Full Band
The Birkat Hamazon, the grace after meals, has a very fun traditional melody (which apparently dates to 80 years ago or so), so I decided to set it for band. On Shabbat and festivals, the Birkat Hamazon is preceded by Psalm 126, labeled (like many others in that section of the Tanach) "Shir Hamaalot", or "Song of Ascents", where the meaning of "ascents", according to my JPS Jewish Study Bible, is unclear and possibly refers to steps of the temple or something similar. Here, then, I have set this Song of Ascents for wind orchestra, with an attempt to emulate, to some extent, Percy Grainger. The Birkat proper will follow.
Listen to Grace - I - Song of Ascents (right-click to download)
Showing posts with label wind orchestra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wind orchestra. Show all posts
Friday, July 11, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Irish Tune
I have before me the score to Percy Grainger's vocal setting of the Irish Tune from County Derry, set in 1902, and published in 1912, the same year as a songwriter first published some words he had written earlier with the same tune, the words being named "Danny Boy". Apparently, the song is not so Irish:
http://www.standingstones.com/dannyboy.html
That's a very interesting explanation of the history of this song known by Americans everywhere as Danny Boy and connected to Ireland, and it attempts to explain why it's so completely uncharacteristic of Irish music at the time it was collected. But say what you will about Percy Grainger and his personal beliefs and habits, this is a frickin' masterful setting, and I really want to learn how to write like this. Here's one version played by a string orchestra. It's exactly the same as the choral version I'm looking at, except it's played by strings instead of voices (the voices actually do some cool stuff with humming and vowels, but that's not the relevant point), and the first half of the second time through the melody is up an octave.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7w9vVGnxvA
Anyway, Grainger is awesome -- he's very particular about writing directions in English. No "cresc." or "dim." Instead, you find "louden lots" and "slow off lots" and "much to the fore" and "accompanyingly". I just thought that was exceedingly cute. The point of this is that I actually want to learn to write like he does and compose a similar setting for other music, namely a particular melody for Shir Hamaalot. The tune's apparently by a P. Minkowsky. I can't tell when this recording is from, but the cantor in it died in 1933, so it's got that beautiful grainy sound you get from old music.
http://www.chazzanut.com/rosenblatt/rosenblatt-notes.html
The eventual goal here is to compose a wind orchestra setting for the entire Birkat haMazon, the Jewish grace after meals, and while the Shir Hamaalot is not exactly part of the Birkat itself, it's sung before it, as part of the ritual, on Shabbat. The real challenge will be to make the chanting in the body of the Birkat playable by an ensemble and not boring. The Birkat haMazon is a rather long series of blessings, about six to seven minutes in total, mostly split between chanting and very upbeat major melodies with motifs that repeat throughout. Apparently this is generally due to Mordecai Kaplan in the 1920's (http://jewsbychoice.org/2007/10/25/jewish-ritual-on-the-rise-in-america/), though there's one section in there that's often sung to a tune very different from the rest of it -- it's got a minor mode, unlike the rest of it, and sequences, which suggests a more modern Israeli style. You can see the Pesach version in the Harmoniot shel Pesach:
http://web.mit.edu/braunst/www/Harmoniot.pdf
Anyway, I'll post when it's completed, if ever. The Shir Hamaalot will be first, and separate; to make the analogy even further, and this isn't exactly out of emulation but because it's just working this way, it will be like Grainger's publication for band, with Irish Tune from County Derry and Shepherd's Hey (a much faster and upbeat tune) on the same sheet of paper, like a B-side, if you will. I also want to learn how to write like he writes his fast music, but that's for later. (:
http://www.standingstones.com/dannyboy.html
That's a very interesting explanation of the history of this song known by Americans everywhere as Danny Boy and connected to Ireland, and it attempts to explain why it's so completely uncharacteristic of Irish music at the time it was collected. But say what you will about Percy Grainger and his personal beliefs and habits, this is a frickin' masterful setting, and I really want to learn how to write like this. Here's one version played by a string orchestra. It's exactly the same as the choral version I'm looking at, except it's played by strings instead of voices (the voices actually do some cool stuff with humming and vowels, but that's not the relevant point), and the first half of the second time through the melody is up an octave.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7w9vVGnxvA
Anyway, Grainger is awesome -- he's very particular about writing directions in English. No "cresc." or "dim." Instead, you find "louden lots" and "slow off lots" and "much to the fore" and "accompanyingly". I just thought that was exceedingly cute. The point of this is that I actually want to learn to write like he does and compose a similar setting for other music, namely a particular melody for Shir Hamaalot. The tune's apparently by a P. Minkowsky. I can't tell when this recording is from, but the cantor in it died in 1933, so it's got that beautiful grainy sound you get from old music.
http://www.chazzanut.com/rosenblatt/rosenblatt-notes.html
The eventual goal here is to compose a wind orchestra setting for the entire Birkat haMazon, the Jewish grace after meals, and while the Shir Hamaalot is not exactly part of the Birkat itself, it's sung before it, as part of the ritual, on Shabbat. The real challenge will be to make the chanting in the body of the Birkat playable by an ensemble and not boring. The Birkat haMazon is a rather long series of blessings, about six to seven minutes in total, mostly split between chanting and very upbeat major melodies with motifs that repeat throughout. Apparently this is generally due to Mordecai Kaplan in the 1920's (http://jewsbychoice.org/2007/10/25/jewish-ritual-on-the-rise-in-america/), though there's one section in there that's often sung to a tune very different from the rest of it -- it's got a minor mode, unlike the rest of it, and sequences, which suggests a more modern Israeli style. You can see the Pesach version in the Harmoniot shel Pesach:
http://web.mit.edu/braunst/www/Harmoniot.pdf
Anyway, I'll post when it's completed, if ever. The Shir Hamaalot will be first, and separate; to make the analogy even further, and this isn't exactly out of emulation but because it's just working this way, it will be like Grainger's publication for band, with Irish Tune from County Derry and Shepherd's Hey (a much faster and upbeat tune) on the same sheet of paper, like a B-side, if you will. I also want to learn how to write like he writes his fast music, but that's for later. (:
Monday, October 1, 2007
The Mask of the Elven King
Full Band
After the success of Mystic Gate, I wanted to write another videogame suite. I started this in the summer of 2005 and haven't worked on it much since the winter following, so movements will come up as I write them, eventually. This "game" is more like Secret of Mana, or even Zelda, than like Chrono Trigger, and the name comes from Alex Ellis, who came up with it when I saw him on the street. The four-note fanfare-like theme at the beginning of the overture (II) is based on the melody that came through my head when I was reading the name of the creator god, Iluvatar, in the Silmarillion. The movements this time are more terrain-based.
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - I - Introduction (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - III - Forest (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Cavern (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Mountain (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - The Earth Shard (right-click to download)
After the success of Mystic Gate, I wanted to write another videogame suite. I started this in the summer of 2005 and haven't worked on it much since the winter following, so movements will come up as I write them, eventually. This "game" is more like Secret of Mana, or even Zelda, than like Chrono Trigger, and the name comes from Alex Ellis, who came up with it when I saw him on the street. The four-note fanfare-like theme at the beginning of the overture (II) is based on the melody that came through my head when I was reading the name of the creator god, Iluvatar, in the Silmarillion. The movements this time are more terrain-based.
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - I - Introduction (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - III - Forest (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Cavern (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Mountain (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - The Earth Shard (right-click to download)
To Sepharad (Full Band)
Full Band
Since To Sepharad was originally written for a brass octet (and you can find a better description of the music and meaning on its other post), and the brass octet is a fairly large ensemble, I decided that the piece would be appropriate for transcription to a larger ensemble, with percussion. The chimes are now actual chimes in the third movement. I changed the octaves of several things -- trombone solos became Eb clarinet solos, two octaves higher, for example -- and I played around with instrumental color, especially in the second movement. These are not new movements, but they do have a new flavor.
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)
Since To Sepharad was originally written for a brass octet (and you can find a better description of the music and meaning on its other post), and the brass octet is a fairly large ensemble, I decided that the piece would be appropriate for transcription to a larger ensemble, with percussion. The chimes are now actual chimes in the third movement. I changed the octaves of several things -- trombone solos became Eb clarinet solos, two octaves higher, for example -- and I played around with instrumental color, especially in the second movement. These are not new movements, but they do have a new flavor.
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)
Symphony No. 1
Full Band
Here it is: a symphony. Well, part of a symphony: I've only written the first two movements. I drew inspiration from various composers; I want to say Persichetti (Symphony No. 6) and Sparke (Dance Movements), but also Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5) and Ito ("La Vita" Symphony). The first movement is in traditional syphonic sonata form, though the tempo varies a bit, and it's not really in any key: I don't use traditional chord functions much, so you could call it mostly atonal, but in reality that's not very descriptive. I had originally intended this to be a piece in Bb lydian -- I was really going to call it Lemonade River; I may still write one -- hence the first measure, but by measure 4 or so it became clear that this wasn't happening, so I figured now would be a good time as any to write my first symphony. Around measure 5, which is in 7/4 rather than the intro 5/4, I decided not to be confined by time signatures, so you will never hear more than two measures in a row in the same time signature except for four bars of 5/4 a couple of times. Time signatures are constraining, because they have their own pattern of accents that the music has to agree with. Here, I let the music dictate the time signature instead of the reverse, which means that the music's natural accents indicate each new measure rather than the other way around. When I feel like it I'll do a statistical analysis of the time signatures, but they range from 2/4 to a case of 8/4, with 3, 4, and 5 being rather frequent, 2 and 6 less so, and 7 even less so. That's because 7 feels like a run-on -- if there were a secondary emphasis, the measure would have been broken. The second movement continues the principle of changing time signatures, but since the tempo is much slower, fractional beats abound -- 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, and even a 9/8 or two, sometimes using compound meter but usually just having one beat longer than the others. Anyway, have a listen. I have yet to compose the other two movements, but be patient!
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - I - Moderato (right-click to download)
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - II - Adagio (right-click to download)
Here it is: a symphony. Well, part of a symphony: I've only written the first two movements. I drew inspiration from various composers; I want to say Persichetti (Symphony No. 6) and Sparke (Dance Movements), but also Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5) and Ito ("La Vita" Symphony). The first movement is in traditional syphonic sonata form, though the tempo varies a bit, and it's not really in any key: I don't use traditional chord functions much, so you could call it mostly atonal, but in reality that's not very descriptive. I had originally intended this to be a piece in Bb lydian -- I was really going to call it Lemonade River; I may still write one -- hence the first measure, but by measure 4 or so it became clear that this wasn't happening, so I figured now would be a good time as any to write my first symphony. Around measure 5, which is in 7/4 rather than the intro 5/4, I decided not to be confined by time signatures, so you will never hear more than two measures in a row in the same time signature except for four bars of 5/4 a couple of times. Time signatures are constraining, because they have their own pattern of accents that the music has to agree with. Here, I let the music dictate the time signature instead of the reverse, which means that the music's natural accents indicate each new measure rather than the other way around. When I feel like it I'll do a statistical analysis of the time signatures, but they range from 2/4 to a case of 8/4, with 3, 4, and 5 being rather frequent, 2 and 6 less so, and 7 even less so. That's because 7 feels like a run-on -- if there were a secondary emphasis, the measure would have been broken. The second movement continues the principle of changing time signatures, but since the tempo is much slower, fractional beats abound -- 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, and even a 9/8 or two, sometimes using compound meter but usually just having one beat longer than the others. Anyway, have a listen. I have yet to compose the other two movements, but be patient!
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - I - Moderato (right-click to download)
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - II - Adagio (right-click to download)
The One-Armed Tailor
Full Band
This is a Jewish-American wind ensemble composition, finished July 16, 2006. It was inspired by "Tevye the Dairyman", a collection of short stories by Sholom Aleichem; the title is some image Tevye used somewhere (I don't remember where). I did analyze much of Jerry Bock's "Fiddler on the Roof" score, so there are some stylistic similarities, but I also listened to other Jewish music. There is a very extended clarinet solo. It's cool. As I said, it's for wind ensemble, though I'm in the habit of including a prominent string bass part. The scale I used mostly is an interesting one: phrygian with raised third. I say that because the second step functions very much like a phrygian second, and bII holds almost a dominant position to I. Interestingly, substituting a raised fourth for the fifth in bII makes a tritone with an interesting resolution; in the key of C, this is Db F G to C E G. It's a pretty characteristic Spanish sound, which is interesting because the Spanish modality has strong resemblances to Jewish and Arabic modalities. I'm not sure how this character made its way through the cultures, though my guess is that the Arabs spread it to Spain and to the new Muslims everywhere in the Muslim world, and the Jews lived mostly around the Muslims. But this is a stupid guess. Reality may look very different.
This piece is ideal for a band who wants to show off its clarinetist, but it isn't a concerto or anything. I'd say it's near the borderline, though not on it or past it. The reason, of course, is the very prominent role of the clarinet in klezmer music. Kontakt Player actually has a decent clarinet patch; the high notes sound like they would on a clarinet: squeaky. However, the recording doesn't capture ad libs at all -- obviously. Local variations in tempo by the soloist, lip bends (there should be no other kind in this piece), and the like would sound better in real life. Still, here you go. (:
Listen to The One-Armed Tailor (right-click to download)
This is a Jewish-American wind ensemble composition, finished July 16, 2006. It was inspired by "Tevye the Dairyman", a collection of short stories by Sholom Aleichem; the title is some image Tevye used somewhere (I don't remember where). I did analyze much of Jerry Bock's "Fiddler on the Roof" score, so there are some stylistic similarities, but I also listened to other Jewish music. There is a very extended clarinet solo. It's cool. As I said, it's for wind ensemble, though I'm in the habit of including a prominent string bass part. The scale I used mostly is an interesting one: phrygian with raised third. I say that because the second step functions very much like a phrygian second, and bII holds almost a dominant position to I. Interestingly, substituting a raised fourth for the fifth in bII makes a tritone with an interesting resolution; in the key of C, this is Db F G to C E G. It's a pretty characteristic Spanish sound, which is interesting because the Spanish modality has strong resemblances to Jewish and Arabic modalities. I'm not sure how this character made its way through the cultures, though my guess is that the Arabs spread it to Spain and to the new Muslims everywhere in the Muslim world, and the Jews lived mostly around the Muslims. But this is a stupid guess. Reality may look very different.
This piece is ideal for a band who wants to show off its clarinetist, but it isn't a concerto or anything. I'd say it's near the borderline, though not on it or past it. The reason, of course, is the very prominent role of the clarinet in klezmer music. Kontakt Player actually has a decent clarinet patch; the high notes sound like they would on a clarinet: squeaky. However, the recording doesn't capture ad libs at all -- obviously. Local variations in tempo by the soloist, lip bends (there should be no other kind in this piece), and the like would sound better in real life. Still, here you go. (:
Listen to The One-Armed Tailor (right-click to download)
Mystic Gate Suite
Full Band
This was my first "long" composition project -- it's twenty-five minutes long, with twelve or so movements, depending on how you count them. It is a suite from the game "Mystic Gate", which has not ever nor will ever be written (at least not to my knowledge). Think of it as a symphonic version of the soundtrack. It contains many musical scenes from the game, an SNES RPG like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III/6j, and somewhere or another there is a gate which is closed after the final boss. This is all in the "program". Of course, this is not actually an SNES RPG soundtrack; it's a long work native for band. But it's cool. You can also pick out influences, if you're clever -- In Town sounds not unlike a Japanese march, more specifically one of the town themes from FF8, and if the waltz in the Finale resembles the Waltz to the Moon, also from FF8, that is no coincidence. Danger and Battle may remind you of FF5, perhaps, and the Fanfare may remind you of Donkey Kong Country, which is where I got the idea to even have a fanfare (like the blinking Nintendo logo in Mario games). And that little clarinet and flute run in the Overture is very... videogamey, no? The drums in the Battle? Enjoy; I worked my ass off for this one.
Remember, of course, that this is a crappy "recording", so the balance will be off, crescendi and diminuendi won't sound right, and that weird-sounding strident modified English horn is actually a soprano saxophone (damn Kontakt Player for not including one).
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - I - Fanfare (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - III - Danger! (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IV - In Town (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - V - Love (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VI - Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VII - Dungeon (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VIII - Overworld (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IX - Dark Tower (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - X - Final Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIa - Finale (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIb - Credits (right-click to download)
This was my first "long" composition project -- it's twenty-five minutes long, with twelve or so movements, depending on how you count them. It is a suite from the game "Mystic Gate", which has not ever nor will ever be written (at least not to my knowledge). Think of it as a symphonic version of the soundtrack. It contains many musical scenes from the game, an SNES RPG like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III/6j, and somewhere or another there is a gate which is closed after the final boss. This is all in the "program". Of course, this is not actually an SNES RPG soundtrack; it's a long work native for band. But it's cool. You can also pick out influences, if you're clever -- In Town sounds not unlike a Japanese march, more specifically one of the town themes from FF8, and if the waltz in the Finale resembles the Waltz to the Moon, also from FF8, that is no coincidence. Danger and Battle may remind you of FF5, perhaps, and the Fanfare may remind you of Donkey Kong Country, which is where I got the idea to even have a fanfare (like the blinking Nintendo logo in Mario games). And that little clarinet and flute run in the Overture is very... videogamey, no? The drums in the Battle? Enjoy; I worked my ass off for this one.
Remember, of course, that this is a crappy "recording", so the balance will be off, crescendi and diminuendi won't sound right, and that weird-sounding strident modified English horn is actually a soprano saxophone (damn Kontakt Player for not including one).
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - I - Fanfare (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - III - Danger! (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IV - In Town (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - V - Love (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VI - Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VII - Dungeon (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VIII - Overworld (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IX - Dark Tower (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - X - Final Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIa - Finale (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIb - Credits (right-click to download)
Dunth Valsante
Full Band
Dunth Valsante is my third finished piece, composed in June of 2004, and it's just a light waltz. That's all it is, a light, fun waltz. It's somewhat Brazilian, though, and the first time through the trio, I tried to write a chorinho. I tried but failed, because a chorinho would be traditionally played by a flute and guitar, and the band doesn't have a guitar (nor did I want to add one just for this). So instead, I pretended that the clarinet section was a guitar, and I treated it accordingly. Hehehe.
"What is a dunth?" you may ask. A dunth is a word that has no rhymes. Month was a dunth before dunth, so dunth undunthes month. It's very simple. You can visit the Project Dunth page, as well. Spread the word. Listen to the piece.
There are some synchronization problems with the recording. I don't know why. Just imaging that it's being played by a crappy band.
Listen to Dunth Valsante (right-click to download)
Dunth Valsante is my third finished piece, composed in June of 2004, and it's just a light waltz. That's all it is, a light, fun waltz. It's somewhat Brazilian, though, and the first time through the trio, I tried to write a chorinho. I tried but failed, because a chorinho would be traditionally played by a flute and guitar, and the band doesn't have a guitar (nor did I want to add one just for this). So instead, I pretended that the clarinet section was a guitar, and I treated it accordingly. Hehehe.
"What is a dunth?" you may ask. A dunth is a word that has no rhymes. Month was a dunth before dunth, so dunth undunthes month. It's very simple. You can visit the Project Dunth page, as well. Spread the word. Listen to the piece.
There are some synchronization problems with the recording. I don't know why. Just imaging that it's being played by a crappy band.
Listen to Dunth Valsante (right-click to download)
Aleinu - March
Full Band
Aleinu is my second composition for band, composed in the spring of 2004 for my old high school to play. I suppose it's really an arrangement rather than a composition, which is a step up from my first "composition", which was a transcription. The themes are all from Jewish liturgy; the introduction and first strain are Aleinu, the second strain is a dominant version of the Shema, and the trio is Shalom Aleichem. There are some other quotes thrown in as well. This is indeed a march, my first ever, and although it's a bit long, it follows more or less the customary march form. You may wonder at the appropriateness of the themes I chose for a march, especially Shalom Aleichem. Well, many years before I ever composed anything, I had noticed that Aleinu was distinctly march-like. This was one of those things I always wanted to write, and one of the reasons I started writing in the first place. I had also planned it way before actually notating it, which isn't something I do much these days, and I knew I wanted to have Shalom Aleichem, a beautiful and slow hymn, with fast things going on underneath it, so I figured this would be great for a trio. Needless to say, I really liked the result.
Then I took Music 51, and coming back a few years later, I noticed a lot of things I could have done better. So I did them better, and here it is, improved from the original version, the Aleinu march.
Listen to Aleinu (right-click to download)
Aleinu is my second composition for band, composed in the spring of 2004 for my old high school to play. I suppose it's really an arrangement rather than a composition, which is a step up from my first "composition", which was a transcription. The themes are all from Jewish liturgy; the introduction and first strain are Aleinu, the second strain is a dominant version of the Shema, and the trio is Shalom Aleichem. There are some other quotes thrown in as well. This is indeed a march, my first ever, and although it's a bit long, it follows more or less the customary march form. You may wonder at the appropriateness of the themes I chose for a march, especially Shalom Aleichem. Well, many years before I ever composed anything, I had noticed that Aleinu was distinctly march-like. This was one of those things I always wanted to write, and one of the reasons I started writing in the first place. I had also planned it way before actually notating it, which isn't something I do much these days, and I knew I wanted to have Shalom Aleichem, a beautiful and slow hymn, with fast things going on underneath it, so I figured this would be great for a trio. Needless to say, I really liked the result.
Then I took Music 51, and coming back a few years later, I noticed a lot of things I could have done better. So I did them better, and here it is, improved from the original version, the Aleinu march.
Listen to Aleinu (right-click to download)
Fuga IV, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (J. S. Bach)
Full Band
Story: one day -- must have been January 19th, 2002 -- I went with some friends to a nearly empty cheap theater to see The Man Who Wasn't There. I hung out with film people in high school (this was senior year). Anyway, the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathetique" played several times. I got home and immediately listened to it, as well as some piano music my girlfriend at the time had played for me before. Next day, I decided to learn to play this on the piano, and two weeks later I could play the piece moderately well. Well, it's an easy piece. I found all my sheet music on websites offering it for free, and since I'd read (some of) Godel, Escher, Bach, I figured Bach's music is probably pretty cool. I was right. I learned some of his 2-part and 3-part Inventions (some of each one, I mean -- like, the right hand of 2-part No. 12, both parts separately of No. 14, etc.), and also printed some of the Well-Tempered Clavier. I started playing those in order (skipping the C# major fugue), and when I got to the C# minor 5-part fugue, I really liked it. Problem was, as you've probably noticed, I'm not a very good pianist, so I could never play it very well. And I kept fantasizing about a wind ensemble playing it, like I fantasized about a wind ensemble playing, say, the Star Fox 64 ending theme. Well, about a week before going to college for sophomore year (September 2003), I decided that, hey, let's transcribe this thing NOW. So I got myself a music notation program and, over the course of that week, transcribed the fugue.
That's not exactly what you'll hear here, however -- I've edited it, in recognition that this was my first "composition" ever and therefore I'd made some mistakes in orchestration. The piece was played by my high school band that year along with Aleinu March, which will go up on the website after I finish revising it. Keep in mind that Kontakt doesn't like suspended cymbals (NOTE: it actually does, but I haven't rerecorded this piece to reflect that), and while the patches generally sound pretty good, they're sometimes very unbalanced. A timpani low A, for example, is much louder than a mid-staff D for some reason, and the tuba is MUCH louder than, say, the trombone. Also, this fugue is in C minor instead of C# minor because unlike the keyboard, the band isn't well-tempered and would lose its temper if it had to play in four sharps (seven for Eb instruments -- yeah).
Aside from non-pitched percussion, this transcription is a faithful one: no notes have been altered. Some have had their octaves changed or doubled, but this is OK: imagine Bach improvising on the organ. Here I treat the wind ensemble like an organ, with changing stops. The instruments I use are the stops Bach pulls, and as it was not unusual for stops to also sound at the 8ve and the 15me, or even to have a glockenspiel, I do the same. One cannot say that this transcription is not in the spirit of Bach, save for the non-pitched percussion and the key difference. But hey, Bach uses the same chorale three times in different keys (with different words) in his St. Matthew's Passion. So he'll just have to live -- or stay dead, I guess -- with the C minor.
Listen to Fuga IV from WTC1 (right-click to download)
Story: one day -- must have been January 19th, 2002 -- I went with some friends to a nearly empty cheap theater to see The Man Who Wasn't There. I hung out with film people in high school (this was senior year). Anyway, the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathetique" played several times. I got home and immediately listened to it, as well as some piano music my girlfriend at the time had played for me before. Next day, I decided to learn to play this on the piano, and two weeks later I could play the piece moderately well. Well, it's an easy piece. I found all my sheet music on websites offering it for free, and since I'd read (some of) Godel, Escher, Bach, I figured Bach's music is probably pretty cool. I was right. I learned some of his 2-part and 3-part Inventions (some of each one, I mean -- like, the right hand of 2-part No. 12, both parts separately of No. 14, etc.), and also printed some of the Well-Tempered Clavier. I started playing those in order (skipping the C# major fugue), and when I got to the C# minor 5-part fugue, I really liked it. Problem was, as you've probably noticed, I'm not a very good pianist, so I could never play it very well. And I kept fantasizing about a wind ensemble playing it, like I fantasized about a wind ensemble playing, say, the Star Fox 64 ending theme. Well, about a week before going to college for sophomore year (September 2003), I decided that, hey, let's transcribe this thing NOW. So I got myself a music notation program and, over the course of that week, transcribed the fugue.
That's not exactly what you'll hear here, however -- I've edited it, in recognition that this was my first "composition" ever and therefore I'd made some mistakes in orchestration. The piece was played by my high school band that year along with Aleinu March, which will go up on the website after I finish revising it. Keep in mind that Kontakt doesn't like suspended cymbals (NOTE: it actually does, but I haven't rerecorded this piece to reflect that), and while the patches generally sound pretty good, they're sometimes very unbalanced. A timpani low A, for example, is much louder than a mid-staff D for some reason, and the tuba is MUCH louder than, say, the trombone. Also, this fugue is in C minor instead of C# minor because unlike the keyboard, the band isn't well-tempered and would lose its temper if it had to play in four sharps (seven for Eb instruments -- yeah).
Aside from non-pitched percussion, this transcription is a faithful one: no notes have been altered. Some have had their octaves changed or doubled, but this is OK: imagine Bach improvising on the organ. Here I treat the wind ensemble like an organ, with changing stops. The instruments I use are the stops Bach pulls, and as it was not unusual for stops to also sound at the 8ve and the 15me, or even to have a glockenspiel, I do the same. One cannot say that this transcription is not in the spirit of Bach, save for the non-pitched percussion and the key difference. But hey, Bach uses the same chorale three times in different keys (with different words) in his St. Matthew's Passion. So he'll just have to live -- or stay dead, I guess -- with the C minor.
Listen to Fuga IV from WTC1 (right-click to download)
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