MUSC 229

Midterm Project

General Instructions:
Arrange “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Gustav Holst for brass quartet (trumpet, horn,
trombone, tuba). A lead sheet is attached which contains the melody and chord symbols.
As it reads, the piece is a simple form of 16 bars in total length. You will repeat these 16
bars so your arrangement will actually be 32 (at least). It is not necessary that you
augment the form with an introduction, interlude, or coda; but if you feel that any of
those are warranted feel free to write them in. A Finale 2008 score should be submitted
and it is understood that a large part of your grade will be the written aspect of the score
itself - not just the musical contents. As planned, there will also be a reading session
whereby your piece will be played by an actual brass quartet as part of your grade.

Grade:
This is a two-part project.

Part 1 consists solely of your score, which should exhibit all of your musical creativity,
technical facility and ingenuity. Further, from a written standpoint, it should contain all
appropriate musical symbols, notation, and practices of notation. Your score should be
submitted as a Finale 2008 file. Your score will be graded and a very detailed
explanation will be provided. This grade will be recorded but considered only half of the
total grade for the project. You will be given the opportunity to revise your project based
upon the comments and resubmit as covered by part 2.

Part 2 consists of the revised score and the reading session. The reading session will
entail having the extracted and printed individual parts available to hand out to a quartet
of musicians who will in turn play through your piece. If your arrangement is well
written and clearly notated it is quite conceivable that they play your piece perfectly upon
on reading. Given that the reading session will occur after the revisions have been made,
each student’s piece should play fairly smoothly. However, it is likely that even still, the
musicians will have questions or that small issues may arise. In such cases, you – the
arranger – need to capably and quickly handle any questions or problems that arise and
make any necessary on-the-spot fixes to enable the best performance possible. After the
reading of the piece, you will then submit the revised score and receive a grade that
encompasses the revisions plus a grade for your conduct at the reading session. The
reading session will take place during class time and it is required that you be there. If
you are not there, you receive a zero for the entire second part of this project – not just a
zero for the reading session. The revised score and the reading session each make 50%
of the part 2 grade.

Below is a list of points to consider from score setup, musical concepts, and reading
session conduct. It is understood that your grade will be based upon but not limited to the
following.
Score Setup:
o Staves in proper order from highest instrument down to lowest instrument
o Correct grouping. Make sure the bracket to the left extends down all four staves.
In Finale this is called a group and it is not done automatically. I showed you
how to fix this in class.
o Text blocks: you need title, composer, arranger (your name), and copyright.
Make sure subtitle is deleted
o Delete all blank measures at the end of the piece (if any).
o Tempo marking should appear above the top staff to the left. It should also be
implanted, but hidden, above the other staves in the score. If you created the
tempo marking with the wizard then you should be all set.
o Dynamics must be placed underneath the notes to which they apply. A dynamic
should NEVER be placed under a rest. Also, crescendo and decrescendo marking
need a dynamic marking to follow them.
o Rehearsal letters – using the expression tool, Finale created letters A through D
for you. Your pieces are short enough that you can get away with those four and
not need to create any extras.
o Any necessary text expressions, like legato (smooth and sustained) or espressivo
(with expression). Use the expression tool to create these. They should be placed
above the staff and over each individual part in the score. The font should be
times new roman, size 12, and italicized. All of specs are in the text menu that
pops up when you choose the text tool.
o Ritardandos (Rit.) is a gradual slackening of the tempo. Unless it is at the very
end of the piece you need to follow this instruction with a tempo, which is where
you want the music to return to the time. Both Rit. and a tempo are in the list of
pre-made expressions. Use the expression toll to insert them. Remember these
are placed ABOVE the staff in each part.
o Articulations, if necessary. It’s better to underwrite these then to overwrite, so
unless you have very specific ideas and know what you are doing it’s better just to
write an expression like legato (smooth), flowing, etc.

Musical Concepts:
o Make sure everything is in the range of the instrument. Be conservative, stay
away from the very ends of the ranges if you are unfamiliar with this.
o Obey general rules of voice leading and voicing.
o Fill out the chord. Make sure you have at least the root and third of each chord
present. The melody certainly can contain one of these so you only need one or
two more instruments to effectively cover a triad. Where you are using all four
voices simultaneously observe basic doubling rules.
o Be mindful of vertical spacing. Give each part its own musical space, but if you
voice the other instruments too far from each other they will lose depth. Stay
within an octave with upper voices and you can allow yourself up to two octaves
between the bass and tenor voices.
o The melody does not have to be in the trumpet. You can certainly have a
different instrument play the melody and hand over to a different one at a new
 phrase for instance. It should go without saying, you may need to transpose the
melody an octave to fit the range of the instrument assigned to playing it.
o Check your dynamics with respect to each instrument’s dynamic curve in the
book. If you write a loud note in a part of an instruments range whereby they are
incapable of playing loud then their part will be lost in the arrangement.
o Check spelling of chords.
o Plan some development from a dynamic and texture point of view. There is no
need to use all four instruments the entire way through. You have the know-how
to set phrases in different styles of texture with various amounts of voices. This
should also coincide with the dynamics to achieve a sense of rising action
culminating in a climax at some particular phrase that you see fit. Also keep in
mind that the entire piece is repeated and that in itself should warrant a significant
change for the second half of the piece.
o Although the lead sheet contains chord symbols, you are more than welcome to
reharmonize this entire piece. For one thing, if setting to hymn style texture you
would need to reharmonize to achieve the amount of harmonic motion associated
with the style. Furthermore, using substitutions and chromatic harmony
(secondary dominants, augmented sixth chords, etc.) is a great way to gain some
complexity and variation. Like the point above, plan where you will insert
substitution, especially the chromatic harmony. Considering the gain of
complexity, it might be more appropriate to set the first half of the piece in a more
stable harmonic manner and save the chord substitutions for the second half.
o In general, the art of arranging is a matter of how creative you are with all of the
above concepts. There is an infinite amount of ways to use these concepts to
yield an original and artful product.

Performance Conduct:
It should go without saying, the better work you do with writing the score the better the
performance experience will be. That being said, some things may come up anyway and
your ability to answer questions confidently and handle any situations in a competent
professional manner will be paramount to your success. You wrote your arrangement;
only you know what you want to hear. Sometimes musicians will have questions
concerning interpretation or even a misprint. You need to be able to correct any small
problem quickly and calmly as well as give definitive answers. The musicians will be
invited to give you feedback and criticism. They will be respectful and professional; you
need to be able to match that. Make eye contact, have poise, have confidence, know
when to give in to their expertise but also feel free to make reasonable requests.
 In the Bleak Midwinter
Gustav Holst

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