This was a completely new process for me that I didn’t even think I would do during this independent study. Mr. Meyer suggested that it would be a good exercise for me, in case I would have to do any of this in the future, as there are conductors who arrange things for their orchestras, bands, etc. in order for the pieces to work with that certain group. Choosing the piece was not difficult; it was how to give parts their balance. For example, there are some parts or lines that are worth doubling, and others that do not even need to be in the arrangement. Since I am working with a smaller group, it is harder to cram in all of the original music, which has seventeen parts, into just eight parts (excluding percussion). Another challenge was making the arrangement right for the players. There are some players in this group who cannot play higher notes or lower notes as well as they can in their preferred middle range. And so, one has to take that into account when creating an arrangement specified for a group. When Mr. Meyer looked over my first draft, we made edits to the piano part especially. I tried modelling the left-hand after the trombone chords. However, when moving them around so much, it makes the piano part awkward to listen to and to play. Therefore, we still used it as a basis, but made it less awkward for the left-hand by making the chord changes closer together. We still make some edits to the arrangement, so I won’t post it yet. Once I feel good about it, I may put it up for viewing. It’ll also be performed in April for our spring concert, so I definitely will film and post that. Here are some pictures of the original and my arrangement of “Spirit of ’44.”
