SR2: High school band arrangement of Holst’s “Song Without Words” combined with his other arrangement, “I Love My Love”. Here are the results. Click here for the PDF.
From my band days back in high school, we played a lot of music from Gustav Holst. One piece that really stuck out to me even before I was aware of choir was Holst’s Song Without Words from Second Suite (Op. 28 No. 2). The beautiful solo from the Oboe, 1st Clarinet, and Trumpet spoke to me that really conveyed the title “Song Without Words” – for some reason I knew what Holst was saying. What I always wait for though, is not the soloists; I wait for the final line in this piece from the tuba. Around this time, my voice had changed and every time I hear the tuba solo at the end, I would try to mimic it with my voice. I certainly “hit” those notes, but they were nowhere near musical, especially because I had no vocal training at the time.
After graduating from high school I went to the community college. There, I joined the community college choir with a little help from a friend (okay, what really happened was that she told me that there were no excuses and walked me down to the choir director’s office and made me audition). Our choir director introduced us to a group called the Cambridge Singers on a Friday morning using her MP3 player in the rehearsal hall. I don’t remember the piece, but I definitely remember the awe that I was in after hearing their performance. I went home and searched for their music and came across their CD: Old English Madrigals and Folk Songs at Ely Cathedral with John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers. Track 14, I Love My Love, was what drew me in because I recognized the arranger – Holst. There were not any streaming services available at the time for the piece, so I assumed that it sounded exactly like the band version.
(This CD is available on Ebay.com – your support is greatly appreciated!)
Here we are in today’s age with music being even more accessible than ever. YouTube, SoundClick (before SoundCloud), and other video/audio websites gave way for users to listen and watch music from different artists all around the world. Recently, I searched for Holst’s music again to work on my conducting and found his Second Suite in F – Song Without Words (Concert Band). It was nostalgic; I almost didn’t have to look at any music to know what was playing, which instrument, and what notes were being played.
After listening to the entire piece, I decided to look for sheet music. I found the sheet music on IMSLP.org and noticed that the title of the second movement was Song Without Words – I’ll Love My Love. I decided to go back and listen to Second Suite again, but this time, I typed in “I’ll Love My Love.” To my surprise, the Cambridge Singers’ version came up as I Love My Love – I gave it a listen… YES, it is the same piece! The arrangement was for SATB and the Cambridge Singers did an amazing job. I searched around to see if other groups performed this version and found other great performances. For some reason, however, I was not completely satisfied.
For this choral arrangement, go to CPDL and type in Gustav Holst OR click here for a direct link to the page.
I listened to the choral version and band version for hours… and finally, I decided that something needed to be done. I had a feeling that it may not be successful in the beginning, but I needed to do it for myself. I looked at both arrangements and decided that there needed to be a Song With Words. Searching through the Internet, I found that no one had made such an arrangement. I took the band arrangement and the part of the words from the choral arrangement and merged them together. At first, I thought it would be as easy as just putting text to music, but it was a harder task than anticipated.
(Break! – Bass2Yang Meme Time – yay…)
Here we are today – the piece itself wasn’t hard to arrange. It was more difficult trying to find the appropriate voice to match the instruments, correctly placing words for proper text stress and release, and writing for a healthy and efficient tessitura as well as understanding the limitations in range for each voice part. It would have been easy to just say that the flute part goes with the soprano part, but that would not work at all. The flute part starts on an F5, which a soprano would be able to sing, but due to where it lies in the soprano range, the timbre would not be appropriate by any means. Sometimes, new composers that are not fully aware of an instrument tend to write for instruments that they are proficient at – which can be creative at times but usually becomes impossible for the other instruments to maintain a high level of quality when playing through the piece.
Here is the final product (with a few changes as necessary) – Holst’s I Love My Love Op. 28 No.2 – Song Without Words for Tenor and Soprano Solo with SSATTBB.
Click here for the PDF – I Love My Love
This is a derivative arrangement, meaning that it takes the words and melody from I Love My Love and marries it to Song Without Words. This is not supposed to be an easy arrangement – though it is tonal and easy to anticipate, the beauty, range, and color that this piece demands is where music truly rests. The final descent is made optional to allow it to be accessible to groups that do not have oktavists; it would be best of course if that line was sung to keep to the original tuba part – besides, who would want to give up this solo, especially if you have basses that could sing it?
This arrangement has not yet been performed – feel free to use it if you like it and share it with others. Proper credit is greatly appreciated. Your feedback on this arrangement is greatly appreciated as well – it is not often that I get the opportunity to arrange choral music.
Thanks!
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