Editor's Note: This article follows up from part I
Just for the record, I highly recommend having a consistent and appropriate workspace. Someplace quiet, private, and comfortable without being nap-inducing. Starbucks is not the best place for arranging, unless you have some kind of alien volume switch built into your ears where you can tune out the new Carole King album, the couple behind you arguing about who cheated on whom, and the TV in the corner that’s playing "Akeelah and the Bee" over and over. A quiet room with a chair and a desk and, if you’re so inclined, a keyboard is really all it takes.
This is a case of doing what I say, not what I do. The majority of the arrangements I’ve completed have been done in a fashion pretty much identical to the way I’m working today – lying on the floor (this time it’s my boyfriend’s apartment, where the floor is really a questionable place to be lying in the first place…), propped up on a pillow (or in this case, a University of Chicago sweatshirt) with my elbows already digging painfully into the ropy carpet and the yoga class I spent this morning enjoying rapidly fading as my lower back and neck crane to see the laptop, which is also on the floor. I don’t know what it is but for some reason, I refuse to commit to a room with a desk and chair, and so I find myself on the floor. Therefore, I’ll be getting up to stretch and roll over with a certain frequency during the course of this next stage of arranging.
Anyway.
I left you with the outline to the arrangement of Nichole Nordeman’s “Every Season” entered into Finale, along with the melody line sans lyrics. What I’m doing now is listening to the song again, this time adding notes into my scratch paper layout. This is where I’ll start digging into the actual notation of the inner parts – in fact, usually I’ll go ahead and lay down the entire bass line right now, so that I’ve got something strong to follow as I work through the interior lines. However, this song doesn’t even throw in a bass line until around measure 21, so I’m going to start right from the top.
I just listened to the first minute or so of the song. The introduction (4 measures) is a solo piano line of eighth notes, one note played at a time. While I could write that whole line into one part (say, the altos), it would definitely not sound graceful, and the poor girls wouldn’t have a chance to breathe. So what I’ll do is split it up – the lower notes will go into one line, and the upper notes into another. This works well because upon closer listening, the lower notes are actually held across under the upper melody, and then they pick up the moving line in the second measure.
However, I’ve also just run into my first snag: these notes are way too high to be sung in the original octave. My sopranos would be aiming for high Bb in the first measure of the song, and that’s rude of me to ask. So I’m going to take an arranging liberty and reverse the notes – I’m giving the first altos the “lower” line, and the second altos the “higher” line an octave down. Now all the notes are within range, and listening back to the result (one definite advantage to putting everything directly into Finale as I go), I’m satisfied for now. This pattern repeats under the first half of verse 1, (8 measures), and works well under the melody line.
In listening to the first half of verse 1, I notice that there’s a third piano part that comes in harmony in measure 4. Well shoot. Because of my choice to interpose the first two lines, I’ve now got to give my sopranos a slightly less obnoxious but still challenging opening line – starting on the second Eb above middle C. But I think they can take it. I’ll give them a light and easy syllable to work with when I get to that point.
[The boyfriend just got home. Temporary distraction while we discuss his day at work, the traffic on the Dan Ryan, and his roommate’s lack of apartment cleaning skills. He’s not used to witnessing me arranging yet and doesn’t realize that it actually does require silence on his part. I finally sent him off to his room with The Mexican, that awful Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts movie from a few years back. He’ll learn.]
The second half of verse 1 adds a chromatic bit of a bass line, so I’m going to bring in the tenors under the girls. Sometimes it feels like you need to have the entire group singing right up front, because you don’t want anyone standing around looking silly, but in all honesty, if the song doesn’t need everyone – don’t use everyone. The basses can wait patiently until they can make a grand entrance. It will be good for them.
I’m once again stuck, in the second half of verse 1, with the fact that the piano line is in an awkward range. It’s a little high to just give to the sopranos, but if I transpose it down an octave, then it could be too close to the tenor’s moving line. I went ahead and wrote it out into the soprano line so I could see it, and now I’m thinking it through. If I move the line down to the alto section, it’ll be both riding on the tenors and a little bit too low (it goes down to an F, which is out of some alto ranges). If I keep it in the soprano line, I run the risk of the girls having an off day due to not enough warm-up time (or too much drinking the night before) and sounding tight and awkward.
My final decision? Keep it in the soprano line. Again, I’ll give them an easy syllable to sing, no throat-constricting lines, and I’ll pray that they have a consistent and effective warm-up technique. This is the kind of thing that really varies from group to group. If I were arranging this song for my old group in college, for instance, I’d probably figure out a different way to maneuver around that line, because we used to party pretty hard – and it’s tough to sound graceful up high after a bender. It’s the reality of the situation.
Another listen-through up to that point and I’m confident that I’m on the right track. Now on to the first interlude, where things start to fill in with bass lines and string sections.
The bass line comes in at last, with a heavy Ab that really gives some weight to the piece. Oddly, it only plays on measures 1 and 3, leaving measures 2 and 4 without the balance of a bass note – this is something I’ll come back to later to see if it flows well or if I’ll choose to add a note to measures 2 and 4. The string effect (a little reverb never hurt anyone) helps to hold that stability in the recording whereas it might not sound right a cappella.
The interlude is actually deceptively easy, because although the instrumentation just changed pretty drastically, the moving lines are all the same as they were in the introduction. I just swap places a bit (move the alto 1 line down to the tenor, bring that soprano line down an octave, and let the alto 2s keep their original notes for the most part) and voila! It’s done. That was easy.
Also nice is the fact that, again, the verse just continues with the interlude repeating under the solo. To copy measures on a PC, just turn on the Mass Edit tool (the little perforated square in the toolbar for Finale 2005), select those two measures, and hold down “Ctrl” and “C” at the same time. Paste using “Ctrl” and “V.” These keys will become your friends. Treat them well.
There are, as always, a few variations to add in. The sopranos will get a little more attention here while the lower parts hold down the fort. Something to keep in mind as you listen to the original and put it to paper is complexity vs. ease of performance. While it may sound incredibly cool to vary a part from measure to measure, adding various nuances just like the original instrumentalists did, remember also what it’s like to memorize a song. Moreover, remember what it’s like to memorize six to twenty songs or more, as many a cappella groups are about to do with the beginning of a new year. What sounded good in the studio might not translate well to the reality of memorization amid the complications of everyday life. Be fair to your singers – give them creativity, but don’t make it impossible to sing without charts.
So far, this segment has taken about an hour, which isn’t bad – I’m almost halfway through the song and feeling good about how things are going. Everyone takes a different approach to arranging, and therefore has a different time schedule. I’ve done arrangements that took 3 hours total, and others that took me over 12 hours. But in spite of the fact that I’m only halfway through a verse, I’m ready for a break right now, and you’re probably ready to go hit the staff paper. We’ll continue into the second half of verse two and through the rest of the song in the next installment. I’d much rather start fresh after some time away than keep pushing and end up with a mediocre result.
Plus it’s going to take at least another hour of yoga to work the kinks out of my back. Must buy a desk…
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