Arranging sessions

[EastCoastThump]

This is a nice example of what's possible off-the-cuff when the musicians and "songwriter" have a common language and theory of harmony. (Ben Folds composing and arranging for the National Symphony Orchestra on-the-fly, with an audience listening in.)



As usual, though, basses get the compositional scraps. This shines a light on how much Robert Sledge contributed to the Ben Folds Five arrangements.

 

[sean_on_bass]

Very cool stuff. I've heard a little bit of Ben Folds' orchestral compositions previously and enjoyed what he had come up with.

With that said, i prefer something closer to jazz improvisation, because the audience is then not exposed to the planning of the piece(which is a little tedious). It just happens because everyone is listening to everyone else and implanting themselves tastefully as a part of the whole product. In that type of situation, Ben Folds would had started things off and the whole group simply joins in. Of course then Ben would not be in full control of the composition, it would be a product of every musician of the group.

 

[Nashrakh]

As usual, though, basses get the compositional scraps.

The basses as instruments maybe, but he starts off with laying out the root motion of the piece, which I wouldn't consider compositional scraps in any way. Of course it's not the same way someone like Bach composed, who gave bass the most importance right after the melody itself, filling in the middle voices afterwards.

And hey, cellos are our higher pitched brothers... They read bass clef too.

 

[LiquidMidnight]

Very cool stuff. I've heard a little bit of Ben Folds' orchestral compositions previously and enjoyed what he had come up with.

With that said, i prefer something closer to jazz improvisation, because the audience is then not exposed to the planning of the piece(which is a little tedious). It just happens because everyone is listening to everyone else and implanting themselves tastefully as a part of the whole product. In that type of situation, Ben Folds would had started things off and the whole group simply joins in. Of course then Ben would not be in full control of the composition, it would be a product of every musician of the group.

I dig what you're saying, but I think that runs counter to what the actual purpose of the performance was supposed to be: Someone writing a tightly arranged and structured orchestra piece on the fly and then a large ensemble of highly educated and skilled musicians being able to instantly follow.