Every piece of music you hear has had decisions made about how it will be arranged. Will there be an introduction? How will the different sections be organized? Will there be sections that repeat? What combination of instruments and/or voices will perform the piece? How will it end? These are but a few of the many questions that need to be considered whether arranging one's own composition or that of another composer.
An abundance of recordings of holiday music offers great examples of this. For example, according to Wikipedia, "Silent Night", composed in 1818 by Austrian Franz Gruber, is "the world's most recorded Christmas song, with more than 137,000 known recordings". And each one required its own arrangement. That's a lot of arrangements of one song!
Among those 137,000 known recordings are two that I had the privilege of making for North Star Records, one with CommonGround and one with The North Star Jazz Ensemble.
Pianist Ron Fournier wrote the arrangement of Silent Night for CommonGround's 1997 album "Do You Hear What I Hear?". His arrangement includes a solo guitar introduction and lovely interludes he composed for between the verses and before the ending.
I wrote the North Star Jazz Ensemble arrangement for the 2002 album "Mistletoe Sax". Taking my inspiration from French composer Erik Satie I included part of his "Gymnopédie No. 1" which serves as bookends to the arrangement and sets the overall tone. I composed some music for the middle of the recording to feature a bass solo by Marty Ballou. That section then leads into traded solos by Ron Fournier on piano and myself on soprano saxophone. Eventually we find our way back home to the original theme, finally leading back to and wrapping up with Satie's Gymnopédie.
I hope you will enjoy our arrangements of "Silent Night" and all the songs on both these albums.
Happy Holidays one and all!
Streaming on all platforms. Click the images below to listen to the arrangements of Silent Night on YouTube.
Free to listen, no account or subscription required.
An abundance of recordings of holiday music offers great examples of this. For example, according to Wikipedia, "Silent Night", composed in 1818 by Austrian Franz Gruber, is "the world's most recorded Christmas song, with more than 137,000 known recordings". And each one required its own arrangement. That's a lot of arrangements of one song!
Among those 137,000 known recordings are two that I had the privilege of making for North Star Records, one with CommonGround and one with The North Star Jazz Ensemble.
Pianist Ron Fournier wrote the arrangement of Silent Night for CommonGround's 1997 album "Do You Hear What I Hear?". His arrangement includes a solo guitar introduction and lovely interludes he composed for between the verses and before the ending.
I wrote the North Star Jazz Ensemble arrangement for the 2002 album "Mistletoe Sax". Taking my inspiration from French composer Erik Satie I included part of his "Gymnopédie No. 1" which serves as bookends to the arrangement and sets the overall tone. I composed some music for the middle of the recording to feature a bass solo by Marty Ballou. That section then leads into traded solos by Ron Fournier on piano and myself on soprano saxophone. Eventually we find our way back home to the original theme, finally leading back to and wrapping up with Satie's Gymnopédie.
I hope you will enjoy our arrangements of "Silent Night" and all the songs on both these albums.
Happy Holidays one and all!
Streaming on all platforms. Click the images below to listen to the arrangements of Silent Night on YouTube.
Free to listen, no account or subscription required.
| "Silent Night" by CommonGround Bruce Abbott, soprano saxophone Peter Calo, guitar Ron Fournier, arranger, keyboards Marty Ballou, bass Paul Mason, drums With guests Cenovia Cummins, violin Mary Rowell, viola Stephanie Cummins, cello | "Silent Night" by The North Star Jazz Ensemble Bruce Abbott, arranger, soprano saxophone Ron Fournier, piano Marty Ballou, bass Paul Mason, drums With the Hawthorne String Quartet Si-Jing Huan, violin Ronan Lefkowitz, violin Mark Ludwig, viola Sato Knudsen, cello |
Use these links to explore the entire albums.
Do You Hear What I Hear? by CommonGround
Amazon Music
Apple Music
YouTube
Spotify
Pandora
Mistletoe Sax by Bruce Abbott & The North Star Jazz Ensemble with The Hawthorne String Quartet
Amazon Music
Apple Music
YouTube
Spotify
Pandora
Do You Hear What I Hear? by CommonGround
Amazon Music
Apple Music
YouTube
Spotify
Pandora
Mistletoe Sax by Bruce Abbott & The North Star Jazz Ensemble with The Hawthorne String Quartet
Amazon Music
Apple Music
YouTube
Spotify
Pandora
