Arranging Mermaid Music: The Artistic Process

Knowing that my work was going in a more creative direction, I accepted an offer to be the musical arranger of a new musical early last year.  This is the third musical I have had a creative role in.  I also arranged the music for Tom Sweitzer's "Sky" in 2007, and I composed the music for "Twelve Dancing Princesses," (Very Special Arts of Loudoun) in 2005.  The new musical is titled "The Little Mermaid," and is written by my longtime colleague, Dolly Stevens.  This is a much larger-scale expansion of a short musical she co-wrote with Tom Sweitzer in 1995.  In addition to re-writing the script, Dolly added 19 additional musical numbers to the original production, including about five instrumental/ dance numbers that I would be in charge of composing. We have a sample of some of the music here:

So what does the arranger do?  As musical arranger, I work with the composer to develop her basic ideas and interpret them into a more sophisticated end-product.  Not only do I arrange the piano accompaniment for the show, but I also arrange the music for a 3-piece trio to play.  An overview of our artistic process helps others understand how the composer and arranger work together to bring the music to its final form.

"Little Mermaid" Playwright & Composer Dolly Stevens (L) Works With Arranger Jennifer Warren-Baker (R) 

1.  COMPOSER composes and records the songs.  First, Dolly (the composer) would record mp3s of the vocal numbers she composed.  She would e-mail these or put them on a CD for me to work with.  Sometimes she also gave me a hand-written lead sheet with chords, melody, and accompanying lyrics.  Most of the time she didn't give me the rhythm, though, and it was my job to figure out the time signature and rhythms she sang.  The recording I got was of her singing, along with basic piano chording.  Dolly is very strong with her theory and chords, and she has basic piano skills, but she needed someone with more advanced piano skills to develop the piano accompaniment into something more sophisticated.  She also needed someone experienced with notation software to write out her music professionally.  Enter the arranger (me).  

2. ARRANGER transcribes the songs.  Step 1 of my job was to listen to her songs, figure out the rhythms, sometimes the chords, and the melody, so that I could correctly transcribe the music in Finale (my notation software).  This part of the process is called transcription.  It is tedious work, and it is my least favorite part of the process -- but necessary.  Once the music was transcribed into professional-looking lead sheets that she and the actors could read (chords and melody), she could teach it to them, and I didn't have to be there.  As a rule, I create a PDF of all my Finale sheet music files, then load the PDFs to my iPad so I can read the music without fumbling with papers (more on this process in another post).

"Song of the Sea" Lead Sheet, viewed on Jennifer's iPad

3.  ARRANGER develops piano accompaniment.  Once I had transcribed her songs into a clean-looking, professional lead sheets, I developed vibrant piano accompaniments to accompany the singer/s. This is when I start having fun, because this is the creative work.  After developing the accompaniment, I recorded it for rehearsal purposes.  Dolly and I use Audacity because it is freeware and can make nice, compressed mp3s that are just the right size to e-mail back and forth.  

4.  COMPOSER edits/ approves arrangments.  After e-mailing the composer a recording of the piano accompaniment, she either approves or makes edits to the arrangement.  It is my job to make sure these edits are applied to the final score and rehearsal track.  The finalized rehearsal track then gets sent to the school's webmaster, who puts them on a webpage for the kids to practice with at home.  

5.  ARRANGER notates final piano accompaniment in Finale.  If I had time, I would write out the full piano accompaniment in my notation software after recording it, but oftentimes, this would have to wait until later.  I had all the piano accompaniments memorized and the lead sheet could function as a cheat sheet for me.  To save time, I could play the full piano score without having it fully notated.   

6.  ARRANGER composes instrumental and incidental/ scene change music.  In reality, not all arrangers are composers, and this doesn't ordinarily fall in the arranger's lap.  But knowing my strength with composition, Dolly asked me to compose some amazing instrumental numbers for the show (no vocals).  This is where I thrive.  I love creating music from the ground up.  I composed the dance numbers and scene change music for the show, which was my favorite part of this project.

7.  ARRANGER develops piano accompaniment into orchestral accompaniment.

The final step is expanding the piano score into an orchestral score, and making sure the other instrument parts are fully scored, with enough lead time for the other musicians to learn their parts.  I suppose this task could be handed off to an orchestrator for a Broadway-scale production, but this is not Broadway.  A middle school show doesn't have the budget to pay a large ensemble (nor does it need one), but I like to have a 3 or 4 piece band.  This time I'm scoring the show for Piano 1, Piano 2, and Drummer.  When I need bass, I'll double the bass with the left hand of the piano 1 part, or I'll have piano 2 play bass.  When I need orchestral sounds like woodwinds, brass, and strings, I'll score those in the piano 2 part.  Except for the drummer, my musicians get a mp3s to practice with and pdfs of their sheet music.  I do know how to write percussion, but I find that most drummers aren't going to read that sheet music.  They like to do it by ear.  So our drummer will just listen to all the rehearsal tracks with notes of my ideas.  We'll polish his bells and whistles in rehearsal, adding specific fills, intros, and endings.  My piano 2 will practice along with the rehearsal tracks, reading the sheet music I've given her.    

With 22 musical numbers, you can imagine the time this takes.  But the good news was that I could do all this work on my own schedule, and I didn't have to be at the first two months of rehearsals.  With my commitment to spending more time with my kids, this works well for me.  I can arrange music and record the rehearsal tracks when my kids are sleeping.  We have worked this way before, and it's only necessary for me to come in a week or two before the show opens and start rehearsing with the kids.  Since I write the piano and band music, I know it very well, and I tend to memorize it before the show opens. That way, it is easy to just step in the last week or two and play the show/ put the band together. 

The show opens at Blue Ridge Middle School in Purcellville, VA on February 28, and runs through March 9 (two weekends).  Ticket information is here.