Arrangements 2021-2022

The art arrangement making, both written and improvised, used to be an essential tool of the historic musician, yet while entering the 19th century, with the specification of trades as player/composer/etc. and the increasingly idiomatic writing by composers, it slowly decreased in importance, yet never vanished. Some of the works of the 20th century (and later) are feasible to revise or arrange as they carry, like the pieces of the baroque era, a universal message or an artistic truth far superior to the notes scored or the instrument on which they were intended to be played on or their sound characteristics. In these particular cases, as in Vermilion, the art of arranging becomes a pilgrimage, and the idiomatic translation – is the pilgrim’s inner struggle. I believe two factors played a role in this successful adaptation: first is having my friends playing with me, as they are not only wonderful musicians, they were extremely generous to allow me many tests and experimentation, and the second is the poetic writing of R.Sounders which uses abstract yet extremely valuable and useful performance instructions as “Beautiful!” “thick” and “Dirty” having mostly aesthetic value or direction, both made my search a delightful journey.