We got an interesting assignment (from a previous client), requesting an arrangementrefers to the structure and order of musical elements in a composition, such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and instrumentation. of the Star Spangled Banner, “aria”-style, after Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, for voice, string quartet and piano. The opening bars of the famous aria have an unusual harmonic scheme, pivoting between the tonic, and a melodic minor construction built on the lowered sixth. Berklee students will recognize this as an altered dominant, with the minor ninth in the bass. Another way to describe it might be as a “flat sixth minor major seventh.” It could also be described as the first inversionA melodic varian consisting of a mirrored version of a melodic array of a half-diminished plagal cadenceA harmonic progression from tension through resolution, and it’s also the third inversion of a dominant with a raised 11th on the flatted second (a tritone substitute of the dominant). The distinctive character of this sound is defined by the choice of bass notea symbol used to represent a specific pitch and duration.
I know, that’s a lot of jargon. Theory buffs might appreciate it (or more likely choose to argue about it) – theory buffs are an odd lot. (I’m one of them.)
Given this introMusical material introducing the main melody or vocal entrance, I thought it would be interesting to apply that interesting harmonic substitution for the dominant, wherever it occurs in the tune. Having done that, we opened the Finale midiA protocol for communicating musical information, such as notes and control signals, between electronic musical instruments and computers. in ProTools, assigned instruments, edited, mixed and mastered, then produced this little video in Adobe Premiere featuring iPhone images and video clips from our own most patriotic experiences from the past year. We added section bass for the video version of the scoreA written representation of a piece of music, including the notation for all parts of an ensemble..
This arrangement is available for purchase on Sheet Music Plus
