Score reading

[kriskicksass]

I'm not sure if this is the right board for this. Oh well.

My teacher recommended that I learn to read orchestral scores at sight since he thinks that I'm going to end up a conductor. I know how to read all of the orchestral staves and I'm getting the hang of transposing instruments, but does anyone know of any pieces that are fairly easy to read from score that I might try? What about books?

[pianistimo]

maybe the shorter genre?  like suites or preludes.  just to get your feet wet.  also, what about helping out in the highschool orchestra?  i think to have hands on is much better than with a record.  i only took one conducting class in college - but it was a lot of fun.  you get addicted - like with piano - because there is so much to learn. 

[kriskicksass]

Thanks for the input, pianistimo. I'm actually getting ready to go to college and I plan to take at least one conducting class while I'm there, plus the musicianship class where I'm going teaches/requires score reading. I was just looking for something to get a head start.

[Bob]

Read from the bottom up.

The bottom notes and the meldoy (usually upper voice somewhere) are the most important.

Figure out what's doubled.  Conserve brain power.


Look for very easy band or orchestra pieces -- grade 1.  Beginner ensemble music.  You'll see the patterns there.  Don't start with a full professional classical piece -- It's a lot more complicated.

I wouldn't mess with a school group.  Just work on the scores yourself.  I've never seen (or done) a conductor playing the score on a piano for an ensemble.  It's just a way to study the score.

I'm not an expert at it and haven't done it too much.  I know it gets easier and easier.  It looks complicated at first, but there's not as much there as it appears -- You have to be good at transposing Bb, Eb, F mainly.  And there are tricks, like knowing the lower instruments probably aren't tranposed , most instruments sound lower than they're written if they are transposed, etc.  I keep the key of the piece in mind and "see" the transposed parts as being "pulled up/down" from the 'real' notes.

I'm not satisfied with what I've done for reading/playing a score on the piano.  Let us know what you figure out, like any tricks or tips.  I get caught up with scanning vertically and getting the chord, doing that instantly (or faster than instantly) -- hence the top/bottom approach. 

There are all the transposition games, but being practical -- you don't have to tranpose everything every which way.

For my 'harmonically challenged score reading' the advantage of the beginning pieces is that the harmonies are also simpler.  I remember a nice ah-ha moment when I realized I kept coming up with the same chords.... in all the beginner pieces...  I IV V....  piece after piece after piece.... shocking!  :p

I think there's another thread about this on the site too.

The conducting classes in college, like all, are more like "Introduction to..." classes.  Conducting is just as much work as playing an instrument.  It's a different take on things too -- more analysis.  There still is technique though too.  The beginning conducting classes are like cookie cutter conducting, and then loads of transposition garbage thrown at you.  You have to prepare real pieces just like you would piano.  And better yet, have an ensemble to respond to you  -- that sonic mirror for your gestures.  But that's going beyond just score study.

[richard black]

Start with baroque stuff and work forward historically. In a typical Handel score there are only 4 or 5 staves altogether, with at most one in an awkward clef (viola in the alto clef) and one transposing instrument (usually horn or trumpet). Mozart and Haydn seldom had more than about 10 staves in early works, maybe 15 in later ones. Don't bust your head if you have trouble sight-reading R. Strauss works with 25 staves and 10 transposing instruments - only one or two people per generation, worldwide, can really do that.

[ahinton]

Start with baroque stuff and work forward historically. In a typical Handel score there are only 4 or 5 staves altogether, with at most one in an awkward clef (viola in the alto clef) and one transposing instrument (usually horn or trumpet). Mozart and Haydn seldom had more than about 10 staves in early works, maybe 15 in later ones. Don't bust your head if you have trouble sight-reading R. Strauss works with 25 staves and 10 transposing instruments - only one or two people per generation, worldwide, can really do that.

Which is perhaps why Schönberg adopted the "all instruments in C" policy, although in his later works he also adopted strangely vague "conventions" that at times made it well less than clear which instrument was supposed to play which line. I always write all orchestral parts at pitch in the score, with the exceptions of the conventional transposition at the octave of those for piccolo, contrabassoon and double basses. The problems in early to mid classical times is when unusual horn crooks were called for and the transpositions across an entire orchestral score could become quite horrendously unreadable. It's vital, of course, to be thoroughly familiar with the alto clef which is the viola's principal clef, as well as with the tenor clef which is frequently used by the cello and the bassoon (although, given the wide range of the former, some people avoid the tenor clef in favour of yusing bass and treble clefs only in cello writing rather than having to resort to all three clefs).

The most difficult tranposing instrument (as you, dear Richard, know all too well!) is the voice; how often does the singer say to the long-suffering pianist "this is not in "my" key", thereby tacitly expecting him/her to transpose à l'instant?...

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

The most difficult tranposing instrument (as you, dear Richard, know all too well!) is the voice; how often does the singer say to the long-suffering pianist "this is not in "my" key", thereby tacitly expecting him/her to transpose à l'instant?...

Best,

Alistair

WAY too often

[ahinton]

WAY too often

Many years ago when I was a student and I endeavoured to do abit of piano playing, a soprano who had somehow managed to persuade me to rehearse with her and accompany her in an audition asked me if I would transpose a particular song (I can't now remember what it was) up a minor third from the key of B flat minor to that of C# minor and, as I blanched at the prospect of doing this at sight, she said, "oh, come on, that's not so difficult" and proceeded to do it herself. Not the happiest moment in my life...

Singers like that don't grow on trees, of course (well, not on trees this side of Elysium, anyway)...

Best,

Alistair

[invictious]

I have quite some orchestral scores (happy printing galore at school), and I always play my imaginary orchestra in my mind. Of course, my orchestra consists of people from this forum, I am just looking to hire my imaginary pianist from here for my Rachmaninov piano concerto

I find reading the scores difficult too, with 16 instruments to look at, I can't just focus on the 'Archi' Section.
So I grab a red pen, and circle entries.
Cheating, but heck.

[mattgreenecomposer]

I would go with some of the early Haydn symphonies.  I find score reading to be very difficult, but I found that practice reading string quartets is a good exercise as well. 
If you don't have it buy Preperatory Exercises in Score reading by R.O. Morris and Ferguson-it should help.