# Arrangement for 4 voices



## Rasa

Somebody asked me to arrange this melody for four voices. Usually it has 3 repeats with different text, but wouldn't want to bore you with those, so just the one time thing (I hope you can ignore my rendering softwares utter ineptitude at rendering good singing sounds or respecting phrasing):


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## chillowack

I thought this was very pretty, Rasa (overlooking the facts that the computer voices lack life, and there are no dynamics).

Did you compose this piece yourself? Or just arrange it as a choral piece, from some other kind of work?


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## Rasa

I just received the melody and put the rest under it.


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## Krummhorn

Wonderfully done. 
I like the moving harmonies in the lower voices when the soprano is holding. 

Have you done more compositions like this?


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## Rasa

yes, but this is the only one that doesn't explode in an ugly mess of dissonant harmony. Since this was an assignment, I kept it low on the dissonances.

The reason the moving harmonies work is because they're not really moving harmonies, but just the same harmonies as in the exposition with some simple passage and appogiatura notes. It sound moving, because the bass line has them. This ensures it remains harmonically stable while providing a certain polyphony. Cut all the embellishments, and the first and second repeat are exactly the same.

Here's an example of what I find amusing to arrange: (Beautiful Love)

As you can hear, this is first of all in a jazzy style. Unlike in the other one, the dissonances are harder and I don't avoid cutting into them hard. But I think it's similar in the attempt to create polyphony against the soprano line (I like the tenor in this)

I guess if I want my arrangements to be acceptable, I need to cut down on the dissonance, and pay more attention to the harmonies that are part of the basic harmonic rythm, instead of just looking for the special chords all the time.


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## Rasa

This got me thinking. Maybe we could take a short melody and all arange it for a certain ensemble, and see what everybody comes up with  purely as an academic spielerei...


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## SenorTearduct

Lets do it!.. Someone can upload it via midi to this forum, and we can post the results here or somthing...


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## chillowack

Rasa, I thought "Beautiful Love" was great!

You have a definite talent for this kind of arrangment.


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## jcsd

I agree, I actually preferred the second piece to the first. Whilst the first was very easy on the ear, the second just sounded more interesting.


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## Rasa

Let's do something we all know: Autumn leaves. I think this is a good candidate because it can be solved in a light romantic style, utilising classical harmony, as well as a jazz style. This way, it should give two different renderings.

don't think you'll require a midi? Here is a leadsheet. Ofcourse, doesn't mean you have to follow the chords on the leadsheet. Next assignement we'll take a popular melody, keep genres switched up.


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