Brass Band question: Who arranged Bach's Air?

[imperialbari]

One of the best pieces in the brass band repertory of my youth was the arrangement of Bach's Air from Suite #3 for Orchestra.

I tried finding the arranger via a Google search. Apparently there now are several arrangements, but I didn't find a likely name for the arranger of the old, then widely played, arrangement.

My memory says it was Dr. Denis Wright, but I am not positive.

Anyone here in the know?

Klaus

[PhilGreen]

Hi Klaus,

The only arrangement I've played is that Of Howard Snell but, as Fodens http://www.fodensband.co.uk have one of the oldest and largest libraries in the banding world, I'll ask our librarian to see if we have others.

Phil.

[Steve Marcus]

At least one of the arrangements has the BBb Bass part ending on a written Bb 5 ledger lines below the treble clef staff (concert pitch of Ab below the lowest note on the piano), not merely interpolated ad libitum by octave-dropping BBb bass players.

[imperialbari]

Steve's remark tells me that the arrangement he refers to is not the one I played those 50 years ago.

Bach's original is in D major. Despite the slow tempo, it has a strong drive in the bass line, which has a range from C# below the staff through E above the staff. It has lots of octave leaps and one leap of a twelfth.

The arrangement Steve played would have been transposed to Ab and would have kept the original leaps. The old arrangement was transposed to Bb, and at least in the Eb tuba part the opening octave leaps were reduced to repeated notes.

The original solo line would have been extremely demanding even on a piccolo specialist. Piccolos were rare when I was young anyway, so the very smart move of the old arrangement was about taking the melody down a tenth and giving it to the alto horns and the flugelhorn. The 1st baritone joined in on some passages.

Which leads to why I ask about the name of the arranger.

One band where I played 1st baritone had this piece programmed. As transposing was no problem when I had better control of my eyes, I gave my own part to the 2nd baritone and played from a copy of the part for the altos. The solo lies very well on baritone or euphonium when the key is Bb.

As I furthermore like the 3rd suite (have had the scores for all 4 suites since 1989), I planned on arranging the Air as the opening for the dances. The setting would be for the 14-piece brass ensemble. Haven't solved all problems with the dances. Yet the Air has been finished but for the preface, where I would like to mention the old arranger and his brilliant choice of key.

In my setting the soloists are the 4 horns and the euphonium, which allows for a very warm sound and for the soloists to apply their own staggered breathing when phrases get long. I have written out the standard baroque ornamentations. My reading of the original differs from that of the old arrangement, so the ornamentations are not exactly the same. In the repeats I according to baroque practices have embellished the euphonium somewhat more to let it take the foreground among the soloists.

The bass line is given to the bass trombone and the tuba playing in octaves. That takes the tuba part down to a range not comfortable for all players and instruments. Hence I have made modified parts like I did with Wie will ich mich freuen. Upper trumpets and trombones play the 2nd violin and viola parts. Lower trumpets and 3rd trombone play the chord progressions in crisper articulations like the right hand of a harpsichord would have done.

Score and parts, but not yet the preface may be downloaded for free from my Yahoo based project here:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Yo ... te%20%233/

The score mostly has a choice of transpositions and clefs keeping as many notes in the staff as possible. Trumpet parts come in Bb and C (4th only in Bb). Horn parts in F and Eb. Euphonium and tenor trombones come in bass, tenor, and Bb treble clefs. Tuba comes in concert and in brass band style notations.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

The embellished euphonium lines in the repeats would be hard to play on a horn. However I have been made aware of the possibility that it in some constellations would be relevant having a horn player as the Primus inter pares among the soloists.

Changing the score would be at bit too much as all the musical lines are in it anyway, but I have made horn parts in F and in Eb with the same advanced embellishments. As doubling these fast figures might come out clumsily, I have made plain parts in bass, tenor, and Bb treble clefs for the euphonium to play when one of the horn players steps forward.

Klaus

[PhilGreen]

We have 2 arrangements in the library - the HS one I had played and another by....wait for it.... Dr Denis Wright. Unfortunately it's out of print now. Our copy is on 'march' cards and the score is signed by the arranger.

Phil.

[imperialbari]

Thank you so much, Phil!

Having ones memory confirmed is a highlight for an oldie!

Denis Wright also had a great influence on the development of brass bands in Denmark, but I was too young (and too provincial then) to ever meet him here.

As I remember his setting of this Air, his ornamentations reflect a performance tradition from before the craze of HIP entered the scene (HIP = historically informed performances). I have read Quantz's On playing the flute and I have studied Bach's harmonization. That gives the explanation for an ‘error’ in the Air score, where the suspended note in a harmonic turn has no resolution. Bach was a master in the tension-release game and one of his tricks was about delayed resolution. The players of his time knew how to come up with a proper release through the ornamentation of the next (longer) notes.

Thanks, Phil!

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Thanks to Phil I could finish the introduction, which reads like this:


Johann Sebastian Bach
Air from Suite #3 for Orchestra
Arranged by Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre 2013

One of the best pieces in the brass band repertory of my youth was Dr. Denis Wright’s arrangement of Bach’s famous Air from his Suite #3 for orchestra. The stroke of genius in that arrangement was the choice of key, Bb major over the original D major, with the melody line taken down a 10th and given to the full section of 3 Eb alto horns supplemented by the flugelhorn and partially also by the 1st baritone. In some performances I on baritone joined in on the melody all the way. A great experience as this wonderful tune fits the baritone and the euphonium very well in the key of Bb major.

Since then I worked quite a bit with baroque music in other contexts and combined with my recent interest for the 14-piece brass ensemble I took a new look at the score for the whole Suite #3. The plan was, and still is, to issue settings of the Air as the opener for the sequence of baroque dances ending the suite, but I am not yet happy with my settings of the dances with their wonderful scoring for the 3 baroque trumpets (which are not playing in the Air).

The full horn section and the euphonium have been chosen as the soloists in this arrangement allowing for a very warm, yet clear, sound. The soloists also have the option of planning their own staggered breathing when phrases get long. The ornamentations have been written out according to baroque performance traditions. These traditions also call for embellishments of the repeats. Here both repeated sections have been written out in full. The score gives the embellishments to the euphonium to let it stand out as the primus inter pares among the soloists. Alternative parts allow for this function being given to one of the horns, if that would be the obvious choice in a given ensemble constellation.

The bass line is carried by the bass trombone in the bass octave and by the tuba in the contrabass octave. The latter may be uncomfortably low for some constellations of player and instrument, so there are modified parts directed towards a number of common tuba types.

The crisscrossing 2nd violin and viola lines have been given to the upper trumpets and trombones in various constellations. Not written in the score, but implied by tradition, are the progressing chords as played by the harpsichord or by the lute. These have been given to two different permutations of the lower trumpets and the 3rd trombone to be played in a detached fashion. Where the melodic lines and the chord lines happen to play the same sequence of notes, their articulations should not be made uniform.

The trumpets are taken into their very low range, which hardly will earn me the love of their players. But then the late Fred Mills, among others, proved that embouchure control and slide management will give wonderful sound and pitch in this range of the trumpet.

Bach did not expect his strings playing in equal temperament. Horn players sometimes even out their flattish 5th partials by alternative fingerings. The opening note of this setting of the Air might be one of the places where the open 5th partial of the Bb horn (and of the euphonium) would prove itself the best choice.

Korsør - July 9th – 2013
Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre
Bassbone Music

[Steve Sykes UK]

Hi there!

Just to confirm;

the Denis Wright arrangement (the 'old one') features the tenor horn section and can be found here;
http://www.justmusicuk.com/publications/details/JM31421" target="_blank
the Howard Snell arrangement features the cornet section and can be found here;
http://www.justmusicuk.com/publications/details/JM31419" target="_blank

Hope this helps!

[PhilGreen]

Well Steve, that's the last time I listen to Jimmy without checking out the facts