Fan Orchestra

British television shows Doctor Who and Sherlock have a rabid fan following. But, they also have really good music soundtracks, too. Put them both together, add a little social media and through the wonder of the internet you get fan orchestras. Fan orchestras are groups of fans(I guess that part is obvious) who play the soundtrack music from their favorite television programs together on the internet.

Both Doctor Who and Sherlock have their own respective orchestra. The Sherlock Fan Orchestra boasts over 500 members, the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra(DWFO) has grown a similar amount. Stephen Willis (founder and co-ordinator of the DWFO) started the orchestra while working on an arrangement of "I Am the Doctor" by Murray Gold on (composition software) Sibelius. He thought it was too bad no one would ever play his arrangement. But then he was vaguely reminded of a YouTube orchestra starting up.

First the organizers pick a specific piece from the show and transcribe(write down what music they hear) and arrange it. Then they e-mail the parts out to the orchestra members along with a click tracked version of the piece(so that members are able to keep time with the music). Using a good microphone and a pair of headphones, the orchestra members then video record themselves playing their parts. The parts are then sent back to the organizers who combine and balance the video recordings into a virtual orchestra. Here are two examples:

I can find no word on what composers Murray Gold(Doctor Who), Micheal Price and David Arnold(Sherlock) think about the groups. But, since both shows seem to appreciate the creativeness of their fandom, the reaction is positive from the show's current creative teams. In fact, during a during a recent Sherlock panel, the fan orchestra was briefly lauded. Virtual music groups are becoming more common because of the prevalence of the internet. Composer/conductor Eric Whitacre gave a live virtual performance of a work he had written at a TED Talk just last year. But, these two are the first instances of fans of specific television shows getting together as an orchestra.

Do other television programs have their own orchestra? Not that I can find. But, since these groups have established a method to do what they do, I expect Star Trek, Star Wars and (video game)Zelda fans to attempt something like this soon, if they haven't already. I'm signing up for both orchestras if time permits, just because I think the idea is nifty. Both groups have Facebook pages:

https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWhoFanOrchestra

https://www.facebook.com/sherlockfanorchestra