Alexander Publishing

Professional Orchestration Volume 2A
Orchestrating the Melody Within The String Section
$59.95, 596 pages, Illustrated
Seperate MP3 audio package available
ISBN-13: 978-0939067060

Order From
Alexander University’s TrueSpec Systems
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Pro Orch 2A Sample
Introduction to Professional Orchestration 2A by Award Winning Composer Garry Schyman

About Volume 2A
Imagine learning the scoring techniques creating the “Hollywood Sound” usually known by only a few top professional film orchestrators and composers. Now for the very first time, starting with Professional Orchestration™, Volume 2A, Orchestrating the Melody Within the String Section, the hidden doors on the techniques you’ve been hearing in the scores of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and others for years, are, at last, finally open. Thus, after months of painstaking research, the “secret formulas” are secret no more. Loaded with references from 35 works in a large full page/full score format (that you can MIDI mock-up at your leisure) are 63 techniques referenced meticulously in the low, medium, high and very high registers which are matched to the optional MP3 audio package where excerpts are heard in the musical context of the scores.

For fast referencing, the techniques are grouped into eight categories: Unisons, Two-Parts, Three-Parts, Four-Parts, Five-Parts, Divisi in Octaves, Divisi in Intervals, and Special Combinations.

Each technique has a brief commentary starting you off on identifying the technique and what else is happening within the score. There are so MIDI mock-up insights.

You’ve been waiting for such a long time to learn and apply all these wonderful techniques. Why wait any longer?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNISON
Chapter 1 - Violins 1 + Violins 2
Chapter 2 - Violins + Violas
Chapter 3 - Violins + Cellos
Chapter 4 - Violas + Cellos
Chapter 5 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Violas
Chapter 6 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Cellos
Chapter 7 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Violas + Cellos

TWO-PARTS
Chapter 8 - Violins 1 - Violins 2
Chapter 9 - Violins 1 (or 2) - Violas
Chapter 10 - Violins – Cellos
Chapter 11 - Violas – Cellos
Chapter 12 - Cellos – Basses
Chapter 13 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 – Violas
Chapter 14 - Violins 1 + ½ Violins 2 – ½ Violins 2 + Violas
Chapter 15 - Violins 1 - Violins 2 + Violas
Chapter 16 - Violas + Cellos - Basses
Chapter 17 - Violas - Cellos + Basses
Chapter 18 - Violins - Violas + Cellos
Chapter 19 - Violins – Violins 2 + Cellos
Chapter 20 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Violas - Cellos
Chapter 21 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Violas - Cellos + Basses
Chapter 22 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 - Violas + Cellos
Chapter 23 - Violins 1 + ½ Violins 2 – ½ Violins 2 + Cellos
Chapter 24 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Violas + Cellos - Basses
Chapter 25 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 - Cellos

THREE-PARTS
Chapter 26 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 - Violas - Cellos
Chapter 27 - Violins 1 + Violas - Cellos - Basses
Chapter 28 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 + Violas - Cellos - Basses
Chapter 29 - Violins 1 – Violins 2 - Violas
Chapter 30 - Violins – Violas - Cellos
Chapter 31 - Violins 1 – Violins 2 – Violas + Cellos
Chapter 32 - Violins 1 – Violins 2 + Violas - Cellos
Chapter 33 - Violas – Cellos - Basses
Chapter 34 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 – Violas + Cellos - Basses
Chapter 35 - Violins 1 + ½ Violins 2 – ½ Violins 2 + ½ Violas – ½ Violas + Cellos
Chapter 36 - Violins 1 – Violins 2 – Violas + ½ Cellos
Chapter 37 - Violins 1 + Violins 2 – Cellos - Basses

FOUR-PARTS
Chapter 38 - Violins 1 - Violins 2 – Violas - Cellos
Chapter 39 - Violins 1 - Violins 2 + Violas – Cellos - Basses

FIVE-PARTS
Chapter 40 - Violins 1 – Violins 2 – Violas – Cellos - Basses

DIVISI IN OCTAVES
Chapter 41 - About Divisi
Chapter 42 - Violins 1 – Violins 1
Chapter 43 - Violas – Violas
Chapter 44 - Cellos – Cellos
Chapter 45 - Basses - Basses

DIVISI IN INTERVALS
Chapter 46 - Violins 1 – Violins 2 playing 3rds
Chapter 47 - Violins Divisi in 3rds
Chapter 48 - Violas Divisi in 3rds
Chapter 49 - Violins Divisi in 6ths
Chapter 50 - Violas Divisi in 6ths

SPECIAL COMBINATIONS
Chapter 51 - Special Combinations of Octaves, Thirds, Sixths & Tenths
Chapter 52 - Violas Divisi + Cellos Divisi in 6ths
Chapter 53 - Violins in 3rds – Violas/Cellos (3rds)
Chapter 54 - Violins 1 in 3rds – Violins 2 in 3rds
Chapter 55 - Violins 1 and Violas in Octaves with Violins 2 Playing Inner harmony part in 3rds
Chapter 56 - Violas and Cellos Doubling on 3rds
Chapter 57 - Multiple 3rds and Sixths
Chapter 58 - More Multiple 3rds and Sixths
Chapter 59 - Vlns 1 + Vlns 2 (3rds) – Violas A + Violas B (3rds)
Chapter 60 - Thirds in Three Octaves
Chapter 61 - Violins and Violas in Sixths
Chapter 62 - Vlns 1 div in 3rds – Violins 2 (top line) + Violas (bottom line)
Chapter 63 - Tenths
Chapter 64 - Violins 2 and Violas in 3rds – Cellos div
Chapter 65 - Violins 2 in 3rds – Cellos in 3rds

Reviews
Daryl Griffith
Conductor, Composer
Orchestrator, Young Visiters (BAFTA winner), Prime Suspect (BAFTA
winner), Harry Potter VI

With Professional Orchestration 2A, Peter Alexander has done a very
good job of making the various doublings and unisons within the
strings section clear, so that you can readily understand what’s going
on, even in some of the more complex examples presented. I was
particularly pleased to see a starting basic section on divisi with
enough information to get the reader thinking and listening, without
delving too much into the finer points.

I think that the choice of musical examples is excellent, and no
composer who wishes to write orchestral music should neglect to know
the scores for these pieces.

This book will be extremely useful, especially to sample based
composers, either striving for improved realism with their
orchestrations, or who wish to transfer their MIDI compositions to a
live ensemble, so I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Author of Professional Orchestration
Peter Lawrence Alexander is an award winning journalist. He’s an accomplished songwriter, composer and orchestrator. Many of his music books endorsed by winners of the Academy®, Grammy®, Emmy® and G.A.N.G. Awards. Mr. Alexander’s books include: Applied Professional Harmony, Professional Orchestration™, How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite, The Instant Composer: Counterpoint by Fux, and Writing for Strings™. His historical fiction works for book and stage include The Road of Blood: The Untold Story of The Good Samaritan, and The Unfaithful Wife: The Story of Hosea and Gomer.