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From: "Steve Latham" <llatham@verizon.net>
Newsgroups: alt.music
References: <tb04h.22$rU2.13@newsfe14.lga>
Subject: Re: How to find arrangement sheet music?
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Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 14:21:02 GMT
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"Richard Galli" <info@gallilaw.com> wrote in message
news:tb04h.22$rU2.13@newsfe14.lga...
> Suppose I want to find printed sheet music for the arrangement of a
> particular song or album. When songs or albums are released, are their
> arrangements generally made available anywhere?
No. It's a business and many times sheet music will not be printed until a
publisher is sure that the tune will be popular enough to warrant sales.
Furthermore, in some styles of music, where there are written scores, it's
less costly for the publisher to make a sheet music arrangement than paying
someone to arrange a pop song by ear since the original musicians didn't
write anything down.
>
> For example, let's pick Harold Arlen's "Over the Rainbow" as arranged by
> Billy May for Ella Fitzgerald's "Harold Arlen Songbook released by Verve.
> Is it possible to purchase the sheet music anywhere for that specific
> arrangement?
There might be, but it would be uncommon. Sheet music in general is not
accurate to any particular arrangement. Most modern sheet music is in
Piano/Vocal/Guitar style, which usually means there's a Piano part which
plays the vocal melody as it's uppermost note, and Guitar chord charts, or
chord changes put in (as letters). There are people who release highly
accurate song books for various reasons, usually because a band or artist
has had some significant impact and releasing a "just like the record"
transcription is marketable. In these, they transcribe everything note-for
note from the recording.
Most likely you're only going to find the original P/V/G arrangement of Over
the Rainbow out there.
>
> I have tried Googling till my fingers were bloody, but nowhere could I
> find the sheet music version of that Billy May arrangement. And if I can't
> find it for that one [considered by some folks to be the "song of the
> century"], I doubt I will have much luck finding specific arrangements for
> other songs I want to study.
I think your best bet Richard, rather than frustrating yourself by trying
to come up with a tune and hunt down the music for a particular arrangement,
is to go to a Sheet Music site (or local music store that carries plenty)
and see what kind of things are out there. Let's be realistic, it's 2006,
and the vast majority of the sheet-music-buying public is not interested
enough in a particular arrangement of an "old" song to warrant publishing it
(typically). You will instead find plenty of Rock/Pop bands (and a little
contemporary Jazz) with note-for note transcriptions of guitar and bass
parts. There are comparatively few note-for-note transcriptions of pop piano
music in fact. I have seen some accurate stuff for Bill Evans, and Miles
Davis, and those "gargantuan" figures who were instrumental (pun intended)
in some way in music history. While Ella is certainly of that status, we're
talking vocalist and not instrumentalist, and it's assumed that no one wants
to learn to sing Jazz from written music and they don't publish much
note-for-note vocal stuff.
A little browsing (though also frustrating) will show you what you're up
against. Then, when you do find a complete accurate transcription of some
particular tune/collection, it might be one of the very few out there - but,
you can at least learn from the arrangement. And who knows, once you find
one, you might discover a publisher who does niche materials and find some
more similar stuff.
Happy Hunting,
Steve
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