Shelly Ann Isaga

Arrangement report (Finals)

Little Drummer Boy

The arrangement is a Christmas tune in the key of Gmajor. The original tune is in
duple meter and has a stagnant bass line. In this arrangement, the intro has 32 measure
and the rhythm and tempo is established by the basses until m4. Then the tenors will
sing in harmony to the basses with a triplet on the 2nd beats of every measures from
m5-m8. The sopranos will enter at m9 introducing the melody with augmentation on
the values of the melody line. The altos will enter after 4 bars with a little touch of
“fugue entrances”. In this manner, I made the 2 voices harmonize by altering the
endings/cadences with the use of combining the antecendent and consequent phrases.
The tenors and basses became drones or ostinato with stagnant bass line. From m25,
the tenors and basses will have a rhythmic pattern leading to a transition to the body
of the arrangement. The transition consists of 8 measures with a little ritardando to
adjust the tempo towards the new tempo

The main body of the arrangement introduced the tune in a different groove.
Instead of duple, I made it on a fast triple meter. The soprano, alto, and bass sets the
rhythm and the tenor enters 5 measures after the rhythm was introduced. At m46, the
melody was on the alto and then tenor remained but harmonizing the A. At m55, the
melody is on the soprano while the alto and tenor harmonizes the melody. The bass is
still an ostinato and doing descending and ascending basses in doing progressions and
transitions of the chord accompaniment. The pattern continues as the voices sing the
melody one after another, the rhythm smoothly transitions to chordal style at m63. As
the verse leads towards to its end, the remaining lines of the verse was sung in canon
style in a span of 13 measures. I altered the melody again to create a better effect on
harmonizing while doing the canon. At m88, I made an effect of echoing voices
which leads to m90 that consist of passing tones with a Eb43 as a pivot chord
(Dominant7 of the neopolitan of G) that resolves to Ab which is the tonic of the new
key (a semitone higher to the original key.

As the new key was introduced, a new meter (duple), mood, rhythm and tempo
(quarter note is equal to 100 bpm) was also played by the tenor and bass while the
soprano and alto will harmonize the melody which is given to the soprano. The whole
2nd verse of the song was fully arranged in the same pattern until measure m138. The
2 measures with only tenor on it serves as another bridge to the closing theme which
is also very similar to the introductory section because they have the same rhythmic
patterns and syllables. But this time, the closing theme has only 7 measure where
there is a very short and explosive ending supported by a crescendo to give emphasis
and power to the last chord.