# The easiest ensembles to write for?



## Manok

I've mostly spent my entire musical writing for the piano and I've been wanting to branch out. Just recently I decided I knew almost nothing about other instruments beyond what I've heard through my years of listening to classical music. I want to write something larger than one instrument, and that is a common ensemble, like string trio, or quartet. I've always felt that that would be an easy starting point once I knew enough about the instruments to write. Does someone else have another opinion? Maybe a violin and piano piece would be easier to start with?


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## Chordalrock

A symphony doesn't have to include more than strings and a couple of other instruments, might be a more interesting thing than writing a piece entirely for strings. And if you keep the writing simple enough you can probably start with anything you want. Any ensemble, the more virtuosic you make it, the more you have to know about the instruments.


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## Rhombic

Well known groups tend to be easy to balance and achieve the desired sounds.
Do not jump straight to symphonic dimensions, it will take too much work and not be as satisfying as a chamber work. It takes ages to get through sections, as opposed to smaller ensembles, and you will suddenly realise that orchestrating is much more complex and demanding than what you thought. And orchestration is actually a huge deal. And the best way to learn how to write properly for large ensembles is to work with various chamber ones first (an orchestra works both as a chamber group and as a collection of chamber groups - or at least you can view it like that).

From *most useful* to *not-as-useful-though-still-useful*:

2 strings + piano; this would seem familiar and furthermore, very useful for you
instrument + piano; only if you feel that you have severe limitations with instrumentation
string quartet; maybe after the previous one, once you get confidence with strings *within chamber music*
2 clarinets+bass clarinet; great to work for a versatile woodwind trio, and really fun!
wind quintet; ideal to work with winds
brass quintet; same as above, but have a chat with brass players to know limitations


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## Chordalrock

Rhombic said:


> Do not jump straight to symphonic dimensions, it will take too much work


Too much for whom, in what context, in what sense?



Rhombic said:


> and not be as satisfying as a chamber work.


Pure opinion.

To me at least, the possibility of varied orchestration adds so much potential to my musical material that I don't see why anyone would ever compose a string piece when they can use strings AND whatever other instruments they wish.

The best way to conceptualise orchestration is to see it as a way of bringing out the true character of your melodic lines. I rather lament the way that composers tend to treat music as an entirely abstract thing, i.e. they compose pretty much the same way for pretty much all instruments. To me, a certain type of mood works a lot better when it has the timbre of pipe organ, some other kind of music works best as a piano piece, and so on. Too much listening to music too abstractly makes people blind to this sort of thing.

String ensembles are some of the most abstract ensembles you could possibly work with, I think the same goes for piano+one other instrument. If you want to get to the heart of orchestration, I'd recommend something with more options than that.



Rhombic said:


> It takes ages to get through sections, as opposed to smaller ensembles, and you will suddenly realise that orchestrating is much more complex and demanding than what you thought.


Maybe for you.


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## EdwardBast

There is much to recommend starting with short works for standard ensembles. String quartets and wind quintets, for example. This will help you learn the playing characteristics of the individual instruments. Before composing, however, it would be a good idea to listen to some of the best works for these ensembles with score in hand. And it would be a good idea to learn enough about the instruments to know, for example, which strings and fingerings the string players would be likely to use in playing individual passages, what kind of double stops are possible and which are easy and difficult. Read everything you can find in treatises on instrumentation and orchestration.

The best reason for not jumping into orchestral writing I can think of isn't because it is hard or complex, but because the plethora of possibilities is not conducive to discipline. Any idea you have can be executed by some part of the orchestra. Smaller ensembles, on the other hand, force one to vet ones material realistically with specific technical possibilities in mind. 

And in general, don't get bogged down. Be quick to reject ideas that aren't working. Starting over is always better than "polishing a turd," as they say.


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## Pugg

Manok said:


> I've mostly spent my entire musical writing for the piano and I've been wanting to branch out. Just recently I decided I knew almost nothing about other instruments beyond what I've heard through my years of listening to classical music. I want to write something larger than one instrument, and that is a common ensemble, like string trio, or quartet. I've always felt that that would be an easy starting point once I knew enough about the instruments to write. Does someone else have another opinion? Maybe a violin and piano piece would be easier to start with?


The only one, who really knows is you, deep down you do know that .


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## Azol

Ehm... percussion one?
/hides


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## Vasks

Pugg said:


> The only one, who really knows is you, deep down you do know that .


Exactly. The OP should decide what other instruments they might be comfortable with


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