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rrayner 01-06-2016 11:00 PM

Cyn’s Song
 
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“Cyn’s Song” is the second of my original compositions. It follows the recent posting of my first original composition, “Ruffo’s Lament” -- these songs having been inspired by my itch to write something that is actually all mine.

“Cyn’s Song” is named for my wife, Cynthia, the love of my life and my biggest supporter. The main theme has a nice bouncy lilt that reminds me of her wonderful, outgoing personality.

I have arranged this piece kind of in the style of the Count Basie Band (my all-time favorite band). It is meant to be an easy-listening, swing/jazz band piece (perhaps even danceable) with a relatively basic format and for the most part, fairly basic voicings. As in a lot of my swing pieces, I have made adjustments to the duration and attack of many of the eighth note phrases and a number of the on-the-beat quarter notes to approximate the swing feel.

This piece is an AA form, where each A segment is 16 measures long, with the second A segment being a repeat of the first segment, varying in the second ending. The A and B sections have an easy two-beat feeling, as is the final section at G. At letter C, the entire ensemble launches into a straight-ahead swing feel. Section E is meant to be for open solos and there are no horns playing in Composer -- only chords and text slashes marking the beats of each measure. As such, I have set Composer to skip over section E.

Sections B through F are variations based on the chord structure of section A, more in a jazz improvisation vein, not variations on the theme.

A lot of the voicings are what we called “four-way close” at Berklee. You will see in the saxes in section A that the top four saxes have all four notes of the basic chord scored within one octave, top down. The Baritone sax doubles the lead, down an octave. Most of the voicings of the rest of this piece are also “four-way close”, but there are some variations. Lead notes that are not in the basic four-note chord are called approach notes and they will be voiced as chromatic, diminished or modal. Perhaps I will write a discourse on this one day.

The Drums Work part is not displayed in the Conductor’s Score. This is the part that you hear when Composer plays the piece. The regular Drums part is for printing for a live drummer, should this piece ever get played live. If you want to see the Drums Work part, click the drop-down next to Conductor’s Score and select Working Score. You will notice that there are a number of places in the Drum part that are marked “fill - - - -“. I do not profess to have the skill to write drum fills, so I have just left them as bass and drums only. Please use your imagination to create your own fills. I will gladly entertain any drummer’s contribution, but I will not guarantee that I will use it. Also note that on the regular Drums part, I have used the upper voice on the first ledger line above the staff to show the rhythm of the major horn parts. This will help guide the drummer and help him “kick” the band.

As always, I hope that those of you who like to look “under the covers” to see how a sound is created will find some benefit to this score. I have really enjoyed writing it.

Ralph Rayner


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