Welcome to my blog

I have created this site in order to provide performers, listeners and composers with a description of a composer's experiences with the creative process. The posts will provide discussions of the inspirations, challenges, and successes of a composer from the inception of the piece to the culmination in performance. I will provide a link to where you can see and hear the works in progress. Comments and questions are always welcomed. They will not posted unless you grant me permission.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Bourrées and Passepieds

I approached these last two movements in a similar manner to the other movements i.e. being sensitive to resting players, adding some dynamics, adapting the orchestration, and battling with articulation as the edition of the score I am using, which I believe is what Bach wrote, is very inconsistent. 

In the Passepieds, I went back to using the soprano saxophone because the melody in the oboe during the second Passepied has no breathing places. By using the soprano saxophone, I was able to alternate the melody every four measures and allow the oboist and saxophonist a chance to catch his/her breath.

The second Passepied uses the melody of the first Passepied in the strings while the oboes play an obligato over it. The articulation in the string part was more consistent so I used that articulation for the first Passepied.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Menuets

Transcribing Bach's music has given me even more appreciation for this great composer. His music is great not only because he has divine inspiration, but also because his music achieves perfect balance between strong harmonic progression and melodic interest of the individual parts. His music is unified through the use of repeated motives, yet has variety because the motifs are subtly varied. Even in these simple Menuets, Bach creates interest varying his melodic motifs and with subtle shifts in articulation and orchestration.

I kept the alto sax in the instrumentation and used the clarinet on the melody when I wanted to give the oboe a rest like in the first section of Menuet I, and marked the dynamics f the first time and p the second. I rest the bass clarinet during the second section of Menuet I until M. 18, where I rest the oboe instead for four measures. Here I use terrace dynamics to build from mp to mf and finally to f where the oboe comes back in. Menuet II was originally written for all strings at a p dynamic level, so the oboe rests the entire time.

I found the articulation in Menuet II interesting as the slurs do not always line up between parts. It seemed as though Bach was trying to emphasize the two note step-wise motif by slurring it, but it wasn't always consistent. I perceive his intentions as creating a subtle counterpoint using articulation and encourage the performers to emphasize these differences so that they do not sound like mistakes.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Forlane

I find it interesting how each movement of this orchestra suite presents its own challenges for transcription. In the Forlane, the challenge was the continuous eighth notes in the 2nd violin and viola parts. There was simply no place to allow the wind players to breathe. I could have omitted some notes and inserted rests for places to breathe, but I opted instead for dividing each line between two instruments and overlapping the parts by one note to assist with continuity.

Since I needed more alto than soprano instruments, I had the saxophonist switch back to alto saxophone. The clarinet and saxophone alternate every measure on the violin 2 line. The bass clarinet and bassoon alternate every measure between the viola line and the bass line. Even though both these instruments are playing continuously, the bass line has places to breathe. In the second section, the alternation becomes two measures at times as the viola line got too high for bassoon.

Once more I added dynamics and articulation to assist with interpretation. The first section is f first time through and p the second. The second section uses one 4 measure f-p echo phrase and one 1 measure f-p echo phrase. Since constant eighth note pattern stops during four measures near the end, I used the last echo phrase as a place to change orchestration to allow the oboist its first rest during this movement.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Friday, June 25, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Gavotte

As you can see, I'm rolling along on the transcription. I approached the Gavottes in a similar manner as the Courante. I needed to adjust the appearance of the repeat signs because I wanted a different instrumentation on the first repeat and repeating to the first full measure and the use of first and second endings made the notation clearer. I went back to the repeats in the middle of the measure for the other repeated sections. The D.S. has the pick-ups to Gavotte I written out before the D.S. By the way, the D.S. does not occur in the playback of the file.

Another thing that I had to deal with was interpreting Bach's articulation markings, or maybe I should say this edition's articulation markings as I have no way of knowing for sure whether they were actually Bach's. It is during Gavotte II where the markings are unclear. Most of the time, two eighth notes are slurred. Sometimes, there is no slurring and other times four eighth notes are slurred. Was this a mistake or is there a reason for it? When the four eighth notes are followed by a half note, I perceived this as the main motive which I hear as being more separated, therefore no slurs looked and sounded correct. The four eighth note slurs are the ones I question the most as I cannot find a reason for the articulation change from two slurred. I decided to leave the notation as it appeared in the score and let the musicians decide if they feel all the articulations should match. The last articulation concern was the two same pitch quarter notes that are slurred in the bassoon part. This did not make any sense at all, so I changed it to two staccato quarter notes which seems to fit with what is going on around it.

I adjusted the dynamics in the first repeated section of Gavotte I to create an loud-soft echo phrase. The Gavotte II is marked piano and is essentially a trio of oboe, soprano sax, and bassoon with occasional insertions by the strings or in this case, the clarinet and bass clarinet.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Courante

The Courante was much easier to transcribe than the Overture because it was shorter and less technical. I was able to do what I originally intended for the Overture in the Courante, i.e. using the soprano saxophone to enable the oboist to rest. The Courante was four voices throughout as the two oboes were in unison and doubled the 1st violin. I gave the bass line to the bassoon, the viola part to the bass clarinet, the 2nd violin to the clarinet, and divided the 1st violin part between the oboe and soprano saxophone.

My biggest challenge was to find the most appropriate places to switch between oboe and soprano saxophone. In the first section, I just made the switch at the repeat. I also added a dynamic change on the repeat, from f to p. In the second section, I made the switch on the 2nd beat of M. 17. I felt this is where the phrasing felt natural and also worked as another dynamic change for variety. I had everyone play from the eighth note pick up to M 22 to the end at a forte dynamic to end the movement with strength.

Bach's score has very little in terms of articulation. There are a few slurs that I preserved. I added a few slurs of my own on some rapid notes and trills. I also added the style description of Stately as all the remaining notes should be performed with a slight separation.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Friday, June 18, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Overture completed

I have completed the Overture and made one major change from what I posted last time. I found that I really needed another alto voice instead of the soprano voice so I changed the soprano saxophone to alto saxophone. In doing so, I had to re-score the first thirty five measures, but the change was worth it as it enabled me to keep everything within range and to rest each of the instruments more often.

I toyed with the idea of bringing the piece down a step to Bb major as the alto saxophone enters the altissimo register at one point and the bass clarinet gets into its upper register frequently. If I brought
the movement down to Bb, the bassoon would be at the bottom of its range a few times. I decided to hold off making this decision until I do the other movements as I would like to preserve key relationships between movements if at all possible. I also want to see how the quintet members feel about this transcription.

I did not change my thinking regarding articulation, dynamics and resting the musicians and hopefully the reader can see my consistent approach regarding these elements.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Transcription of Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1 - Overture

Hello readers,

I have been busy of late doing several arrangements. Some have been fairly simple in that I have been taking some of my brass trio arrangements and converting them to a woodwind trio of flute, clarinet and bassoon. I did this at the request of Susan Maxwell, Instructor of Bassoon at Kansas State University. She plays in a trio of violin, clarinet and bassoon and the woodwind trio instrumentation adapts well for her group and is more common for potential sales of the transcriptions.

My latest project is doing several arrangements for the Hartt School Reed Quintet. This an excellent group of graduate students consisting of oboe, saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and bassoon. The first piece I am working on is the Bach Orchestra Suite No. 1.

Since the instrumentation of the original is two oboes, bassoon and strings, I decided to use a soprano saxophone for one of the oboe parts as it will blend well with the oboe. Once I decided on the exact instrumentation, I had two other major problems to consider. The first is adapting the articulation for the instruments. I decided to leave the slow sections unmarked and just used Maestoso as a tempo indicator to suggest a detached, slightly accented style. I used two slurred and two tongued for the sixteenth note patterns in the fast section and slurred the two sixteenths into the next eight for that pattern. At this tempo, this simplifies the articulation for the wind players and is very idiomatic.

The second problem was to allow the musicians time to breathe and rest. Most of the Overture is in four parts even though there are seven different instrumental parts. The five instruments in the quintet enables me to rest someone every once in a while. My challenge was to keep everyone in a good sounding range if I rested someone. The instrumentation I chose has basically three soprano register instruments and two bass register instruments. Both the clarinet and the bass clarinet could be used for the viola line which is mainly an alto register instrument. For the slow section of the Overture, I used the clarinet for the viola line and doubled the bass line in the bass clarinet and bassoon. In measures 10 & 11, I was able to rest the oboe for a few beats by giving the bass clarinet the viola line. An oboist will have the most endurance problems in this instrumental combination as he/she needs to time to exhale the stale air in his/her body since so little air goes through the reed while performing.

At measure 18, the Allegro section, I have the soprano sax playing the first entrance, the clarinet playing the second entrance, the bassoon playing the third entrance (viola) and the bass clarinet playing the fourth entrance (bass line). This works well until measure 24 where the viola line became too high for bassoon. Here I brought the oboe back in and shifted everyone up a part and it gave the bassoonist a chance to rest.

When the piece becomes a trio at measure 29, I use the soprano saxophone for the 1st oboe part, the oboe for the second oboe part and the bassoon for the bassoon part. I marked the trio sections mp as opposed to the tutti sections as mf to help create the needed contrast. Both the clarinet and bass clarinet gets a little rest here. The only one who hasn't rested much is the soprano saxophone and I'll keep that in mind as I move forward.

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into making and effective arrangement. For now, I left the key as it was in Bach as it seems to work well regarding range and transposed key. If needed, I can change it to another key later.

To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/bach_orchestra_suite_blog.html. You will be viewing a transposed score.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B