Orchestral Philip Sparke

[James McFadyen]

A Poll for you about a Philip Sparke project that i'm working on. may include Items such as;

A London Overture
Year of the Dragon
Tryptich
Music for a Festival
Dance Movements.

I am negosiations with Studio Music at the moment about this.

 

[PeterBale]

Although having ticked the "no" box - which may surprise those who know me as an avid purchaser and collector of cds - I could possibly be persuaded if I felt the orchestral arrangements brought something different and special to the originals. I do have a number of works in versions for brass and (horror of horrors!) wind band, particularly by Sparke, Wilby, Hess and Ellerby, and the additional tone colours and varied solutions of orchestration can make for interesting comparisons, but I think I would wish to hear some idea of the end results before commiting to a whole cd of orchestral arrangments.

 

[James McFadyen]

A very valid point, Peter! Usually when I arrange I add my own things into it, just like any good arranger would do, the Orchestration of A London Overture, which is the only one I have completed so far has no additional material and I have not developed sparke's material further, it is instead just a Orchestration of the Brass Band score. I might change this.

I have added an extra option to the poll to cover this and if enough people show an interest in wanting to hear something new and differant to philip sparkes music within the orchestral medium, then I shall approach Studio Music and Philip Sparke to see what they think.

There are copyright infringment issues here as Studio Music and Philip himself may not want me to alter any of the original material in any way, except to orchestrate it.

But, certianly a damn good point, Peter, thanks!

 

[PeterBale]

I think the terminology used is sometimes quite confusing, with the border-lines between arrangement, transcription and orchestration - and even realisation - becoming blurred. As to my remarks, I was not thinking so much in terms of extra material being added, but rather different insights being gained by other voicings and tone colours being used.

 

[James McFadyen]

As for tone colour, I have made much adjustments and much variation. For example at the very start of A London Overture, the main part is played by the Baritones and Euphoniums in Unison, however, my arrangement consists of violins and horns playing in 3 octaves which will give a more symphonic and fuller sound and will be quite vibrant. These are the types of things orchestrators will do to music. There are sections with Ponticello Violins which make the sound hard and glassy which makes it stand out (in a good way) from the original, again, standard orchestrors tricks.

As for chord voiceings, this is more a question of getting the differant sections and tone colours to sit together but perhaps a bit of chord substitution here and there might could be beneficial.

The orchestration is a copy and paste job, if that's what your wondering, theres lots of variety of colour and depths.

 

[James McFadyen]

[quote="The orchestration is a copy and paste job, if that's what your wondering, theres lots of variety of colour and depths.[/quote]

The Orchestration is NOT a copy and paste job, it should be!

OOPZ!