# Chopin - Nocturne in E-flat (ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENT, WITH SCORE)



## prasad94 (Jul 11, 2016)

Hey guys, I just wrote this arrangement in the past 2 days and I'm leaving it out for awhile before I decide whether or not to keep it. It was mostly a practice attempt at transcribing this piece for an orchestra, but I wanted to see it through fully.

I'd like to know what you guys think about it. I chose this piece as I realized that I've never listened to an orchestral version of it, so I could focus on technique instead of using my ear. Some parts were written oddly for MIDI playback purposes, but if there's any bad part-writing, I'd love to learn from the mistakes I'm making.

Chopin - Nocturne in Eb:

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https://soundcloud.com/razkaran%2Fknockturntagain

Score : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9h3_qeMW9ACN25vazQ0VmtJZ0k/view?usp=sharing


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## prasad94 (Jul 11, 2016)

Is this not very good? I'd honestly like to know.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Most of it works. Just a few places that are less than desirable. Before I get to them, there are many, many small notation errors needed to clean up the score that I could comment on, but only if you want that too and I'd only do that by "private message" when I have a chance to look at it all more carefully. Just let me know. 

1) French horns - Anything higher than an untransposed C above middle C, will not be subtle. From there to its top concert pitch F (top of the staff) tends to scream except for your best players. This piece is never about about screaming. The computer will not scream, but real hornists will.

2) Trumpet at rehearsal B too screams because it's so high.

3) From a conductor's viewpoint, trying to coordinate piccolo, flute & all first violinists starting in the third measure after B, will not be easy

4) A celeste? for one note? many amateur orchestras don't have one and the professional's won't hire a player to play that one note.

5) Two harps? and when the only place where both play together they're playing the exact same thing? Again amateur orchestras are lucky if they even actually have a harpist and no professional orchestra will spend money on a second harpist for that


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Not a big fan of Chopin, but an orchestral arrangment of a well worn piece may not be necessary. I hear lots of arrangments also of Dvorak’s New World Largo on the radio, and also feel they are not necessary. I don’t hear anything wrong with the arrangement, though I would like more bass.


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## Omnimusic (Jun 11, 2016)

I am rather opposed to the rearrangement of such a piece. This waltz of Chopin is simply an ingenious masterpiece and needs to be played on a piano with utmost sensitivity. This is not at all as easy as people tend to believe. But by orchestrating and/or embellishing it, maybe in an attempt to "hot it up", the intimate nature and atmosphere is lost. It may sound kind of OK, but for me, it becomes rather uninteresting.

One of the fundamental problems with such arrangements is the difference in timbre. Piano is essentially a percussive instrument, and cannot be imitated correctly by e.g. a violin. Likewise, the sustained sounds from a violin or a wind instrument cannot be reproduced by a piano. It becomes particularly noticable when piano-chords are played by a combination of other instruments, the results may sound totally different, sometimes even horrible. This is not necessarily due an incorrect balance of individual sound levels of the notes, but more due the differences in timbre.

In addition to the things, pointed out by Vasks, I think that there are several deviations/errors ( which also could be called " less desirable solutions") in the harmonic rearragements. (for example at 1´14", 1´23",1´30",2´30", 3´03" ). You might want to have a renewed look at this. And I would suggest to avoid the large orchestral swells. I am of the opinion that these are not suitable for this piece.


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## prasad94 (Jul 11, 2016)

To Vasks and Omnimusic,

Thank you for your comments, they are very much appreciated. I am open to criticisms as I am fairly new to the orchestra (2 years of independent studying). Vasks, I hope you wouldn't mind me contacting you regarding further thoughts on how to correct the more prominent errors in the score.

For now, this is what I have managed to clean up. I am sure there are many errors which I am not aware of that I would like to learn from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9h3_qeMW9ACcUp3aG1RZlg4azA/view?usp=sharing

PS: I wasn't trying to impress with this, but I was told that a good exercise was to transpose a piano-intended piece into an orchestral score. While Chopin isn't intended for the orchestra, I picked this piece because it's one of the few familiar pieces that I have not heard an orchestral rendition of, therefore freeing me of any biases while arranging for instrumentation, etc; after which I would listen to famous orchestral renditions of and spot how mine pales in comparison to that of professionals.


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