ARRANGEMENTS
"Arranging" is the art of taking a piece of music you may not have written and changing it in some creative way that still honors or artistically enhances the original. In the case of old popular standards, some kind of arrangement is practically necessary for contemporary performance, as the published sheet music tends to be simplistic and bare-bones. An arrangement might be nothing more than an artful piano accompaniment to a song, without changing the vocal line. Or it might get more creative, with key changes, or changing the feel of the song, or juggling sections around, or combining one or more songs together to form a medley or mash-up. Arrangements are necessary when there's a change in the type of performer(s) called for-- when a song is arranged for a chorus, for instance. Dance arrangements take tunes that for the most part were meant to be sung, and build out of them new music that can be danced to, very often specifically tailored to detailed choreographic moves. "Orchestration" is a specific type of arranging where the instrumentation of a piece of music is changed-- typically increased from a piano version to a pit orchestra or symphony orchestra, but it can also go the other way, from a large orchestra down to a reduced orchestra.
Successful arrangements require a good deal of artistry, and they clearly encompass a wide variety of applications. Composers tend to get all the credit, but arrangers are often the unsung heroes, if you will, of music. I have enjoyed doing many different kinds of arrangements and orchestrations, and I'd like to share some of them with you here.
"Arranging" is the art of taking a piece of music you may not have written and changing it in some creative way that still honors or artistically enhances the original. In the case of old popular standards, some kind of arrangement is practically necessary for contemporary performance, as the published sheet music tends to be simplistic and bare-bones. An arrangement might be nothing more than an artful piano accompaniment to a song, without changing the vocal line. Or it might get more creative, with key changes, or changing the feel of the song, or juggling sections around, or combining one or more songs together to form a medley or mash-up. Arrangements are necessary when there's a change in the type of performer(s) called for-- when a song is arranged for a chorus, for instance. Dance arrangements take tunes that for the most part were meant to be sung, and build out of them new music that can be danced to, very often specifically tailored to detailed choreographic moves. "Orchestration" is a specific type of arranging where the instrumentation of a piece of music is changed-- typically increased from a piano version to a pit orchestra or symphony orchestra, but it can also go the other way, from a large orchestra down to a reduced orchestra.
Successful arrangements require a good deal of artistry, and they clearly encompass a wide variety of applications. Composers tend to get all the credit, but arrangers are often the unsung heroes, if you will, of music. I have enjoyed doing many different kinds of arrangements and orchestrations, and I'd like to share some of them with you here.
Bewitched from Pal Joey Christine Andreas
This is from a production of Pal Joey that I music directed at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia. "Bewitched" is perhaps the best-known song from that score and a highlight for the show's leading lady, but the original version repeated the same orchestration for all three choruses. Our leading lady Christine Andreas and I agreed that we needed to have the song build more. She wanted it to "stop the show". I built a new arrangement for her and did the orchestration myself for our small 10-piece band. In the 2nd chorus, I stuck closely to the original orchestration, doing more of a straight "reduction", but I went lighter in the 1st chorus, and more dramatic in the 3rd chorus (along with an unexpected key change), so that the effect is one long build to the end. Then for the "encore", I had Christine start unaccompanied, and treated it more off-hand. Christine hit it out of the park, and it did stop the show-- every night! |
Mack the Knife Vocal quartet
In 2007 I arranged and accompanied a program of Kurt Weill songs with four brilliant singers: Allison Blackwell, Leah Hocking, Jeffry Denman, and John Jellison. Here's our finale, a jazzy, Manhattan Transfer-like arrangement of "Mack the Knife". |
Pick Yourself Up Alice Lynn
Here's a playful arrangement of this Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields standard that I did for my wife Alice Lynn's cabaret act, complete with some unexpected mixed meters and slippery key changes. |
Chorale Prelude - America CMU ensemble
One of my favorite pieces of music is Bach's "Wachet Auf", a chorale prelude. Bach wrote a lot of chorale preludes for his cantatas. ("Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is another famous one.) A chorale prelude takes a well-known, simple melody (usually a hymn tune) and embroiders more intricate music around and in between its phrases. In this way, it's a kind of old-fashioned musical arrangement! The "embroidery" music causes us to hear the familiar tune from a different perspective, giving it new freshness and depth. When I was studying 18th century counterpoint as a student at Carnegie Mellon, I wrote this chorale prelude emulating the style of Bach, using "America" ("My Country 'Tis of Thee") as the "hymn" tune. |