Film Score Orchestration
Last Edited: Dec 27, 2023
What Is Film Score Orchestration?
In technical terms, orchestration is the process of assigning, in the form of a musical score, a composition complete in form melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically. The task is to designate melody, harmony, and countermelodies to the instruments in the orchestra. Today, there is a broad agreement among composers and orchestrators that orchestration is the process by which the composer's MIDI mock-up is translated into music that live musicians can perform. Orchestration nowadays is about making sense of something a music producer wrote on the computer using samples that need to be translated into a real orchestra. It takes a MIDI file and makes it work for the orchestra.
Moreover, orchestration is more like taking the MIDI file, translating, refining, and fleshing it out so the score is complete. With the production of detailed demos being standard practice in the contemporary industry, orchestration can mean almost transcription. Consequently, orchestration can be slightly more like transcription if the programming is excellent. The primary route into film-score orchestration starts with a fantastic musical education. Nevertheless, specific musical schooling is not a particular requirement.
Union's Definition
The America Film Market's (AFM) Basic Theatrical Motion Picture Agreement (AFM 2002b) and Basic Television Film Agreement (AFM 2002a) contain common text providing the Union's definition of orchestrating. These texts define orchestrating as the art of assigning the various voices of an already written composition complete in form by writing in the form of an orchestra score. A complete composition fully represents the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic structure. Arranging represents any alteration of or addition to the structure of a composition.
Relationship with Arranging and Composing
The relationship between orchestrating, arranging, and composing is complex. However, it is possible to establish general standards for the contemporary film industry. Transcription is the basic level activity necessary to prepare a cue for further work. However, orchestrating is not of greater importance or higher standard than arrangement. The greater compositional arrangement element might place it in a hierarchical structure above orchestration. However, the music must be arranged before it can be orchestrated. This enables an alternative reading of arrangement as a preparatory step for orchestration. While they are closely related, the two tasks are different. They fulfill many other functions in the contemporary film-music industry.
Orchestrator's Job
Previously written music must be arranged or orchestrated for the ensemble to perform. The nature and level of orchestration vary from project to project and composer to composer. Still, in its primary form, the orchestrator's job is to take the single-line music written by the composer and "flesh it out" into instrument-specific sheet music for each orchestra member to perform. Some composers, notably Ennio Morricone, orchestrate their scores without an additional orchestrator. Some composers provide intricate details about how they want this to be accomplished. They will provide the orchestrator with copious notes outlining which instruments should perform which notes. This consequently gives the orchestrator no individual creative input whatsoever. He only re-notates the music on different sheets of paper as appropriate. Other composers are less detailed and often ask orchestrators to "fill in the blanks." This means they have to provide their creative input into the makeup of the ensemble.
Furthermore, they must ensure that each instrument can perform the music as written. In many cases, time constraints determined by the film's post-production schedule dictate whether composers orchestrate their scores. Also, it is often impossible for the composer to complete all the required tasks within the time frame allowed. Over the years, several orchestrators have become linked to one particular composer's work, often to the point where one will not work without the other. Once the orchestration process has been completed, the sheet music is materially printed onto paper by one or more music copyists and is ready for performance.
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