Piece? Chosen.
Section? Narrowed Down.
Now to begin the compositional and arrangement process.
As I wasn't arranging the entire piece, I wasn't so worried about the structure of the piece and had briefly mapped out an improvisation section at the end. So to start my process, I wanted to break down the instrumentation. Instead of assigning set instruments e.g. violin, flute, french horn, guitar, I assigned different melodic and harmonic roles that any instrument could play.
As a base I wanted to include:
- Melody
- Counter Melody
- Harmony 1
- Harmony 2
- Bass Harmony 1
- Bass Harmony 2
- Percussion (xylophones, bongos)
- Piano
- TAB
Using this base, I began listening and notating the notes for the two melodic lines. After notating these two melodic lines, I decided that I would need a simplified melodic line to cater to all levels in the classroom as the first melodic line was quite high in register and the counter melody does include a few semiquaver patterns. The simplified melodic line is lower in register and consists of dotted crotchets and quavers.
Next, I composed and arranged for all the harmonic parts and eventually adding a third harmony part, catering more towards instruments who read from an alto clef. Again, I decided that I needed to compose some simplified harmonic lines as many of the original harmonic lines that I notated included semiquaver passages. I decided to leave them in rather than taking them away as A. I really do enjoy the harmony and depth it provides and B. Some students will be capable of playing these passages. As I was composing the Bass Harmony lines, I also notated the piano line as it ended up being quite similar.
I ended with composing the percussion and TAB lines. Although the original composition does not include these instruments, it is vital that we compose for these instruments as these are typical classroom instruments which would allow all students to participate. Instead of only using xylophones and bongos, I also included metallophones and maracas.
By the end of my first draft, my instrumentation changed to:
- Advanced Melody 1 (+ Transposing)
- Advanced Melody 2 (+ Transposing)
- Simplified Melody (+ Transposing)
- Harmony 1
- Harmony 2 (+ Simplified Version)
- Harmony 3 (Alto)
- Simplified Harmony 3 (+ Transposing)
- Bass Harmony 1 (+ Simplified Version)
- Bass Harmony 2
- Xylophone
- Metallophone
- Bongos
- Maracas
- Piano (+ Simplified Version)
- TAB
It was important for me to include transposed and simplified versions to again ensure that all students will get the chance of playing and participating.