The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131702   Message #2973011
Posted By: Joe Offer
26-Aug-10 - 01:13 AM
Thread Name: arrangement for General Taylor
Subject: RE: arrangement for General Taylor
That's an interesting question, Mohammed. I don't know that I'd want to do the Great Big Sea arrangement myself. The chanteyman part is very distinctive, and suited only to that one particular singer, I think. Better to get a talented chanteyman who can listen to a number of different versions and then develop his own.
I can see where there might be an advantage for a chorus to have an arrangement for the responses, although I prefer to make up my own bass part as I go along.

What I would suggest is that you might want to ask if a Mudcatter would like to work with you to develop an arrangement that would work with your choir. I think that's something we should be doing more often here. I'd volunteer, but that's beyond my capabilities. But we do have some very good arrangers here.

I'm listening to various recordings of "General Taylor" on Spotify right now. It's amazing how wide the variety is. The version playing now is from Fairport Convention, with a band - it's very distinctive.

-Joe-