Lutheran Hymnal Project – Page 6

005.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Hymn No 5 from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, aka “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus”, arranged for Soprano and Bass Clarinets.

ST. HILARY.
8 7 8 7. D.
With Dignity
Origin Uncertain
Charles Wesley, 1707-88

Here’s the pdf of the arrangment: 005.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Starting to get the hang of the recording software, Audacity, not to mention the arranging software, MuseScore.

I’m trying to get it to sound more like a Clarinet Choir, so this time I recorded 4 versions of each part and then mixed those down to a single track. The Bass Bass Clarinet part is on the far left, Tenor Bass Clarinet part in the middle left, Alto Soprano Clarinet part middle right, and Soprano Soprano clarinet part on the far right. After doing that for all 4 parts, a 16 clarinet choir, I added a final Soprano clarinet part of the Soprano part down the middle, ending up with a total of 17 clarinet tracks.

I did accidentally mix the click track into the Bass clarinet part while I was trying to figure out the whole “mix down” thing. Next time I’ll leave that out.

Finally, I used Audacity to a little Reverb, using the “Large Room” preset.

004.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Hymn No 4 from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, aka “On Jordan’s Banks”, arranged for Soprano and Bass Clarinets.

I think this is my favorite so far!

ALSTONE. L.M.
In moderate time
Christopher Edwin Willing, 1830-1904
Charles Coffin, 1676-1749
Tr. John Chandler, 1806-76 a.

Here’s the pdf arrangement: 004.ServiceBookAndHymnal

003.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Hymn number 3 from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal aka, “The Advent of Our God”, arranged for Soprano and Bass clarinets.

DONCASTER. S.M.
With dignity
Samuel Wesley, 1766-1837
Charles Coffin, 1676-1749
Tr. John Chandler, 1806-76

Here’s the pdf of the arrangement, short and sweet: ServiceBookAndHymnal.003

002b.ServiceBookAndHymnal

Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal Hymn 002b, aka “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

Second Tune
VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL.
Unison, in free rhythm
88, 88, 88
Plainsong Melody, Mode I
Medieval Antiphons
Latin Hymn, 1710
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66

So this arrangement is a bit more “sensible”, though I have to say, I think I prefer the First Tune.

Here’s the arrangement: 002b.ServiceBookAndHymnal

002a.ServiceBookAndHymnal

A.K.A. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”.

First Tune
VENI, EMMANUEL. 88, 88, 88.
In unison
Plainsong Melody, Mode 1
Arr. by Ernest White, 1899-
Medeival Antiphons
Latin Hymn, 1710
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66

I do REALLY like this hymn, but was a giant pain to transcribe.

First, apparently little details like notes per measure and time signatures weren’t a big deal when this hymn was written, so it is written with no measures, something the software I am using to create the scores (MuseScore is awesome! And FREE!)

To get around this, I decided to create “measures” based around the phrasing of the text. That ends up meaning dividing the piece into 12 and 14 syllables per “measure”.

However, once I divided up the melody phrasing, I discovered, when I tried to line up the chords in the harmony parts as they were in the book, that whomever transcribed it also didn’t place an emphasis on having the same number of beats in the other parts as had written in the melody part. To get things to line up, I ended up filling in notes in the harmony parts.

Even so, this arrangement ends up odd, and I have been tweaking it for a few days now, trying to get it to sound like I think it should, especially after I started playing the parts on the clarinets.

Here’s what I ended up with: 002a.ServiceBookAndHymnal

001.ServiceBookAndHymnal

“Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding” for bass and soprano clarinets.

MERTON, 87, 87.
In moderate time
William Henry Monk, 1823-89
Latin Hymn, V cent.
Tr. Edward Caswall, 1814-78 a.

Here’s a pdf of the arrangment: 001.ServiceBookAndHymnal

For the record, this puppy has 6 sharps when transposed into b flat!