Choosing a title for this post was not easy for what I wished to describe is as fluid as an oil painting, as subtle as a string quartet and as emotional as a masterfully delivery text in a play.
From a musical composer, transcriber, or arranger’s standpoint, the choice of instruments in a composition is as important as the colors on an artist’s pallet or an actor’s interpretation of a text. In each case, there is only one perfect combination of elements to produce a perfect finished product.
This realization was what prompted me to leave my comfortable bed at 3:00 am this morning to place on paper what struck me last night when I scrutinized my most recent transcription of an outstanding vocal composition by the genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Beginning a musical transcription is much like painting by number. Each note can be described as a predefined color and once the painting is completed, it has all of the requirements of art without the craftsmanship of an artist.
Whether you are arranging, transcribing or composing music, your artistic contribution to the world is judged by your ability to choose the most effective colors and transition between colors when producing your work.
To illustrate my point, let me establish a timeline of decisions made as I approached my most recent musical transcription; Misericordias Domini (KV222) by Mozart.
The first time I heard this outstanding vocal composition, I recognized its potential as a possible brass choir rebirth. (1) Eight voices fit perfectly within my current number of players in my brass choir instrumentation. (2) The contrasting homophonic and contrapuntal lines lent themselves to an instrumental substitution. (3) The dynamic contrasts also fit the brass instrument substitution. (4) The solo and doubled melodic lines gave the composition many possibilities for subtle changes in timbre when applied to the possible combinations of brass textures. (5) The allegro tempo sounded even more instrumental than the original vocal version. (6) The actual length (6:13) fit well as a major piece for the brass choir. Once I had determined that my time would be well spent on this project, I began building the foundation for this piece.
The obvious instrumentation could be Trumpets on down the score to the Tuba, but due to the fact that this much change in timbre would not fit the original contrast of voices, I decided to compress this contrast by substituting Cornets in place of the more edgy Trumpets. To my ear, the Cornet is much closer to the Soprano voice than is to the more penetrating Trumpet. The Bass voice could easily be replaced by the Tuba which not only had the most effective range, but the stylistic bass parts followed the usual function of a Tuba part which is to define the foundation for all chordal progressions. The two lowest parts in the vocal score were most often doubled which lent themselves to the common practice of doubling Tuba and Baritone Horn (Euphonium) parts in most Brass Choir scores.
Now, with the outer parts decided, the middle instruments must be defined. Traditional instrumentation would be Horns (French Horns) and Trombones, but I realized that with the Cornets, Euphonium and Tuba, I had chosen all conical instruments. Adding Trombones would negate the vocal sound by adding a cylindrical instrument; so the Horn is in and the Trombone is out.
After rummaging through the remaining possibilities for the final instrument, I decided to include Flugel horns which are readily available in most brass ensembles. That decision turned out to be the best choice as the project progressed.
Reassigning parts to the new instruments was easy and within a few hours I had my first draft of the score completed. Working with midi instruments is a drag but to invite your friends over to run through your first draft is not the best way to keep them on your speed dial.
Upon listening to the first playback of the score, I was amazed at the similarity of the brass and vocal representations. Each part could be heard clearly through even the most complex sections. The entry of solo parts seemed so natural and the contrast between the homophonic and contrapuntal sections was outstanding. The timbre was uniform and each part seemed to have a life of its own. The only thing lacking was the text.
The final score includes the following- Cornets (2), Horns (2), Flugels (2), Euphonium (1), Tuba (1).
Determining the success of any project is obviously in the eye of the beholder, but from where I sit (Denton, Texas at 5:00am) I am very pleased with the final outcome. I would be interested in other opinions and if you have time, let me know what you think (brucechidester@hotmail.com) Please list on the Subject line “Living in the Inseparable Worlds of Art, Music and Drama”.
