The Heather on the Hill
 

"The Heather on the Hill" was written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe in 1947 for the Broadway Musical, "Brigadoon". This arrangement was written in March of 1963 for full orchestra and soprano and tenor soloists for performance at the Cherry Blossom Festival concert on the Mall in Washington, DC in April of 1963. It was the second arrangement I did for the USAF Band; it was the first time I'd ever written for solo voices.

I tried using the "Ah Chorus" sound for the singers, but it came out sounding too much like an organ. There are many things I would write differently today, but my intent was simply to capture another one of my previously written pieces in Composer, so it is mostly unchanged. There are two parts that I still think came out good: the lively jig in the intro -- rather fast, but exciting; and the french horn background in measures 60-65.

I had to leave out the drum rolls that I had written. All I could get was a rachet sound; and the timpani rolls have been left out.

At any rate, for what's it's worth, here it is. Hopefully, someone will get some benefit from it.

Ralph Rayner

Re: The Heather on the Hill
 

Hi Ralph,
"Brigadoon" has been a special favorite of mine since high school (which was a few years before retirement;) It's a fine love story, with a relevant sub-plot re-enforcing the central one. If suspense is not there from the beginning, it grows as the love story--with which the music has a lot to do--grows and leads to the ultimate question about the nature of love, and leaves plenty of room to wax philosophical. The music always seems so appropriate to situation, which may be part of its effect--except, as your arrangement shows, individual sections can be extracted successfully.

Sorry about your timpani. If you can use sound fonts, I'd be happy to send you a copy of Real Voice, which has the closest sound to a real voice that I've found. It's range is from bass to coloratura, with only problems being that gender identification is difficult around middle C and G5 for some reason is way too loud, so needs note velocity adjusted. It's the font I use for the soloists in "The Search for Nelly Gray," so a quick trip to Soundclick will give you a good idea of its sound. If you can use it, I will get a copy to you.

all best,
mgj

Re: The Heather on the Hill
 

Thanks for the offer, Marv. I did a quick re-listen to the prelude of "Nelly Gray", and if I've identified it correctly, the psuedo-voice is quite nice -- a lot better than the "Choir Ahs", etc. I think I identify the voice in the section where the banjo becomes a rhythm banjo. However, as my Clavinova is my main platform, I have no way of loading sound fonts on it, so I'll pass on your offer. I do appreciate it.

Ralph