Elastic scoring is a style of

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orc ...

or music

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

that was first used by the Australian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Percy Grainger.

Purpose

This technique of orchestration is used to provide composers with the option of allowing a diverse group of voices or instrumentalists the ability to perform their music.""Grainger, Percy."
by Malcolm Gillies and David Pear,

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

An example of this is when a composer or arranger provides extra

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

parts so a

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

quartet (four flutes) can play the same piece as a group comprising two flutes, alto flute and

bass flute The bass flute is a member of the flute family. It is in the key of C, pitched one octave below the concert flute. Despite its name, its playing range makes it the tenor member of the flute family. Because of the length of its tube (approximate ...

, resulting a choir-like sound. In other words, a subtle re-engineering of the original work. This technique involves making extra and/or interchangeable musical parts which provide substitutions for more or fewer musicians depending on what is required for an individual performance. This also allows a musical work to be played in smaller communities where the required instruments may not always be available. One of the main tenets of elastic scoring is that the new arrangement preserve as much as possible the original interval relationship (to the closest

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

) between notes while not being overly concerned with timbre (tone colour) or number of instruments. Timbre is the aspect of music varied most through changing instrument or number of instruments.

Techniques

Besides providing alternative instrumentation in the form of sheet music parts, the elastic scoring concept allows three subsets of scoring music.

Lateral scoring

Lateral scoring can be said to have occurred when a piece of music is set for one or more instruments from the original number of instruments. An example of this is if a piece of music set for flute and piano is re-scored for

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

and piano. In this instance, the intervallic relationships remain the same, but the tone colour has changed.

Expansion scoring

Expansion scoring is a style of arranging or orchestration that lets composers and arrangers enlarge the original work from a smaller score to a larger one. An example of this is when a

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

is expanded to become a piece for

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

Contraction scoring

Contraction scoring lets composers and arrangers reduce the original work from a larger score to a smaller score, such as when an orchestral work is reduced to piano part. The resulting piano score is more commonly known as a piano reduction.

Composers/Arrangers who use elastic scoring

* Percy Grainger (1882–1961), Australia/United States * Michael Blake (born 1961), South Africa

References

Literature

External links

"Harvest hymn"
(1940) by Percy Grainger, for elastic scoring (2 instruments up to massed orchestra, with or without voices) at the National Library of Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Elastic Scoring Musical notation Musical terminology