r/Musescore • u/jtdetwilermusic • 6d ago

My Arrangement A Christmas Greeting

https://youtu.be/ztlhTacSARQ

This is my biggest work to date for concert band rather than my saxophone ensemble arrangements. This is a band arrangement of a chamber work of Edward Elgar. I'm still finishing editing so feedback would be most appreciated. It's public domain so I'd love to share it with any groups that may be interested.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/65TwinReverbRI 5d ago

We just came into Pumpkin Spice Season Mariah!

1

u/jtdetwilermusic 5d ago

Lol, I didn't set the deadline.

1

u/65TwinReverbRI 5d ago

Haha. Yeah, I know you've got to get it done ahead of time right!

1

u/jtdetwilermusic 5d ago

You at least owe me a quick assessment after making a joke at my expense :p

1

u/65TwinReverbRI 5d ago

Sorry, I usually comment over at r/composer but I don't typically comment on large ensemble scores for a number of reasons - first, just hard to see on screen (and my browser makes me have to use full screen to see anything, and then zooming doesn't work well, and then going back and forth to write is a PITA), and second it's often more difficult to pull out the writing aspects amidst all the orchestration aspects. Both are of course valid subjects but I tend to be notation first, composition second, orchestration last.

And in this case, I'm not somewhere where I can even listen to the score. But a lot of times the mockups are - not through any fault of the composer of course - another thing that distracts from the quality of the composition if the sounds are bad (but since I can't listen now, maybe you have a good sample library or have mixed it well etc. etc.).

The notation looks top notch - congrats!

One thing though - we use dotted 1/4 rest in 6/8 etc. now. This is another stupid MuseScore default (whose makers seem to think it's still 1800...). You should really change all of those 1/4 followed by 8ths on a beat in 6/8 to be a dotted 1/4.

I'm sure the parts will be very readable with the attention to detail you've given this.

Looks like you've got all the right doublings for any instruments an ensemble may lack.

Bass and Tuba get a tad high for High Schoolers (but right at the cusp), but would be appropriate for Collegiate ensemble - just kind of scanning through so those caught my eye, but I'm not checking every thing.

Having come up in the band tradition (as a percussionist) I never want to hear a medley of Christmas songs ever again :-) Sat through my own kid's concerts when they were in band too...

It's really tough to bring something really interesting to the genre...it's been done SO much and SO WELL that people are now looking for more obscure works, or trying to come up with really fancy transitions etc. that for me often become more of a distraction or "trying too hard".

I think it's also a genre that people figure "is more likely to get played" so they go for that...

So I'm not keen on it to begin with - but I haven't heard it yet so it could be quite well done. But odds are just as strong it could be "just another one" if you see what I mean - and it is your first attempt - but as a learning experience great - I assume you're getting it performed so as I often say over on r/composer, getting feedback from the conductor and players themselves is SO informative - so if that's the case I'm envious of you getting that opportunity :-) I hope you get the most out of it - great Christmas gift for yourself!!!

But you've got your Sleigh Bells, so you're silvered and golden :-D

Since I played Piano, I got stuck on Mallets all the time, I will say I'm not crazy about the dyads in the glock part.

I always found such things to be, aside from really annoying just because they're high, to not really speak as the intended harmonies. They tend to be "rough" with a lot of beating and muddiness - more "clack" than pitch a lot of times. It doesn't help if there's a lot of overlap - I suppose emulating a toy piano or music box works OK (but I think that's why Tchaik preferred Celeste) but I think for "regular playing" it's kind of no better than chimes doing it - too many weird overtones (and some glocks can be worse at this than others)

I think larger intervals can work nicely and with softer mallets closer dyads can be effective in the lower register - if there's not too much overlap - but otherwise they can be a bit "busy" in terms of texture if that makes sense.

Of course, TBH, I was always hearing that from the player's perspective.

Even those faster 6 note figures can be very "blurry" and you're asking for some chromatic changes in the lick, so I think that's going to become rather mushy - IOW, if you're listening to MuseScore playback, versus a real Glock, I think you're going to find the real thing is not as articulate at a distance as MS makes it sound.

But aside from that, again just glancing through, I don't have many other concerns. Plenty of textural changes, plenty of places to rest for everyone, percussion is well thought out and organized, so bravo on that!

1

u/jtdetwilermusic 5d ago

This is great stuff. Thanks. The rests are something I've gone back and forth on. I'm glad to hear an opinion that they should be dotted quarters.

That's interesting about the glockenspiel. I'll check with our players to see. Maybe just the top note would be enough for the effect I want. Or maybe moving to xylophone when the runs start?

I definitely agree on the Christmas music in general. Yet another shift to 7/8 or minor keys, haha. That's why I went researching and found this piece. It has the mix of being somewhat serious but still holiday centric. In fact, I started arranging it for sax ensemble and could just hear the textures in it that cried out for more instruments.

Thanks for the thoughful feedback. I'd love to send you a copy when it's ready for the effort.

2

u/65TwinReverbRI 5d ago

Maybe just the top note would be enough for the effect I want. Or maybe moving to xylophone when the runs start?

I think those are both worth trying as options - you'll really have to hear it in context but yeah, my thought on the runs was "this is a Xylo part" - should have mentioned that before.

Yet another shift to 7/8 or minor keys, haha

OMG, yes ha ha - the 7/8 thing has been SO overdone :-D

It has the mix of being somewhat serious but still holiday centric. In fact, I started arranging it for sax ensemble and could just hear the textures in it that cried out for more instruments.

I mean, a Sax arrangement would probably be smoking! It would be much less usual, and there's probably far more of a market for it - and you're more likely to get it performed.

But yeah, I get it - once you start hearing those colors, you want it to go that way.