Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 1 February 2016

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

     Carolyn Steiner Stevens’ Prayer of Thanksgiving - Piano / Organ Duet was sewn up and finally transmittedebruar to the printer before noon.

     I finished a digital reprint for Jane Ripplinger Fjeldsted’s Perfect in Christ, S.A., and started planning a layout for David Len Allen's serene two part arrangement of Let Us All Press On for young women.

     Next, I made a few changes to my string transcription of Bach's Invention No. 13 in A minor (took the harmony out of a portion of the Violin II part and assigned it to unison with the first, then gave melody to the viola in a few short phrases,) printed new score and parts, and drove over to Maple Mountain High School for an hour-long rehearsal with Abigail's Maple Mountain Festival Quintet. 

     I am so pleased with the progress they are making. By the time we finished at 3:30p., they had worked out the detail, and had played through the piece twice without stopping—and without my conducting. 

     They can now get through the piece in the class festival tomorrow. Abigail is visibly relieved. Our hope is that the quintet will qualify for the regional festival in two weeks. What a challenging experience this is for high school sophomores!

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 11 January 2016

Thursday, 14 January 2016
     Because my granddaughter Abigail needed score and parts tomorrow for her festival string ensemble, I was feeling pressed. I set out to do something that I could finish today.
     I did a quick string orchestra transcription for Johann Sebastian Bach's Invention No. 1 (BWV-784), and delivered the score and parts to her electronically at about 2:00p. That will give her group something to work on.
     Bach's two groups of contrapuntal pieces for harpsichord—the Inventions and the Symphonia—are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering eight major and seven minor keys. Invention number 13 contains only two unison voices—one in each hand—and was written in the key of A minor. I learned it on the piano to satisfy my keyboard proficiency requirements at BYU in 1973. It is slightly less than two minutes long.
     My new five part string transcription gives this piece a different personality. I have defined the phrases with instrumental combinations. In one place I voiced the second violin on the lower part (usually would have been assigned to the cello), but transposed it up an octave—even crossing above the first violin part in a couple of places. This gave the section a solid change-of-texture.
     The piece is a little difficult. Both violin parts go higher than I wanted, but Abby has a good second violin player, she says. Her ensemble will work everything it out.