Message 3/12
Date: 27-Mar-02 @ 07:12 AM -
RE: voicing string sections
when you arrange things like strings it's best to think of each individual part as seperate melodies. if they work as melodies on their own then it'll be a stronger arrangement. the 'internal' parts (between the top part and the bottom part) might not have very 'interesting' melodies, but that's ok.
then again you can have the top part (or bottom) not moving very much and have more interesting internal parts. holding bottom notes as a 'pedal' can be very effective.
things to avoid are parallel 5ths. (and 8ths, but they're not as bad as 5ths) parallel fifths are when you havs an interval of a fifth between two parts on 2 or more consecutive 'notes'. this is considered to be very bad, i have no idea why.