Hiding Behind Orchestration

Having the sound of a full symphony orchestra at your fingertips to play with is always exciting and opens up endless possibilities for interesting soundscapes. However, orchestration should never be a tool to compensate for a weak composition.

Of course it is quite easy to cover up uninspired music with exciting orchestration. Working actively as an orchestrator often means to try and save music with orchestration from being banal. But your music should never have to hide behind the orchestration. Always try to imagine if the music that you’re currently writing would also be interesting if it was just a piano reduction.

Writing music that works mostly based on impressive symphonic soundscapes might do the trick in many cases and probably also please many clients but it will not be truly good music.