On Writing a Musical Part 6

I never played a lot of jazz and when I did it was back in my first few years of college. I am more of a choral person and my principle instrument is classical guitar, so I never developed a good ear for orchestration. Therefore, the prospect of orchestrating the musical for a 1920-30s jazz band was a little intimidating. Given that I had very little time to do it in also added to my anxiety.

I started off by listening to jazz bands from the era to try to get a feel for the sound. The late 20s to early 30s was an interesting transitional period. Small jazz and Dixieland combos had been around for a while, but it was before the polished big band sound of the 40s. I liked the raw and occasionally unrefined voicing of the instruments. I enjoyed hearing orchestrators experiment with the instruments.

My next step was to get a few scores to examine. I ordered Fletcher Henderson's "Variety Stomp" from a site on the Internet. Due to some email SNAFUs it took me a couple of weeks to get it, however, the owner of the site very kindly gave me a lot of advice. He described what instruments were in a typical band of the period. He told me about typical sax voicings, how instruments were combined, and a little on how the drums were played during that era. Any success I had in my orchestrating is due to his advice; any failures are due to my own ignorance and incompetence.

I started orchestrating with pieces that I knew were going to be less typical of the period, or were going to be primarily piano. As I got a feel for things, I moved to the heavier and more era specific songs. By the end, I felt that I was able to produce a plausible sound, at least to an audience that was not real familiar with the style of the period. Close enough for jazz, as they say.

Through the process, I learned that I am not a detail person by nature, and that orchestration requires a great attention to detail. Careful dynamic markings and phrasing can save a great deal of time in rehearsal. Clearly marking sections, watching note spellings (especially after the instrument has been transposed), and checking voice leading also can make things go easier.

The computer software (I used Sibelius) was indispensable. I am old enough to remember the days of hand writing everything and I do not miss the sore fingers and stiff neck! I learned little tricks along the way. One was to set up a template that can be reused for each song. Another little trick for parallel sax voicings was to just copy and paste the alto 1 part into the alto 2 part and then move the notes down a third to put them in the ballpark (and then of course adjust the pitches to fit the harmonies). The same could be done for the tenor part. I also learned that having a complete piano/vocal score before hand made things much easier. I only needed to copy that into the full orchestral score and then pull lines and harmonies out for much of my orchestration.

Once we got into rehearsals, the biggest problem I found was that the jazz band often overpowered the singers. This is in part due to the horrible acoustics of our performance venue (Taft Hall - a multipurpose room with hard walls and floor, low ceiling, and rectangular in shape). If I turned the singers' microphones up, the echo in the hall turned everything to mush. If I kept the microphones low, one couldn't hear them sing. The kids in the band did their best to play softly, but it was always a challenge.

My orchestrations in this regard were no busier or fuller than those of the period. I wonder how they did it back then with little or no amplification of the singers? I ended up cutting a few parts and thinning out a few sections to help mitigate the acoustical problem.

Another issue I had was the ability of our student musicians. They did a great job for high school kids, but there were certain places that were challenges. The first alto parts were often written very high back in the late 20s and are part of what give the music its distinctive sound. This can be tough even for our very talented first alto player. I had to compromise and avoid the extreme high notes whenever possible. In addition, trumpet parts were in a few places a little high for our trumpeter, and violin intonation is always a bit of a problem at the high school level.

Drum notation was also an issue. Usually the drummer is given a suggested outline of what to play and is then left to interpret and improvise the rest. This works well with a drummer who is versed in the style of the times, but is not appropriate for a high school student. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about drumming, especially from that era, to be of much help. Our drummer is an excellent percussionist and did an adequate job for the show, but I'm sure there were a lot of anachronisms in his playing.

Finally, I was reminded on how having a strong pianist is essential for a musical - especially at the high school level. We hired in a very talented lady who did a wonderful job. She covered parts when needed, reinforced vocal lines when necessary, and in short, held things together. She, however, could not make all the early rehearsals, and I used student pianists for those. I was surprised at what a good job they did. With the exception of one or two sections, they could have played the whole show and saved me some money.

In the end, the band sounded very good and the orchestration was passable if not always authentic. The acoustics were still bad and probably half the lyrics were lost. Nevertheless, it was a good learning experience for me and hopefully a bit of fun for the singers and instrumentalists.