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Topic: Orchestral reduction for piano (Read 2825 times) previous topic - next topic

Orchestral reduction for piano

I am a music student and a project that I have been assigned is to take a full orchestral score and re-write it for piano (reduction). I am having so much trouble. I need to put 3 or 4 note in the right hand and the same in the left. The note values include everything from a dotted eighth to a whole note. I cannot seem to get the stems to include 3 or 4 notes each, of differing note values. Is this possible to overcome?

Re: Orchestral reduction for piano

Reply #1 –
Doree, it seems your problem is like the https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2070 thread.

I'd suggest either to use layering, or to simplify the score.
The latter happens frequently when reducing an orchestra to piano, though I never did this myself, but saw it often on choir scores.
The reduction must be playable, and having notes of different lengths would mean to lift up the fingers at various times while keeping the others down. This happens in some scores, but not with 4 lengths! and keeping fingers down reduces the mobility of the hand.

I think that a big part of this kind of work is to determine which notes are important and have to be kept, and which are to be ignored. IMHO of course, but it seems to my ears that this is done that way on reduction scores I was on Enchanted Flute for instance.

HTH!

Re: Orchestral reduction for piano

Reply #2 –
You are limited in what you can do in one staff, but you can overlap multiple staves using layering.

Re: Orchestral reduction for piano

Reply #3 –
Certainly layering helps, but this is one instance where there is still a problem even using that technique.

Once notes have tails (almost certain if there are four different note values) then the stacked tails don't overlap properly. Thus if the notes are quaver beamed, then they look like semiquaver beams, and if they are tailed they look like nothing on earth.

Hence a previous request for alterable stem lengths.

BTW the standard NWC quaver beamed note stem is actually too long to start with (IMHO of course). Most of the music I have shows the beam of a treble clef E (bottom line) having its beam resting on the D line, whereas NWC has it touching the F line.

Peter
 

Re: Orchestral reduction for piano

Reply #4 –
Actually you can use 3 staves for piano, two treble and one bass, I've seen it done before in Debussy's preludes(solo piano peices.) A little bit harder to read, but piano wizzes like my mom can /sightread/ it. Sick eh?
Ev