Original Big Band Charts

Gandalfe,

I estimate that about 85% of the tuba part can be easily played on bass trombone. There's an 8-bar unison tuba & bass soli that goes lower than the usual range for bass trombone -- and has a dreaded low B natural. It's possible that we could work around that by having just the bass play the moving lines in that passage and the bass trombone could play Bb trombone pedal points where there are sustained notes below low C in the tuba/bass soli. There are tuba trills in several places. I'm thinking that they could be played as lip trills on bass trombone.

The best thing for the viola part is for me to rewrite it for guitar. It would then be easy to play on that axe.

If you'd like to give the chart a try, I'll write the viola part for guitar. Also, I'd need to mail the score & parts to you as the parts are on larger than letter size paper (custom size) and I'd have a problem scanning them into PDFs.

Roger
 
Nice job for two rehearsals! Is this the cut that goes on the recording, or is the recording session in the future? If you have another chance, the practice to fix the intro will also fix the ending. I'm glad that most of the band liked the tune and arrangement.

I also must admit that I've never heard of "hork" as a verb (or other part of speech, I suppose).
 
Gandalfe and Everyone,

I'm currently working on a new piece for wind ensemble that can be performed by either contemporary classical or jazz players. It's scored for 11 individual instruments: bass clarinet, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, flute, baritone sax, tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax, french horn, and trumpet. In addition, there is a soloist (any instrument). The score is structured to have a great amount of improvisational interaction between the conductor, the ensemble, and the soloist. In this way, the music will sound different each time it's performed.

A practical approach could be to perform it with a mix of good players from a community band (woodwinds and horn) and saxes & trumpet from a big band. I'll let you know when it's finished.

Roger
 
chemEtoo said:
Nice job for two rehearsals! Is this the cut that goes on the recording, or is the recording session in the future? If you have another chance, the practice to fix the intro will also fix the ending. I'm glad that most of the band liked the tune and arrangement.

I also must admit that I've never heard of "hork" as a verb (or other part of speech, I suppose).
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Hork is used in the computer programming world, or at the very least that is where I first heard it. Bork is an alternate usage.

The CD is cut in September so we have time for tweaks and all.
 
Roger Aldridge said:
Gandalfe and Everyone,

I'm currently working on a new piece for wind ensemble that can be performed by either contemporary classical or jazz players. It's scored for 11 individual instruments: bass clarinet, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, flute, baritone sax, tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax, french horn, and trumpet. In addition, there is a soloist (any instrument). The score is structured to have a great amount of improvisational interaction between the conductor, the ensemble, and the soloist. In this way, the music will sound different each time it's performed.
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Roger, note that an oboist, french horn or bassoon player who can read changes? That is extremely rare in my world. When I see charts like that I normal figure I have to write out solos for those folks.
 
No one reads chord changes in this music. It's not anything like conventional jazz stuff. Rather, it's a revisiting of how New Music notation and improvisation were used by a number of avant-garde classical composers in the 70's. Sadly, this style of composition does not appear to be as commonly used today. I find it to be great fun and very exciting.

As a short verbal description of what I'm writing in the first section of the piece....

I devised an 11-tone harmonic structure or "harmonic complex" that is based on a mirror shape of intervalic patterns. If you'd like to see the pattern please email me and I'll send it to you. I scanned it this morning to send to a composer buddy. In this section, each of the 11 instruments has only one note to play. Superimposed on the harmonic structure are a series of instructions for how to play the note in different ways including some special effects. Each instruction is numbered. The 11 instruments are formed into 3 groups: bass clarinet, bassoon, oboe, clarinet, and flute as a woodwind quintet (group 1); the saxophones as a saxophone quartet (group 2); and finally the horn and trumpet (group 3). The groups play together in various combinations or individually in 7 different permutations -- such as all three playing together, woodwinds + saxes, woodwinds + horn & trumpet, saxes + horn & trumpet, individual groups. The series of instrument group permutations interact with the the series of instructions for playing a note / special effects. These are notated in the score as cues and numbered. The conductor cues the ensemble as to what series of permutations to play and in what order. In having the conductor make all of these selections -- ideally, in the course of a performance -- he, in effect, is improvising with the ensemble and shaping the unfoldment of the music in real time in a way that's similar to a soloist improvising with his horn. On top of this, a soloist uses the 11-tone harmonic complex of the score and what is happening in a live performance with the ensemble as an improvisation springboard.

So, you see, there are no chord changes in this music and the improvision is more like New Music contemporary classical improvisation than mainstream jazz.

Hope this helps to clarify, Roger
 
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