10-18-2022, 12:10 AM
(10-17-2022, 10:43 PM)Terry93D Wrote: A big part of the sound of bigness is doubling at the fifth and the octave—a bit at the third, too, but given that at the bass range this starts to muddy up the frequencies, the tendency is to favor the fifth and the octave and just sneak a third in there on an instrument or two. Take Jerry Goldsmith's theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It's very simple, usually two or three parts at once, and yet it sounds very rich and grand. If you take a look at Brad Frey's reduction, lots of doubling at the fifth and octave. (The weight of the third gets overstated bc you can't 100% display how many instruments are doubling at that interval.)
William's "Duel of the Fates" (reduced here by David McCaulley) works similarly, as does his alternation between timbres. Look at the first minute: open in choir, and then instantly, strings ostinato with very quiet held note in the bass clarinet and motifs in the contrabass. melody first in a mix of wind instruments, dbled in octaves. Then Williams adds a doubling layer to the ostinato. Harp glissando to take us into the horn repeating that same melody—now with trombones playing a semi-canonic countermelody. Williams thickens the ostinato again, this time with winds, and adds a quiet, alternating toms pattern. When the choir comes back in, Williams changes the piece up by adding in an ostinato and trumpet flourishes. By the time you get to a minute and a half, you have two ostinatos, plus the choral motif and melody in the brass, all of it doubled across octaves.
The second component is that I think the music could do with a little bit more reverb: the size of the space the orchestra's performing in is another component, and it can go along way—after all, depending on your aims, you may not want layers and layers of octave doubling.
(Instrument doubling can do the same thing. Flutes can blend with strings; bassoons with horns; bassoons with celli; a couple quiet horns can back up a midrange string part; a single trumpet can really make a (relatively) high horn part pop from the texture; combine a bassoon and an alto flute and you get a magical texture reminiscent of a horn; take a bass clarinet and some bassoons, and you've created an artificial horn trio; mix a piano quietly enough that you can't really make it out as a member of the ensemble and you've got something that can add a little bit of sharp attack and weight to damn near any instrument in the orchestra.)
Thanks, Terry! Yes, the whole doubling of octaves and fifths and not so much thirds is always in my head, but sometimes I seem to ignore my own advice, as it were. I always appreciate the suggestions for tone-blending, too! Also, thanks for the examples! I never spend much time with Star Trek music, but I actually always really like it...