We look back one last time to December 2020, when BCS delivered "Songs of Comfort and Joy" to the Bloomington community. Although many of the virtual choir carols were familiar, two of the arrangements were unique. BCS members Paul Pisano and Ian Pottmeyer provide us with details about the inspiration and processes behind their musical arrangements.
Paul and Ian Compose Unique Arrangements of Beloved Holiday Carols
Paul Pisano remembers that as an 11-year-old boy, his father began taking him to barbershop chorus rehearsals. Eventually, Paul became the group’s rehearsal pianist, sang baritone with them, and became enamored with a cappella ensemble singing and classical music.
As he grew older, he began to realize that jazz required the same level of musicianship as classical music, but used a different skill set. Listening to and watching jazz musicians perform changed his viewpoint about working strictly with classical music. Several Christmases ago, Paul was listening to a holiday album by The Manhattan Transfer—a Grammy-award winning jazz vocal group—when he realized that arranging a piece in a similar style would come naturally to him.
At the time, his church’s annual Christmas concert was approaching, and he decided to write an arrangement of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas that incorporated a jazz style. A few years later, the same arrangement was sung again, only this time by BCS for a 2020 virtual holiday card.
“I wrote it with the frequent modulations, unfettered chromaticism, and extended tertian harmonies that were typical of the style I was absorbing from my Manhattan Transfer album,” Pisano said. “I had some concern as to whether or not I was making it too difficult for the [church] ensemble to sing a cappella in the limited rehearsal period we had, but to my relief they picked it right up.”
“It’s always an immense pleasure for an arranger or a composer to have their work presented in a way that closely matches the ideal they have in their mind’s ear, and that was certainly the case with this debut performance,” Pisano said. “The same is true for the video recording that friends from Bloomington Chamber Singers made with me for our website, in spite of the added difficulties imposed by the pandemic.”
When asked what an arrangement of a piece should accomplish in comparison to the original, Pisano offers a few thoughts on what he finds most compelling about arrangements, based on what he’s observed from classical arrangers, including Liszt, Verdi, and Bach.
“They cause the listener to hear the original in a different context and realize the degree to which its message transcends the medium for which it was originally conceived,” Pisano said. “Not all compositions lend themselves to this, and that’s okay.”
From top left to bottom right: Abby Henkel, Elizabeth McKillip, Paul Pisano, and Jason Wadsworth sing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. You may click or tap photo to watch video.
Ian Pottmeyer also believes the arrangement should sound different from the original piece. When he arranged I Saw Three Ships for a BCS virtual holiday card, he had heard it in a variety of time signatures but never in 7/8 time.
“I think that an arrangement should bring something new to the piece of music, and if you are taking an existing piece of music and arranging it, you should do something different—you should hear that piece of music in a different way,” Pottmeyer said. “Taking a song and moving it into a slightly odd time signature was interesting to me.”
Several years ago, Pottmeyer had the idea to arrange I Saw Three Ships in 7/8 time. He had heard and enjoyed other pieces in the time signature, particularly an arrangement of Sussex Carol sung by BCS. In common time (4/4 time), there are four beats per measure; at one quarter note per beat, the time signature is simple and steady. In pieces with 7/8 time, there are two simple beats and one compound beat—three beats altogether, but one is 50% longer than the other two. In this time signature, the beat is unevenly spaced or irregular.
“Seven-eight time is typical for me,” Pottmeyer said. “Once you have it, it doesn’t feel wrong. It is just slightly different than what you are used to, and once you perform it, it flows a lot better.”
For the singers in the a cappella group, the challenge was remembering which beat they were on, because it was different for each singer. In Eastern cultures and folk music, irregular time signatures are common. Also common in folk music is hand clapping, which Pottmeyer incorporated into his arrangement.
“I wanted a bright, energetic feeling to it,” Pottmeyer said. “I like the performance of it to sound casual, and that is something that I also enjoy about the odd time signatures—the sense of being less directive. Odd time signatures can come across more as talking rather than something more regimented.”
When writing the arrangement, his primary goal was to keep the music interesting. It’s a short carol and mostly repeats the same four measures. During the composing process, he worked on maintaining variety using key changes and varying the placement of the melody.
“Part of the composing process was keeping the framework, determining what happens in each verse, figuring out the texture of each verse, and working the voices around that,” Pottmeyer said. “When I say texture, I mean that sometimes voices are humming; other times it is a call-and-response—what is the feel of each verse?”
While composing the music, Pottmeyer knew he was working on a piece that would be performed during the pandemic. Each person would be singing from a different location, and he took that into consideration. He knew who would be performing I Saw Three Ships, and that helped him as he composed.
“The song has several sudden key changes, and one instance that gave me pause is a moment where the group finishes singing one line, and the bass starts singing the next line alone in a brand-new key.”
From top left to bottom right: Janice Bagwell, Abigail Harris (clapping and singing), Ian Pottmeyer, and Paul Pisano sing I Saw Three Ships. You may click or tap photo to watch video.
Many thanks to Paul and Ian for sharing their artful arrangements with us. Bravo!
Writing credits and our deepest thanks go to Nicole Roales, a BCS supporter whose interest in the arrangements led her to volunteer her journalism skills for this article.
Many thanks to our sponsors and grantors, who made this project possible.
