Musical Arrangements

Course Description:

Music is exceedingly powerful.  It can lift the human spirit and revive a dead soul; it can also lead a person astray.  Even without lyrics, just music, just sounds, just rhythms, can alter the way a person feels and thinks.  There is tremendous responsibility in doing the artful work of arranging music.  It is sophisticated work that involves nonverbal interpretations and reconceptualizations of melodies, harmonies, bridges and refrains.  To arrange is re-present.  In this course students are shown ways to re-present existing compositions.  This is a graduate level practicum, a music class for well developed musicians.

Key Questions To Be Explored:

• What spiritual ethics are involved when arranging music?

• What does technology offer to musicians doing musical arrangements?

• How does a person learn to reconceptualize a melody?

• What are creative ways to change a song?