Despite the fact that there are no dynamics yet and I’m not totally sure about the articulations I put in, who wants to test it out for me?  Here are the pdf files of each part.  Go nuts, and tell me all about it:

Violin 1

Violin 2

Viola

Cello

Here are the real lyrics, translated from the original German (just the first couple of lines, but you get the idea):

Faithfully guided, draw near
to where the blessing of love shall preserve you!
Triumphant courage, the reward of love,
joins you in faith as the happiest of couples!

Isn’t that better now?

And yet, I realize it’s probably quite annoying to hire a group of musicians and then not be able to look over their repertoire list.  Thing is, so many of you (dear readers who are brides & grooms) love to completely invent your own repertoire for us anyway (which is always very interesting), so I wasn’t exactly killing myself to get to the job.

But today, finally, somehow inspiration struck.  And maybe I can thank this weekend’s clients for that - no one has me pulling my hair out with last-minute details, so I was able to find the time to work on this project.  Yey!

I’m not done with every last one of them yet, but most are pretty much there.  Actually here, on this page.

In other news, I am working on making a string quartet arrangement of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by the Beach Boys.  Just ’cause I thought it would be nice

This is right after they played “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Hall & Oates last weekend.

I had a ball making these transcriptions/arrangements.  Everyone should have this much fun!

Here’s my short list:

Hall & Oates, “You Make My Dreams (Come True)” - this is a trio arrangement I just made for an upcoming wedding this Saturday.  I think it’s a real nice arrangement if I do say so myself!

“Somewhere Over The Rainbow” - this is going to be a string quartet arrangement. Not for any particular purpose, but because Google Analytics has informed me that one or more of you is out there looking for it!  So I’m actually going to make this arrangement and then post it for everyone to download as a pdf.

“Something” by the Beatles.  I’ve always wanted to hear this played by a string quartet, so I’m gonna make the arrangement myself and see what happens….

Oh, and I can’t help but share that this Saturday, I will be singing several wonderful songs for a rather unusual wedding ceremony.  The songs:

“Longer Than” - Dan Fogelberg

“When You Say Nothing At All” - Alison Krauss (best wedding song ever!)

“Danny’s Song” - Anne Murray/Kenny Loggins (I’m going with Anne’s version)

“Crazy Love” - Van the Man - can’t go wrong with this one.

“You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” - Stevie Wonder

and the awesomest one of all:

“Great Day To Be Alive” - Travis Tritt/Darrell Scott.  I am as of yet undecided as to whose version I’ll go with.  Darrell wrote it, and his performances of it are grittier and they display some really stellar musicianship.  But Travis is a little easier to listen to, better known, and his lyrics are a little different.

Check out the new issue! …. more soon - we had a GREAT weekend with our weddings and I really want to share some highlights with you but right now I have to run off and get a copy of the new Oregon Bride!

First, understand that most of us (the musicians of Collage) are from Oregon!  We are happy to get wet, get dirty, muck around in the mud, get sunburned on that ONE day of the year, etc etc.

BUT, our instruments.. now that’s another story.  Because we are all professional musicians by trade, our instruments are, as you can imagine, extremely important tools that are crucial to our livelihood.  They are kinda like our children, in a sense: extremely valuable and totally critical to our very beings.

Most wooden instruments are varnished, and a great many of them are very old (yes, the older they are, the better they sound!).  Imagine an extremely expensive antique piece of furniture, made 200 years ago, that’s still functional, but pretty delicate (and worth upwards of $10K). You would never leave it out in the direct sun or rain, right?  No!  Same deal with our string instruments.

Flutes and saxophones are a bit more durable when it comes to the weather, but the issue with them is that when subjected to extremes of temperature, they become impossible to play in tune (actually string instruments do this too, but in the opposite direction!).  So, if we are in the direct sun, the flute or saxophone will get really out of tune, and so will the strings, but in the opposite direction, so we end up sounding awful.  Add to that the damage the sun can do to the varnish on our string instruments, and you end up with a recipe for disaster and possibly terrible sound.

So, that’s our deal with shelter.  All these potential problems are solved if we have a tent, canopy, or even a simple patio umbrella.  Tree shade is often perfectly fine - we are not particular ourselves - it’s just that we really want to sound good!  And of course, we want to keep sounding good for years to come, so we have to be very careful with our instruments.

Don’t stress! - your rental company and/or venue should be able to provide some sort of shelter for us.  And if not, we have a backup plan: we do have our own 7′ patio umbrella we can make available (you have to pick it up from us though; and it’s subject to availability because we only have the one).  So let’s talk about it and make sure we can find a solution - the absolute LAST thing we want to do is end up unable to play because of rain or sun problems.

Cheers!

S.

I. String-based groups

For all of the following groups, repertoire for both ceremony and cocktail hour/reception will be primarily or entirely classical, with fairly equal representation from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. Flute and violin are interchangeable within these groups, so the repertoire does not change when a flute is present.

A. String Quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)

B. Flute Quartet (flute, violin, viola, cello)

C. String Trio (2 violins and cello)

D. Flute Trio (flute, violin, cello)

F. Flute & cello duo

II. Guitar-based groups

For these groups, prelude and ceremony repertoire is primarily classical, though we also have a number of beautiful Celtic pieces and early to mid-20^th century popular songs and show tunes.

Cocktail hour/reception repertoire will be primarily vintage swing jazz (1920’s - 1930’s), unless otherwise requested.

Special requests for popular/contemporary songs are often more easily accommodated than with string groups, and will almost always sound more like the original version of the song.

Saxophone and flute are both played by the same musician, and there is no additional charge for bringing both instruments.  Vocals are available with all except cello/guitar duo at no additional charge (depending on my availability).

A. Collage Quartet - flute/saxophone, violin OR mandolin, guitar, cello OR bass

B. Collage Trio - flute/saxophone, guitar, bass - our most popular ensemble of all!

C. Toscana Trio - flute/saxophone, mandolin, bass

D. Flute & guitar duo

E. Cello & guitar duo

Ensemble - a group of musicians

Processional - the entrance of family/honored guests and the bridal party at the beginning of the wedding ceremony, accompanied by music. The processional may be one piece of music for everyone entering, or it may be divided into distinct groups, each with their own piece of music.

Recessional - the exit of the bridal party upon completion of the ceremony, also accompanied by music.

Song - a piece of music that was originally composed/written with vocal lyrics (whether it gets played as an instrumental or with a singer singing the words).

Piece - a piece of music that does not have words.

Style - the way a piece of music is treated in performance. For example, many early jazz songs can be played in the style of a slow ballad, or in the style of a mid-tempo swing.

Genre - the overarching category to which a song/piece belongs. Those early jazz songs, regardless of whether we play them as ballads or as mid-tempo swing, all belong to the jazz genre. Sometimes the words “style” and “genre” are used interchangeably.

Classical - the genre of European art music, which encompasses several sub-genres. These sub-genres are defined by the time period in which the music was written.

· Baroque (1600–1760)

Example pieces: Canon in D, Air on the G String, Spring from the 4 Seasons. Example composers: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi

· Classical (1730–1820)

Example pieces: Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, the Elvira Madigan Theme. Example composers: Mozart, Haydn

· Romantic (1815–1910)

Example pieces: Ave Maria, Wedding March, Bridal Chorus. Example composers: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Saint-Saens, Puccini

Jazz - the genre of American popular music from roughly the 1890’s through today which enjoyed mainstream popularity from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. There are a few important sub-genres of jazz:

· Swing (1920’s - 1930’s) - fantastic at weddings. Recognizable songs, good up-tempo rhythms, whether vocal or instrumental. Audiences love it - and it’s very danceable!

· Bebop (1940’s) much harsher, not danceable, and we never play this type of jazz at weddings.

· Cool Jazz (1950’s) - think Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” - great stuff, but a bit too mellow for a party.

· Bossa Nova/Latin Jazz (1960’s) - We do occasionally play this at weddings - audiences really like the energy and grooviness. Almost always instrumental.

· Smooth Jazz (1980’s) - think Kenny G. We don’t play in this style for weddings (except for a specific song request).

Contemporary Music - this is really a difficult thing to define, because it means different things to different people. I generally think of “contemporary” as meaning “in the same time period that is now”, so that would define contemporary music as whatever is being written and performed this year. Or, in the last few years. But, contemporary also seems to be a relative term; i.e., the Beatles are more contemporary than, say, swing jazz.

That said, every time the term “contemporary music” comes up, I feel a need to get a clear sense of what that means. Most of our wedding repertoire doesn’t fall under that loose category, mostly because of two reasons:

1. Contemporary music (and the somewhat related term “popular music”) usually hasn’t stood enough of a test of time to guarantee an appeal to a broad and sometimes unpredictable audience.

2. In musical training, formal education exists in the broad genres of classical and jazz. But the ways in which contemporary and popular music styles are learned and performed are much less predictable, so there is no standard for performance practice. This can make it difficult to ensure quality performances.

This doesn’t mean we can’t or won’t play contemporary music; it just means that it’ll require a bit of extra time on our part to figure out how to play it.  Usually this means we have to write it down somehow, in a way we can read, and then probably rehearse it.  Often the writing-down part can take a few hours (per song), especially if we have to do it by ear; hence the fee we charge for special requests.

For this weekend, I’m looking forward to playing at the Aerie at Eagle’s Landing for the first time.  I personally haven’t been there yet, so it’ll be interesting.  And I get to play with Skip and David!  The flute/guitar/cello team.

Team Strings will be downtown at the Hotel deLuxe and they have some interesting music to play - our bride here is a big fan of the romantic classical, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, so I’m envisioning some lush gorgeousness.

Then on Sunday the 4th, the stringers will be it again, this time at the Art Museum for both the ceremony and cocktail hour.

More soon!