Reading the orchestral score

Definition

The score (full score) shows all the parts of a piece stacked on top of each other, bar by bar. Reading it means following several staves at once, recognizing who plays the melody, who plays the harmony and who plays the bass, and understanding how instruments double and blend. It is the main tool for learning orchestration.

Order of the staves (top to bottom)

1. Woodwinds: piccolo, flutes, oboes, English horn, clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoons, contrabassoon.
2. Brass: horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba. The horns sit above the trumpets even though they play lower: historically they act as a bridge between woodwinds and brass.
3. Percussion: timpani first, then the others (cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, pitched percussion such as glockenspiel and xylophone).
4. Harp, celesta, piano (and organ).
5. Soloists and choir (sopranos, altos, tenors, basses).
6. Strings: violins I, violins II, violas, cellos, double basses.

Families are joined by square brackets; braces join the staves of the same instrument (piano, harp) or divided sections. Saxophones, when present, usually go between the clarinets and the bassoons.

Score in C or transposed

• Transposed: each instrument is written as it reads it (clarinets in Bb, horns in F…). This is the historical standard.
• In C (concert pitch): everything is written at sounding pitch, except instruments that transpose at the octave (piccolo, double bass, guitar). It is increasingly common in modern and film music.

Before reading, check the transposition of the instruments indicated at the start (Cl. in Bb, Hn. in F) and mentally subtract the transposition (see “Transposition and transposing instruments”).

The clefs you need to know

Treble (almost all high woodwinds, trumpets, violins), bass (bassoons, trombones, tuba, cellos, double basses, timpani), alto (violas), tenor (high register of cellos, bassoons, trombones).

A six-step reading method

1. Overview: instrumentation, key, meter, tempo, number of bars.
2. Find the melody: who carries it? (often violins I, flute, oboe, or a brass instrument).
3. Find the bass: cellos, double basses, bassoons, tuba.
4. Harmonic filling: violins II, violas, horns, sustained clarinets.
5. Doublings: look for parts in unison or at the octave (flute + violins I an octave above; bassoons + cellos).
6. Reduction: sum up the bar in a piano reduction (melody, bass, chord). This is the key exercise.

Progressive repertoire for training

• Haydn and Mozart (symphonies with 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings): few staves, clear doublings.
• Beethoven (Symphonies No. 5 and 7): expanded classical orchestra; in the finale of the Fifth, piccolo, contrabassoon and trombones enter.
• Brahms, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky: Romantic orchestra, divisi, inner counterpoint.
• Debussy, Ravel (Boléro is perfect: the same theme passes from one instrument to another), Stravinsky (The Firebird, The Rite of Spring).
• Film scores: John Williams and Howard Shore publish scores; many can be studied in official editions.

Public-domain scores can be found on IMSLP; always listen along with a recording, following one staff first and then two, three…

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, opening bars: the motif “G–G–G–Eb” is played in unison and at the octave by strings and clarinets; then the phrase passes among violins II, violas and violins I in imitation. In the score you see it right away: unison = same notes on several staves; imitation = the same cell moving down from staff to staff.

Score and DAW

• Organize the DAW's orchestral template in the same order as the score: you will find doublings and gaps more easily.
• Import an orchestral MIDI file (many are available for public-domain pieces) and compare it with the score to understand velocity and articulations.
• Libraries such as BBC Symphony Orchestra and Spitfire Symphony Orchestra are organized by sections like the score.

Exercise

1. Download Mozart's Symphony No. 40 K. 550 from IMSLP and follow the first 20 bars: write down who has the melody, who has the bass, who has the accompaniment.
2. Reduce 8 bars for two-hand piano and play (or program) them in FL Studio.
3. Reorchestrate your reduction with a string and woodwind template, respecting the original doublings.

Connections

Staff and clefs; Transposition and transposing instruments; Abbreviations and repeat signs; Orchestration: families, ranges and blends.