I Asked the The Lord That I Might Grow (And, My Music Has With Dorico)

Dorico
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I ran across this tune originally attributed to C.P.E. Bach but adapted by Edward Miller for use with this hymn. The melody seemed ideal for a Woodwind Quintet setting. I added glockenspiel. and tubular bells for a bit of color, but they aren’t essential to the arrangement.
I used NP 5.0 with GPO 5 for flute, Berlin Free for oboe, BBC SO Core for bassoon & glockenspiel and NP 5.0 sounds for horn & clarinet. I used Steinberg’s RoomWorks SE “Church” reverb.
I’d like to hear what some other Doricans are doing. There is such a wide variety of styles and genres among us that it would be quite interesting :slightly_smiling_face:.

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Gary,

I really love your arrangements — I tend to overdo my writing and end up with thick mess! The simplicity of your writing along with the imagination of the harmonies, runs, colors, and ornamentation highlight the melodies without getting in the way. Adding to that, the different treatments for multiple verses keep providing interest and an anticipation of “what’s next?”! (I’d love to study your scores to improve my own writing!)

— Jim

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You’re very kind. I’ll add the score later today.

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That was lovely. Thank you for sharing. :slight_smile:

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Full score - I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow.pdf (779.8 KB)
I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow.dorico (1.4 MB)

Here you go. I wrote an original introduction with a light texture of clarinet on the melody and bassoon playing a countermelody after that to introduce the tune. I added flute for an extra touch of color on the last half of the melody with a 3rd bit of material with the french horn. Dorico’s wonderful ability to have instruments play only on specific passes allowed me to add a new horn part and bring in the oboe on the repeat adding new colors/textures on the repeat. Since I already had independence and interplay between the instruments, I thought it might be nice to add a new color and texture by having all of the instruments-including glock. and tubular bells-play the melody at a forte dynamic with a direct modulation to a new key. Then I brought the work down with a 3-part texture of clarinet, bassoon and horn and closed with everyone playing to a quiet finish.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I wanted to share a bit of the thought process that I apply (at least, try) when considering an arrangement.

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Thank you so much — and for the explanation as well! I will be looking it over carefully as soon as I can. (I’m currently packing up my house for a move and have my studio, etc, packed up but will spend time with it on my iPad for now!)

Many thanks!

— Jim

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I tend to be a lot more conservative in my arrangements of hymns than of other pieces. As an example, here’s my arrangement of the hymn Iste confessor, which I recently released on YouTube.

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Very nice. I like the textural changes. I try to write my hymn arrangements in such a way that they will be interesting for the performers to play while still clearly stating the melody. People can follow along in the hymnal if they wish. I use some homophonic writing (as at the key change in my piece) in my hymn arrangements, but want to avoid a strict hymn-style setting in my hymn arrangements. Thanks for sharing. I hadn’t heard that tune before. Nice.

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