 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: wondering
Date: 2001-11-22 17:23
Can anyone tell me how I can begin to approach arranging christmas music from a piano/guitar score? It will be for 2-3 clarinets and a flute. Any tips?
Thanks.
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2001-11-22 22:55
If you only have the two clarinets then you both can play the melody line with no problem. I don't know what key the flute is in.
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Author: Emms
Date: 2001-11-22 23:40
The flute could play the melody, and transpose the left hand for clarinets.If the left hand consists of 2 lines of notes, try just transposing these.If you know anything about chords and harmony, you can fit in other clarinet parts around these.
From piano to clarinet, you need to transpose down a tone (major 2nd)(key signature too).
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Author: willie
Date: 2001-11-23 00:55
I agree, it will be easier to transpose the flute down a whole tone, unless its in a crazy key with 5 or 6 sharpes & flats. I would then transpose it all to an easy key like concert Bb or F. As for any chords, they should already be marked above the staff if you want to add some more lines for other instruments.
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Author: John
Date: 2001-11-23 03:45
I do transcriptions like this, often from full orchestra scores, but sometimes piano. What I do is listen to a recording....or play the parts and decide what musical lines are the most important to the music texture. As the music progresses, different lines will tend to pop out. With 3-4 instruments, you could easily devote one line to the bass, one to the melody, and the other two in harmony parts. Depending on your players it is good to move the lines around to each instrument to get some variety in texture. As mentioned above, don't forget the transpositions.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2001-11-23 16:20
The above info is the best to work with if you don't have much in the way of basic theory. The flute reades loco in the concert key. The clarinet sounds 1 whole step below what it actually reads.
Fortunately, budding arrangers now have computer modeling available for their efforts. You can write your arrangement in a cheap notation program and use the MIDI playback feature to hear what your piece will sound like. This may be helpful in selecting the best harmony lines for use in a small group. Noteworthy Composer is available as shareware and is very user friendly.
More info at http://www.noteworhthycomposer.com
If you know a little about two-part harmony and basic chords, you can use the German/Austrian formula that has produced many amateur folk music arrangements
Part 1 - Melody
Part 2 - harmony
Part 3 - countermelody or arpeggios
Part 4 - bass
These types of arrangements are very easy to write, since they bypass a lot of mid-level music theory such as chorale writing. Harmony lines will be a third or a sixth (according to taste) below the melody. The third part can simply be patterns of arpeggios that fit your time signature. Bass, or course, generally involves the roots of the chords. If you have only three instruments, bass and arpeggios can easily be combined. (just leave some room for your player to breathe every once in a while <g>)
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Author: wondering
Date: 2001-11-24 18:13
Thank you so much for all the responses! This will be my first time arranging, and I have the Noteworthy composer--I'll definitely give everyone's tips a try. Thanks!
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Author: Emms
Date: 2001-11-25 11:19
If you use Noteworthy, you can hear the arrangements as you write. One tip- write everything out in the piano key and listen to it to see if it sounds ok, then transpose either flute staff or clarinet staves using the Noteworty programme. It will transpose for you! Find the easiest of keys, remembering the flute staff must be (lets get this right) a tone lower than the clarinets. eg. If clarinet is in C major, flutes must be in Bb major. The flutes will always have either 2 #s less than clarinet, or 2bs more. I have this programme, so if you get stuck, feel free to ask for help. I don't know your flautists, but from experience, they like their notes higher than clarinets do!
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Author: deebee
Date: 2001-11-26 13:05
One thing to look out for: being Christmas music, will people (especially the general public) be singing along, or are the arrangements purely for the instruments you’ve mentioned ... important for considerations of range, intros (and outros) and suitability as accompaniment.
deebee
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