40)

Here's the score for that climax:

Note how the trumpets enter only briefly before the peak. However this small moment where suddenly the high harmonics of the trumpets sneak in and push the dynamic to another level is incredibly impactful.

Also, note the duration of the climax chord. Woodwinds and Brass release that chord a quarter note before the strings. Even though it seems like a relatively small detail to do something like this but it makes that "fade out" way more efficient and musical.

So the bottom line here should be: let the instrument's properties act in favor of your musical idea and use them to your advantage.

One of the excercises I got from my prof at uni was to write a piece called "60 second crescendo for orchestra". So basically a big crescendo that works as musical piece nevertheless. It really forced me to use these properties to their fullest extent and additionally forced me to write something that muiscally targets towards a climax without losing energy in between - basically in a way how Williams builds up towards that climax in Leia's Theme. So if you want to challenge yourself, try this excercise yourself, it will most likely cause some blood, sweat and tears but it is a highly efficient learning experience.