Meet the man behind the music
1. What was the very first arrangement you wrote and was it any good?
I think it was an orchestration of The Bee Gee's 'How deep is your love?'
that I wrote for my GCSE music coursework; I doubt it was particularly good!
The first vocal arrangements came several years later, written for my
university barbershop quartet, and were rather more successful.
2. How do you pick what songs you want to arrange?
I keep an ear open for songs that strike me as possible vocal arrangements,
and always have sketches awaiting completion. Different songs require
different combinations of voices, so sketches can lie dormant for some time
until a suitable group can perform them. With VOCES8, group members suggest
songs they would like to have arranged, and I pick those I think would work
for the group.
3. Who are your influences as an arranger of a cappella?
Owing to their SSAATTBB structure (which lends itself to most choral
groups), much of the stylistic influence has been from arrangements written
for The Swingle Singers, notably by Ward Swingle, Jonathan Rathbone, and
Alexander L'Estrange. However, the greatest influence on my unaccompanied
vocal writing is the harmonic language of composers like Howells and
Poulenc.
4. When you write a piece for VOCES8, do you feel more like you are
arranging or composing a completely different piece?
It depends upon the brief I receive at the commission: sometimes, specific
covers are requested, which necessitates that the arrangement stays
relatively true to the original. When I have completely free reign, there's
far more of a compositional element - essentially, only the melody needs to
be recognisable! In either case, I enjoy composing alternative harmonies.
5. Which do you consider to be your finest arrangement for VOCES8 and
why?
I consider my best arrangements to be those that work as vocal pieces in
their own right, and I try to avoid simply transcribing for voices. With
that criterion, I'd pick Cloudy - it was difficult to pay homage to The
Average White Band without relying on their intrinsic rhythmic drive - and
Gabriel's Message - written with a completely different character to Sir
David Wilcox's famous arrangement, but one that, I think, stands as a worthy
alternative.
VOCES8
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