Arrangement

In music, an arrangement loosely describes rewriting a piece of pre-existing music for a specific set of instruments or voices, often in harmony or with additional original material. In jazz or studio settings, "arranging" is most commonly used to describe the process that is also called orchestration, adaptation, setting, or a variety of other terms.

Related Topics:
Music - Jazz - Studio

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In popular music an arrangement is a setting of a piece of music, which may have been composed by the arranger or by someone else. Most commonly, this is a matter of providing instrumentation for the songwriter or composer's basic melody and harmony. It may add details omitted by the composer, or it may replace those originally given and be merely based on the original work.

Related Topics:
Popular music - Composed - Instrumentation - Songwriter - Composer - Melody - Harmony

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In European classical music an arrangement is a setting of any composition for a different medium other than the one in which it was created: for example, a piano piece may be arranged for full orchestra, or an orchestral composition may be arranged for solo piano. Often arrangement involves considerable reworking of the original material, in conformance with the resources of the final medium.

Related Topics:
European classical music - Piano - Orchestra

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In jazz music, an arrangement is a specific setting of a pre-existing composition, although in jazz, the arranger has a larger role: it is common for jazz arrangers to contribute additional original material of their own, to significantly alter the forms and structures of the pre-existing material, or to combine the pre-existing material with snippets or quotes from other pre-existing material.

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As with composition, the ready availability of sound recording equipment has changed the understanding of what "arrangement" means. At one stage, credit for an arrangement would only be given to a person who had produced a written musical score of some sort. More recently, any original treatment of an existing work that is available for repeated performance by other players may qualify to be loosely called an arrangement. An unscored arrangement may be called a "head arrangement" (it is in the head of the musician(s)). Every time a piece of music is performed it has an arrangement, which may or may not have been done by a professional arranger.

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An arrangement may specify or vary some or all of:

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• Harmonies, including parts.
• Instrumentation.
• Style, dynamics and other instructions to the players.
• Sequence, including the order and number of repeats of sections such as verses and choruses, and provision of sections to be improvised by instrumentalists.
• Introduction, coda, modulations and other variations.

An arrangement is often an adaptation of a previously arranged piece of music for a musical application other than that for which it was originally intended. This includes arrangements for different instruments, for example an arrangement for piano or flute, or a duet, based on a symphonic piece, or an arrangement of instrumental accompaniment for vocal music). Or, it may be an adaptation for another musical style, for example adaptation of a classical piece for a jazz or rock ensemble, orchestration of a song written by a popular band, or an a capella setting of a song from a stage musical or an opera.

Related Topics:
Instruments - Flute - Duet - Symphonic - Accompaniment - Vocal music - Rock - Ensemble - A capella - Song - Stage musical - Opera

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