I never formally studied music theory, not beyond what I was taught during the years I was learning and studying classical piano, by my three teachers. It's probably precisely because I know nothing of it, formally, and especially of how to write an actual orchestra score, that I have managed to thoroughly enjoy the hell out of a totally private (and likely to be perceived uber-geeky) hobby of mine: turning popular music and songs into orchestra scores.
Of course, it helps to have familiarity with the various instruments in the orchestra, as well the understanding of melodies and harmonies, of keys and staffs, of meters and tempos, of musical definitions and variations. You also can't--unless you are possibly Beethoven or Mozart reincarnated--attempt any writing down of the score without at least a plain keyboard to sound things out on.
(Yeah, the perfect pitch helps, too.)
If you have all those, and if you find yourself particularly enamored of popular songs that (a) are already multi-layered composition or (b)already leveraging some time of classical instrument used in a standard orchestra (c)having both strong melody and harmony (d) all of the above, then I think it's natural to start imagining how those songs would sound played out as a symphony. Well, it was natural for me.
It's a fairly straight-forward, though time consuming endeavour for me. First, of course, I have to recognize a song as being a good candidate. Usually, I'll catch myself thinking about the adaption of a particular piece on a grander scale, rather than deliberately seeking out something that might lend itself to the effort-in other words, the song comes to me, instead of the other way around. Then, there is the many, many, many playbacks to figure out the core notes, and then subsequent breakdown into the basic melody and harmony, figuring out key and meter and tempo along the way.
Then come the additional harmonies and melodies in the various layers. Once that's done, the fun really begins: trying to decide which instrument(s) to assign which part, which I usually do by looking at the song in 15 second increments (or at least, start out there. Sometimes I have to do shorter or longer ones). Around this time, I start thinking about whether I want to convert the song straight, with only some basic variation, or start playing around with changing the nature of the piece's composition a bit more prominently, say by invoking inversion (like a fugue or even the simpler invention).
I know there is software and special MIDI boards that would probably make my life a heck of a lot easier when I get the urge to convert, and take things out of my head and even somewhat out of my hands, but so much of what I enjoy about this whole thing is precisely the way I go about doing it, that is keeping it very much in my head and, in as bares bones a fashion as possible.
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Two of my most listened to bands, growing up, are also two of my most favored ones for orchestration: Queen and The Rolling Stones. Which, of course, should be no surprise to anyone who's ever really listened to their music. To be perfectly accurate, though, I mean specifically The Stones music from the Brian Jones era; even if he is not credited with writing the music and lyrics, he certainly influenced the arrangements,which is what makes them so attractive--I mean, dulcimer on 'Lady Jane'? Recorder on 'Ruby Tuesday'? Sheer genius! (Sidenote: I am one of those who firmly believe he wrote Ruby Tuesday; only someone with that level of music and instrument knowledge could pen that, and certainly not Keith Richards.)
As for Queen, the best albums that showcase their dedication to vocal harmonies and multitracking (which is, of course, again best suited for orchestration) are 'A Night At The Opera', 'A Day At the Races', and their very last one, 'Innuendo'--obvious choices, all, of course. (It's tempting to include 'Queen II', but surprisingly (because of the same initially perceived complexity), so much of the orchestration work actually feels "done" on the songs; the songs are not quite as much of a challenge as, say, 'The Millionaire's Waltz', which appears just as done, at first, but KILLED me [in a good way, of course!] with its complex bass line and multitracking!)
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In comparison to those composition, the Vampire Weekend song, Ottoman, seems rather elementary and even unworthy of all this effort. I realized, though, that my increasing favorable opinion of the song had not so much to do with it sounding derivative (as I noted earlier) or too commonly popularly inclined (apparently, the band was voted whitest band ever by the site that prides itself on identifying, very much tongue in cheek, what white [middle class] people like*).
It had to do with the fact that I could really see this song lending itself to orchestration, which indicates a level of complexity, no matter how subtle or 'common'. Yes, it is not giving me anywhere near the frustration the Queen songs did and do, but that's exactly the level of complexity I need right now to enjoy this latest example, without getting worked up. I have enough to get worked up over in general, without needing more in what is supposed to be my down time.
I'm pretty much at the point of choosing the instruments which is possibly my favorite part of the whole process, especially since I'm finding it easy to include violas, which I love, and the clarinet and flute and piccolo, again all instruments I love, which means a nice sultry sound with piquant over and undertones.
(By the way, don't ask me how I figure out or 'hear' the various instruments, when I am not using any aid of any kind. I do. I don't know how, but I do. Possibly if I actually used a MIDI keyboard of some kind, things would sound different than they do in my head and while it would probably be a far more accurate representation, it wouldn't be how I like hearing it. It's not like I am publishing any of this, anyway; it's very much a for my eyes only activity.)
I think I'll be done, barring anything out of the ordinary happening (hah!) this weekend. Sweet.
* I have a whole rant written up in my head about people who insist on dismissing or deriding other people's musical tastes. Music is subjective, personal, and meant to be enjoyed by someone, even if that is not you. Do I think a lot of music out there--and I most definitely include the hip, indie, too cool for school genres--are crap. I don't think any less of you for liking it or wanting to listen to it; I'd be more likely to think so if you didn't like any music at all.
