Arranging Music

Session One

Today I was briefed on my optional 8-credit module for the Music PA course, Arranging Music. I need to create two arrangements of a single original piece of my choosing, and I have chosen "Still Alive", which features in the popular video game "Portal 2". Both arrangements must be approximately 1:30 to 2:00 minutes long. I have chosen to use the notation software Sibelius to produce both of these pieces. 

For the first arrangement, I will produce a string quartet adaptation of the song. I am doing this because I have previously arranged the song as an SATB piece and, with some editing and cutting, I believe that it should sound very nice as a string quartet. The hard part will be attempting to bring the length of the piece down to the maximum length of two minutes long. I could do this by cutting out non-essential parts such as areas where the song is constantly repeating itself. 

In what is left of this lesson I am going to attempt to transfer the current score for "Still Alive" that I have produced from the Musescore software to the Sibelius software, most likely by downloading my "Still Alive" score as a .midi file and opening that file up in Sibelius. It might be quite messy.

Session Two

The transfer between .midi and Sibelius was completed successfully and with no errors in the score that I have seen as of yet. This week I began to add the articulations for the string quartet, mainly slurs and staccato. I got about half way through that, loosing 20 minutes to my music lesson where me and my tutor planned out most of the articulation. I'm having a little trouble applying staccato to notes on the score, and I will research how to do that as well as possibly watching a number of tutorial videos for Sibelius 7 if/when I have the time. I feel like I am certainly getting the hand of Sibelius, and will improve further once I eventually get hold of it for use at home. It would be pretty great if the school were to get Musescore though.

Session Three

This week I finished off the majority of the articulations in my first arrangement of "Still Alive". I feel like at the moment the piece would be quite hard to play, especially on the Cello part. I think this because the part is constantly switching between pizz and arco in order for the piece to have an atmosphere similar, but not the same as, the original. My next challenge on this piece is making sure that all the parts are playable. I could do this by asking various people I know play these instruments, and then adjusting the parts with their guidance. In the next practical lesson I will:

A) Fix any playability issues I come across

B) Begin practicing composition for my main module

Session Four

This week I made several changes to the pizz/arco patterns on all of the parts in my Still Alive string quartet arrangement. I did this because I did not feel that the parts sounded as good as they could with the previous pizz/arco pattern, so I made improvements. I am happy with this change and don't plan to change it at any point soon. I also cleaned up a few parts that I felt sounded rather messy, fixing them by either adding slurs or changing the rhythm of the bar. From the feedback I have gained today, my next objective is to vary up the viola part, which is rather repetitive and similar to the original song. I might change this by adding an extra layer of harmony in certain areas, making the viola part more interesting to play.

Session Five

Today I was mainly working on some ideas to improve an arrangement of "Welcome To The Black Parade" I produced for the school choir. According to my tutor, there are some harmony issues in the repeat clause that need addressing, and that's about it. I also presented a completed arrangement of "Into The West", which also requires some minor tinkering.

Session Six

Today I carried out a proof read of my string quartet arrangement of "Still Alive". In the most part, I am very happy with how it has turned out and believe that it is, in the most part, finished. However, I still think there are a number of things that need some editing just to improve quality of life for performers. For example, in places the Viola part is a very repetitive broken chord that could become very boring for the performer. In my lesson today I discussed with my tutor a number of possible future arrangements for the school choir, including the recently released track "Still Breathing" by Green Day which I feel could sound particularly spectacular in acapella form.

Session Seven

Today I have been working on editing "Still Alive" to  meet the assessment criteria. I have done this by increasing the tempo from 142 bpm to 162 bpm. At some point I may also try to add in triplets at different stages in an attempt to vary up the rhythm pattern in the piece. The next step after that is to start the piano arrangement, which I think will be a lot harder to produce than the string quartet as I have to re-harmonise the piece for piano.

Session Eight

I decided to take a little break from the "Still Alive" arrangements, and practice a bit of composition. I'm using the title "The Workhouse in D Minor", and it's a solo organ piece. I don't intend for it to be very long, 2:30 minutes at the very most probably. I plan to use this as a practice tool in preparation for the main unit next year.

Session Nine

Over the past two weeks I have been mainly working on cutting down the score for "Still Alive" to be within the time limit of one minute and thirty seconds. I chose to cut out a large section in which only two of the four instruments were playing, namely Violin 1 and the Cello. I cut this particular section because I deemed it unimportant to the development of the piece, as there was really not much going on. After doing this, I found I did prefer the piece without that particular section, however I would prefer if the exam board would allow me to make the piece longer so I could explore other ideas.

Session Ten

Over Christmas I acquired the "Notion7" notation software for my computer, which I have been learning to use. I believe that it will be a great help to me in this course, as it is more advanced and has far better sound files than Musescore, my previous software of choice. This week I have been working on finalising my arrangement by adding dynamics into the second half of the piece, as I had forgotten to do that before. I must now begin to work on the piano re-harmonisation of "Still Alive", which I think will be hard as I'm not a pianist, and am not 100% confident in my reharmonisation skills.

Session Eleven

Today I have mainly began to work on the evaluation for my String Quartet arrangement of Still Alive. I've written the first two paragraphs so far, and will copy-paste it onto the blog once it is finished. As far as Notion6 goes, I have been practicing using it and I believe I have a good idea of what I'm doing so far.

Session Twelve

Below is the link to view the score and recording of both arrangements of "Still Alive":
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5Aq7hw6A3nDbGpQWi1tU1NEeEU
Original version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

Strings Arrangement Score

Still Alive Strings - Full Score by ZoeHarris on Scribd

Evaluation for String Piece

My string quartet arrangement of the song “Still Alive” is certainly the most in-depth arrangement I have ever produced. During its development, I learned far more about the function of each individual instrument in a string quartet than I have over the past three years of experimenting with different methods of arranging music. For example, I now understand the effect and purpose of slurs in strings. I also got to know a new piece of notation software: Sibelius7. Previously I had only been using MuseScore 2 and Notion7, however, the production circumstances I was presented with meant that I did not have access to my software of choice and I, therefore, had to use Sibelius to complete this task.  

My first idea with the arrangement was to produce it for a Brass Quintet however, I decided against this as I have absolutely no prior experience writing or arranging for this ensemble. A part of me thought it would be a good idea as it would allow me to learn how to write for a Brass Quintet, but the more sensible part of me reasoned that this lack of knowledge and experience would seriously hinder my progress on this project. It is likely that I will attempt to arrange it for a Brass Quintet at some point in the future as it would be beneficial for me to understand as many ensembles, as well as the purpose of individual instruments, as possible.  

Excluding one section of the piece, I consistently avoided using block chords, opting rather for a “layered” effect, much like the style in which you might compose a piece for a timpani ensemble. As a composer, I am very much against the practice of “pushing an instrument to the side”, resulting in it being unessential to the performance. I kept this philosophy in mind while producing the arrangement, ensuring that each instrument had an obvious role in the ensemble. For example, the bass line produced by the cello contributes to the piece by giving it a “jumpy” feeling through my consistent use of pizzicato sections.  

One difference between the original song and my arrangement is the tempo. The original is significantly slower than mine, and I made this change to make the piece seem livelier, fitting in with the “jumpy” bass line. It also moved the piece away from the “creepy” tone of the original, something that always bothered me about it. Of course, the video game context of the original did ask for this tone, however I wanted to try and give the piece a different meaning to the original and therefore elevated the tempo. 
Another difference in my arrangement compared to the original is that this version has a different structure. The main example of this is that I cut out a bridge that I originally had included, however I have since removed it in order to avoid the sinnister feeling of the original piece.  

Over the course of this project I gained a much greater understanding of not only each individual instrument in a string quartet, but also the overall workings and styles within the string quartet genre. My knowledge of what is playable and what is not has improved, for example the motif that is repeatedly played by the viola was originally impossible to play as it contained note jumps too large to play with the appearance of skill. I have also learned to use key changes effectively for a purpose other than changing the overall mood of the tune, but rather introducing a new theme into the piece. This is shown between bars forty-six and fifty-two. This will undoubtedly be an essential skill that I use in many future compositions and arrangements, as will many more of the skills I have developed whilst producing this piece.  

Piano Reharmonisation Audio and Score

Piano Reharmonisation by ZoeHarris on Scribd

Piano Reharmonization Evaluation

My main goal with this task was to give the rather sweet and cheerful natured “Still Alive” a far more melancholy feel. I think overall I did manage to achieve this with the use of mainly minor chords, although I chose not to use a looping chord progression as I dislike repetitiveness in my pieces. I was very careful with my use of accidentals, with only two trills and one fermata as in previous pieces I have not explored the use of accidentals very much, and so was cautious to not use them needlessly and risk error. 

I selected a q=100 tempo with the intention to enhance the melancholy theme I was aiming for, as any faster tempo felt too light-hearted and rushed along with the chord sequence I had produced. Originally, I placed the arrangement in a q=120 tempo, but decided to change it to q=100 to allow the arpeggios to have more of an impact on the desired texture. I’ve always liked the effect that arpeggios have on blocked chords, although I’ve found that the general overuse of articulation and accidentals give pieces a very ugly and muddy texture, and have therefore made sure to limit my use of them.

One thing about the music that I thought wouldn’t work as well at first is my use of blocked chords. Originally, I had planned to use a more melodic method of using the chord sequence, but after experimenting a bit I decided that the blocked chords held more suspense in them and therefore were far more appropriate for conveying my intended theme and style. There are several bars where chords are completely absent and the tune is left to show on its own, and the purpose this serves is to, again, bring about a sense of dissatisfaction to the audience which in turn creates tension in the wait for the next chord. 

In bar 17 I added a fermata onto the F^# note. I did this because I wanted to draw in anticipation for the final section of the piece but allowing the performer to decide the length of the pause based on their own individual preference/playing style. I considered adding a trill on the note before, however I discovered this removed much of the desired tension that the fermata introduced. This goes back to my earlier point about not using too many accidentals, as it will usually clutter up a piece and make it sound muddy, unpleasant, and unplanned. 

In conclusion, I would label the piece as a success, as I was able to fully reharmonize the original. Overall I found it rather tricky, however after I fully understood the methods behind it my rate of work increased significantly. I found it to be relatively simple and predict that future composition tasks will be much easier due to the techniques I have learnt whilst producing this task.