Please turn to number 75 (Second Tune) and join with the clarinets in “The Royal Banners Forward Go”.
Number: 75 (Second Tune)
First Line: The Royal Banners Forward Go
Name: PARKER.
Meter: L.M.
Music: Horatio Parker, 1863-1919
Text: Sts. 1-4, Venatius Fortunatus, 530-609
Sts. 5,6, Anonymous
Tr. Episcopal Hymnal, 1940
Clarinet Arrangement: 075b.TheRoyalBannersForwardGo
The same text set to very different music.
While this arrangement was easy to transcribe and record, I had a much harder time finding room for my second verse solo “Hymnprovisation”. There’s a lot of freedom in the simple harmonies of chant. When you start getting more chord changes in there, it becomes more complicated for improvisation.
I always think of improvisation sort of like navigating an obstacle course. With Chant, you basically have a straight track with maybe one obstacle in the middle. With modern arrangements (and jazz), it becomes a steeple chase.
