{"id":48158,"date":"2017-09-27T18:42:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T22:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/?p=48158"},"modified":"2017-09-27T18:42:55","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T22:42:55","slug":"interview-blair-thomson-how-to-arrange-fifteen-songs-for-a-symphony-orchestra-in-one-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/2017\/09\/27\/interview-blair-thomson-how-to-arrange-fifteen-songs-for-a-symphony-orchestra-in-one-month\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Blair Thomson: How to Arrange 15 songs for a Symphony Orchestra in One Month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Composer
Composer and pianist Blair Thomson about the fine art of integrating the sound of an indie rock band with a symphony orchestra. (Cr\u00e9dit photo: Victor-Diaz-Lamic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week the OSM<\/a> moves from Mahler to Half Moon Run.\u00a0Adam\u00a0Johnson conducts the\u00a0OSM Pop concerts, Tuesday and Wednesday in the Maison symphonique. Ludwig van Montr\u00e9al team met with the St. Bruno arranger, composer and pianist Blair Thomson, who talked about\u00a0the fine art of integrating the sound of an indie rock band with a\u00a0symphony orchestra.<\/p>\n

When did you get this assignment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Near the end of July. The OSM asked if I would or could write 13 to 14 arrangements for Half Moon Run. Initially, I thought they would be played in 2018! I soon learned that the deadline for everything (parts and scores) was Aug. 28 \u2013 a month away. It was imperative that I meet HMR and begin writing as soon as possible. OSM laughed and said they were aware of my conscientious approach to my work but that I didn\u2019t need to be overly \u201ccreative\u201d on this gig. But I don\u2019t compromise. Off I went to Archambault to buy HMR records and then met the members in person.<\/p>\n

Did you know HMR and their music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had heard HMR on a broadcast a few years earlier and recall telling my wife that these guys were talented and very funky. The OSM told me that HMR wanted to perform about half of the concert on their instruments, the other half singing with the orchestra.<\/p>\n

And this was a problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My preference is to get pop singers to step outside their comfort zone, away from their instruments, thus creating a situation where they have to \u201cbreathe\u201d with the orchestra, like an opera singer. I did a pretty radical rereading of some Michel Rivard\u2019s songs with OSM in 2006 (the recording was made in 2008). I believe this was the first time the OSM had done this [i.e. performed a pop concert without a rhythm section]. Michel wanted to do it this way, which I considered artistically courageous.\u00a0Most pop singers are terrified (yes, terrified) to sing with an orchestra without a steady beat furnished by a drum kit, especially if an arrangement does not strongly resemble the original.<\/p>\n

But how do you deal with instruments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer to this question is itself a question: \u201cIf the artist\/band wishes to play an instrument, what do they want to hear?\u201d Are they simply an entity backed\u00a0by<\/em>\u00a0the orchestra, or are they integrated\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0the orchestra? During\u00a0La symphonie rapaill\u00e9e<\/em>, my arrangement of Gaston Miron\u2019s poetry and folk singer Gilles B\u00e9langer\u2019s music, the 12 singers were themselves seated within the orchestra. I thought of them as additional orchestral instruments.<\/p>\n

It sounds like each job of arranging is different.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experience has taught me that there is no template for integrating a band\u2019s sound with an orchestra because the union always depends on the context. Do the artists read music? If so, this means they can listen to cues, as would a lieder singer. For the arranger, this may present increased opportunities for subtle rhythmic, melodic or harmonic nuances. On the other hand, the ability to read music does not confer an advanced ability to hear with precision. One must, therefore, meet the people for whom you are about to write, observe their body language, watch them play, and listen to how they themselves listen. In a sense it is an exercise in radical empathy, in understanding how the artist perceives the musical experience.<\/p>\n

Once you have this understanding, then what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first step is to transcribe the vocal line as precisely as possible. I am guilty of dogmatism in insisting that this be done as accurately as possible, without compromise. We can compare this to an ethnomusicologist who transcribes non-Western music with a different tuning system and irregular rhythms. If the singer sings \u201cbaby, I love you\u201d with quintuplet 32nd notes within a triplet eighth-note figure, then this must be represented in the score.<\/p>\n

What happens after transcription?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What happens \u2013 and I mean 100 percent of the time \u2013 is that during the two to three hours it takes to transcribe the vocal line, other musical ideas spontaneously arise. I write them down, as outrageous as they may seem. Even better, patterns emerge. For example, Half Moon Run have striking back vocals. One sees why upon inspection: they often sing in fourths. The lead singer, Devon, loves to create syncopation and to stress unstressed syllables. That\u2019s very interesting to me. Several ideas can be traced to this phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Songs by the same group can be different.<\/strong><\/p>\n

True. Every song has its own DNA. The arrangement\u2019s angle or point of view takes its departure from my perception of this DNA. Often, and curiously, I may not \u201cget\u201d a song on first listen. I say to myself, \u201cWhat\u2019s the big deal? This is rather blas\u00e9. Not much here. What am I going to do?\u201d And yet, after a careful transcription, the arrangement\u2019s \u201csecret\u201d always appears, particularly if I adopt the singer\u2019s voice. It\u2019s a very intense process, sometimes accompanied by tears and laughter.<\/p>\n

Vocals, then, are the basis of everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. I often see arrangements without a vocal line, or with a rudimentary one devoid of lyrics. Without wishing to sound harsh, it seems to me that this is a betrayal of the artist. How can one speak of integrating a band\u2019s sound if the vocal line has not been judiciously examined, syllable by syllable? This\u00a0process is the\u00a0sine qua non<\/em>\u00a0of arranging songs.<\/p>\n

Tell us more about the case of HMR.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

With HMR I have \u201cfolded\u201d their very strong grooves into the OSM so that what we hear is not a band playing \u201cin front of\u201d an orchestra but another musical element, as important as a tuba or a piccolo. The instruments are not further up the hierarchical plane than the orchestra (even with amplification). They are, rather, subservient to the groove, lyric, harmonies etc.\u00a0Other times I have superposed a second or even third \u00a0groove on top of their instruments, which is a very\u00a0seductive musical move.<\/p>\n

A good example is the arrangement of\u00a021 Gun Salute.<\/em>\u00a0The beginning and end feature the orchestra enveloping the band in such a way that the entry of the drum is unannounced. The band\u2019s \u201csound\u201d is reinterpreted through an orchestral haze. That\u2019s one way to do it. One superimposes an orchestral sheen which obliges both listener an performer to rehear the groove they have hitherto played innumerable times.<\/p>\n

Another case is\u00a0Call me in the Afternoon<\/em>. Devon sings \u201cT-T-T-T-T-Take one if you need it\u2026.\u201d This stuttering continues for several bars. When you hear the consonants dance at a given tempo, ideas occur. During the transcription I jotted down \u201cbrass triple tongue clusters.\u201d That was the motif of the arrangement. The band\u2019s sound is exemplified here by insistent, dancing, tutti 16th-note clusters. From the lyric\u2019s rhythm came the harmonic \u201ccommentary\u201d \u00a0of clusters within which the band folds itself.<\/p>\n

HMR uses many instruments. Did this create a challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nature of the challenge is to avoid superfluous doubling. Obviously coherence in the bass is critical, and as cellos tend to be doubled at the octave in Beethoven, so it is with an electric bass. One is always careful to respect the role of the bass in a song. To what degree does the bass contribute melodic, harmonic or rhythmic information? In\u00a0Everybody Wants<\/em>, I went underneath the electric bass and created a pedal note with the contrabassoon, tuba, organ pedal and contrabass because here the electric bass is providing melody.<\/p>\n

So pop instruments and orchestral instrument can be used in complementary ways.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. The powerful, ascending string lines in\u00a0Everybody Wants<\/em>\u00a0are clearly inspired by Conor\u2019s acoustic guitar at the beginning, in particular the triplet 16th-note pattern. The challenge is not unlike scoring a concerto. One must not crowd the instrument or bury its unique quality. Now, keep in mind that only seven of 15 songs will use the band\u2019s instruments. I hope there are some interesting things in the other eight songs!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week the OSM moves from Mahler to Half Moon Run. Adam Johnson conducts the OSM Pop concerts, Tuesday and Wednesday in the Maison symphonique. Ludwig van Montr\u00e9al team met with the St. Bruno arranger, composer and pianist Blair Thomson, who talked about the fine art of integrating the sound of an indie rock band with a symphony orchestra. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,10998,29],"tags":[12304,12305,2542,11827],"yst_prominent_words":[12308,12294,12303,12307,12297,12306,12289,12296,12299,10018,12302,12298,10265,12301,12309,12295,12277,12300,10269,12276],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/09\/Blair-Thomson-Photo-Victor-Diaz-Lamic_MOD.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bdYt-cwK","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48158"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48165,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48158\/revisions\/48165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48158"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}