Hello fellow Hivers.
I run pop choirs for a living and I write and publish almost all the song arrangements myself. The songs we sing are mostly suggested by choir members. Everyone then votes for their favourite song suggestions via an online poll and I write arrangements of the ones that get a vote of more than 65 percent. This way I know I'm working with songs that most people like. However, the truth is that it can be very difficult to buy a choir arrangement of any pop songs that will work properly for my choirs, especially for the more obscure songs.
I have four choirs that meet on different nights but they all sing the same repertoire. One of my choirs has no Tenors, whilst another has no Basses. The other two have the full complement of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. This means the arrangement has to work well for any of those combinations making it pretty much impossible to buy an off the peg choral arrangement.
It's a real challenge to write something which will work, but I enjoy that aspect of running my choirs. It allows me to be much more creative in my role as a choir leader. I also think it makes it easier for me to feel enthusiastic about songs I didn't suggest myself, when I have to put so much love and care in to them.
I have to be pretty careful where I pitch the notes in order to change a pop song, which was originally sung by one voice, in to something a choir would sing. You can't have everyone singing in unison on the melody all the time, otherwise what's the point of a choir? Someone has to have the tune and the other parts should have some kind of harmony or counterpoint where it's appropriate. At the same time you cannot by law, change the character of the song. So in other words, I have to make the songs different enough to work for voices at four different pitches but keep it enough like the original song to still be easily recognisable.
I also have to take in to consideration the ability of my singers. It is not a choir of professionals, so I have to be careful that I'm not asking them to perform any ridiculous vocal gymnastics. On top of this I must make sure I follow the rules of harmony, such as not doubling the fifth note of the chord and not having consecutive fifths or fourths between the parts (though now and again, I do bend the rules if the resulting sound is pretty).
The song in this recording 'Count on Me' by Bruno Mars is one of those suggested by the choir, that I'd never heard of before. It turns out it was quite a big hit, getting to number 2 in the charts in the UK, in 2014, but it had just passed me by completely. I imagined how a choir might sound as soon as I heard it...and then started the work.
It takes between 20 and 40 hours for each song, from the time I first hear it, to the time I have a finished score with a piano part and four vocal parts notated and published and also a demo track with all the parts recorded. I publish my arrangements simply so they are 100 percent legal in the UK. I have sold a few online, which is kind of nice though.
This song took about 30 hours from start to finish. I hope you enjoy listening to it.
The two video clips are from Pixabay.
