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Arrangement help?


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Hi all,

 

I'm working on some arrangements for the community band and was hoping someone might be able to help me out.

Does anyone have, or can point me to an online source for, a document that defines the ranges for the different concert band instruments (written range as well as concert -actual pitch- range)?

 

Maybe a little help with those silly brass instruments, too.

Baritone VS. Euphonium? What is the difference?

Trumpet VS Coronet VS other similar trumpet-like horns?

F Horn? What are they good for, really.

 

FWIW, I have available in my local band:

 

1 - oboe

4 - flutes

5 - Clarinets

1 - Bass Clarinet

3 - Alto Saxes

3 - Tenor Saxes

1 - Bari Sax (me :thu: )

2 - French Horns

5 - Trumpets (but some of them have other trumpet-like horns as well)

2 - Tubas

2 - Trombones

1 - Double Bass

3 - Baritones (Euphoniums?)

1 - guy who kinda randomly hits on various drums and cymbals. :facepalm:

 

I'm working on Gershwin's Sumertime and What A Wonderful World written by Weiss and Thiele and made popular by Loius Armstrong.

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wikipedia will actually help you wit the range of the instruments. you are on your own for transposing.

 

very little difference between baritone and euphonium the euphonium has a conical bore (shapes like a cone) which gets bigger as it gets to the bell the baritone has a cylindrical bore. same with the trumpet and cornet. the cornet is conical.

 

generally in a concert band the euphonium is the preferred instrument between baritone and euphonium. the trumpet is preferred over the cornet.

 

the f-horn is for timbre it gives a specific sound.

 

hope my post wasn't entirely useless :thu:

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The French Horn is the mid-range brass instrument. Below trumpets, above trombones. In marches, they just play on upbeats.

 

Trumpets/etc. have different sounds, but unless you WANT those different sounds in different parts I'd suggest just arranging everything for Bb trumpet. Traditionally, if there are cornet parts they are considered the "lead" parts, with trumpets being secondary.

 

Range wise, A (one ledger line above treble clef) is as high as I would arrange for a community trumpet part band unless you have some really killer players with great high chops. I don't know about low brass range; you already play sax and the written parts are the same range for the three main ones.

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The French Horn is the mid-range brass instrument. Below trumpets, above trombones. In marches, they just play on upbeats.


Trumpets/etc. have different sounds, but unless you WANT those different sounds in different parts I'd suggest just arranging everything for Bb trumpet. Traditionally, if there are cornet parts they are considered the "lead" parts, with trumpets being secondary.


Range wise, A (one ledger line above treble clef) is as high as I would arrange for a community trumpet part band unless you have some really killer players with great high chops. I don't know about low brass range; you already play sax and the written parts are the same range for the three main ones.

 

 

good call for a community band i wouldn't recommend writing a trombone part above d bottom of treble clef or below b flat 2nd line of bass clef, unless they have the high or low chops for it. :thu:

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French horn is the most awesome instrument in Western classical music. Get used to it.

 

The range of a horn is actually huge, but they usually play at the very top of their register, where the partials are really close, which allows them to do dramatic "rips" and {censored}.

 

SBB covered trumpets and cornets well. If they play flugelhorn, you'll probably want to write that even lower than trumpet. Probably for community band you don't want anything above the staff.

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French horn is the most awesome instrument in Western classical music. Get used to it.


The range of a horn is actually huge, but they usually play at the very top of their register, where the partials are really close, which allows them to do dramatic "rips" and {censored}.


SBB covered trumpets and cornets well. If they play flugelhorn, you'll probably want to write that even lower than trumpet. Probably for community band you don't want anything above the staff.

 

 

true too bad the f-horn gets such crap parts unless it is a horn concerto. especially crappy parts in marches.

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In all honesty, our F-horn players aren't the greatest.

Their intonation issues are matched only by those of the oboe's.

 

I found this image. It will help me a lot.

 

Your comments about practical ranges for amateur level players is appreciated.

 

111h9.gif

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Traditionally, if there are cornet parts they are considered the "lead" parts, with trumpets being secondary.

 

I was thinking about this. Yes it's true that "traditionally" that's the way the 2 instruments are handled, but I think it's about time for an update. Trumpets have a much edgier, in-your-face sound that you'd want in a lead instrument, and cornets are more mellow and rounder, stay in the background you f***ks :mad:

 

Unless you're just writing the trumpets as a fanfare part, and cornets for the main melody, I'd accept that :)

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I was thinking about this. Yes it's true that "traditionally" that's the way the 2 instruments are handled, but I think it's about time for an update. Trumpets have a much edgier, in-your-face sound that you'd want in a lead instrument, and cornets are more mellow and rounder, stay in the background you f***ks
:mad:

Unless you're just writing the trumpets as a fanfare part, and cornets for the main melody, I'd accept that
:)

 

piss off:mad:

 

 

i play my cornet as loud as i want, and my trombone even louder:mad:

 

and my bass well you cant hear it anyway, but you would know if i stopped:mad:

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I was thinking about this. Yes it's true that "traditionally" that's the way the 2 instruments are handled, but I think it's about time for an update. Trumpets have a much edgier, in-your-face sound that you'd want in a lead instrument, and cornets are more mellow and rounder, stay in the background you f***ks
:mad:

Unless you're just writing the trumpets as a fanfare part, and cornets for the main melody, I'd accept that
:)

 

I think thats what the original idea was; cornet players were like "Hey, valves! Scales!" and trumpeters were still like "...but I liked changing my crooks every three minutes..."

 

Every year at this college our section has been all trumpets.

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Well, here are the (midi) results of my efforts.

 

What a Wonderful World by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. It was originally recorded by Louis Armstrong.

 

I made this arrangement for my community concert band.

 

http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/141/Wonderful_World.mp3

 

I don't have the midi mix tweaked yet, but what do you think?

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In case you are interested, here are files of the score (in conert pitch and transposed).


http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/141/Wonderful_World_3_Score_Concert.pdf


http://hc.bloodyvelvet.com/files/141/Wonderful_World_3_Score_Transposed.pdf

 

good luck finding a trombone player that can hit the 12let 16th note intro and sound like 16th notes and not a glissando. you might want to change that to 8th notes arpeggiatting the chord. and that bassoon part (bari sax?:confused:) has a bit of a Pachelbel's Canon feel to it not at all interesting to hear. give the f horns a bit more of a melody :idea:.

 

sorry if this is offensive i tend to be critical when analyzing so take it with a grain of salt. :)

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