New Series: Rewriting Music That Annoys Me

May 23, 2016

Today I'm kicking off a week-long series about rewriting music that annoys me. Why would I want to do that? Let me explain …

I normally leap at the opportunity to play as a substitute organist in the Episcopal church. Unlike so many other denominations who have all but given up the pipe organ and gone the way of the praise band, the Episcopal church still maintains its musical traditions, values the quality of its music, and employs professional musicians to deliver that music. Accordingly, I was very happy to serve again this past Sunday as organist at my local Episcopal Church (where I normally sing in the choir).

One of the many interesting things about the Episcopal church is that there is a such wide variety of music available for various parts of the liturgy. The Episcopal modus operandi is that each part of the mass is set by a different composer, so that different parts of the liturgy are put together in a sort of mish-mash of styles. It's up to the organist or choir director to select which parts to assemble together for a reasonable result. This is quite different from my experience in the Lutheran church, where various settings of the liturgy are through-composed by a single composer, so there is always continuity of style throughout the service. In any case, during the liturgy Episcopal congregations are almost always reading only a single line melody, and the organist normally accompanies that melody with music written in the service manual. Although improvisation and creative harmonization are part of the Episcopal tradition, normally the service music is played verbatim.

Variety is great, but it also means opinions and preferences will vary, which brings me to the point of this series I'm launching today. In short, I can't stand playing music that annoys me, and at this point in my life, I refuse to do it. The nice thing about being a composer is that I can rewrite music that I don't like, so that's what I do. Working with a melody written by someone else, which I also may not be crazy about, challenges my skills in a special way that I quite enjoy. The task is to improve what's there, not just so that it no longer bothers me, but so that I can put my heart into it enjoy playing it — so that I can truly make music with it. Some of the accompaniments written in the Episcopal service manual from 1982 are fine the way they are, but many of them I think are awful, and I refuse to play them as written. No offense to the composers, honestly.

For this particular service, all of the accompaniments I was slated to play annoyed me. Each day this week, I'll talk about the things I encounter in this music that I can't stand, and clarify each point. Then I'll share recordings and scores of my solutions to the problems I outline. The music in question is as follows:

THE SERVICE MUSIC

Let me outline the basic problems as I see them, so you have an idea where I'm going with this.

THE PROBLEMS

  1. Overwriting
  2. Unnecessary difficulty
  3. Haphazard texture
  4. Poor or inconsistent harmony
  5. Readability Issues

I'll discuss these issues, and maybe also talk about quality and good taste in service music generally. The final posts will include recordings and scores of my arrangements — the result of my attempts to improve upon the work of others.

As a teaser, here's a simple chorale harmonization by J.S.Bach that can't be improved upon. Bach is the only composer I know of who always knew how not to do all the things I'm going to be complaining about.

So what about the music I rewrote? Is what I came up with really better than what I started with? Stay tuned to see and hear for yourself.

Until tomorrow,
Aaron

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