These arrangements are designed for youth bands, school bands and for professional ensembles. They can
also be used with virtually any combination of instruments as well as standard groups. Each national anthem page
contains a suggested instrumentation for symphonic band, brass band, brass ensemble, clarinet choir and stage band.
from which you can down load the scores and parts. Each page also gives the wide range of parts available so that you
can "pick 'n' mix" from the parts, especially if you have a non-standard ensemble or you want to create your own individual sound.
The arrangements consist of six independent parts in different transpositions, with some parts wrtten an octave higher or lower
to extend the possibilities. As you may have already discovered, each anthem has a suggested arrangement of parts that you can download.
Feel free to make your own decisions about instrumental voicing. If time permits, you may like to experiment with voicings. Because the arrangements are conceived for wind instruments they tend to use flat keys though by using the parts at concert pitch together with the
alto clef part, they can also be played by strings.
Don't forget the piano reductions! You can use these to "fill" missing parts or to act as an accompaniment if you want to
create instrumental solos, duets or trios.
AUTHENTICITY
During the research for these arrangements, I constantly found that there were different versions of some anthems. For example, some years ago there were no less than five different versions of the National Anthem of Liechtenstein, until the government there decided to agree on one official arrangement. I have heard two versions of the Ukraine anthem that have significant differences from the printed music, even in the melody. In all cases, I have tried very hard seek out authentic versions on which to base my arrangements. I have also consulted musical experts in different countries about which version is preferable. In a few cases, even the musical experts disagreed with each other!
WHY NO SOUND FILES?
I have assumed that the majority of visitors to this website are trained musicians for whom the printed notation is enough to get a pretty good idea of what the anthem sounds like. It would have been relatively easy to generate very basic MIDI files from the arrangements but the sound would be clunky and unattractive and not a great deal of use to professional musicians. Moreover, it would take considerable time to generate good quality orchestral MP3 files that included percussion sounds, correct ritenutos, crescendi or diminuendi. Even if these had been included they would not have een much help to someone downloading parts for say, a brass ensemble or clarinet choir. Under the cirumstances, I decided that my time would be better spent writing new arrangements.
I know I am repeating myself but this bit is important! If you are unfamiliar with the
performance conventions of a particular anthem it is always essential to check with local
expertise about the preferred performance style in a given country.
Sometimes pauses are placed at certain points; sometimes the last few measures are played at a distinctly slower
tempo; sometimes repeats are played. Countries sometimes change their national anthem! So please check carefully. It would not be a very good idea to offend your audience,
especially at the start of your concert!
SYMPHONIC BAND
For the symphonic band (or any ensemble containing only woodwind, brass and percussion instruments) these
arrangements allow you a great deal of flexibility, not only in instrumentation possiblities
but also in adding contrasts of instrumental colour.
If the arrangements are played exactly as they are written, every instrument would be playing
all the time. While it is perfectly possible to perform the anthems in this way (and no doubt many people do), you may prefer to exercise a bit of local control
and create a more original sound by creating tacet sections.
This can be achieved simply with the aid of a pencil or by giving verbal instructions during the rehearsal.
If you have a little arranging experience, you'll
see that by making appropriate tacet sections, a wide variety of contrasting textures and tone colours
can be produced.
Let's suppose that in the case of a symphonic or concert band, your woodwind section is quite strong and covers all the parts.
In a hymn-like anthem such as that of the United Kingdom, God Save the Queen,trumpets
and trombones could be omitted from the first eight measures
to give a contrast of tone colour. Other hymn-like anthems such as those of Switzerland and Wales will lend themselves to this approach.
In many of the arrangements, Part 5 is a non-essential part
which is why its use is sometimes not recommended. So if your band is a bit thin on low woodwind or brass instruments, you
can leave out Part 5 completely. Actually, you may find that you prefer the sound when Part 5 is not used.
The variable instrumentation also gives a bit of extra room when instruments are missing. If half the horn section is struck down with some mysterious illness before the concert,
alto saxophones could be assigned to Parts 3 and 4 in E flat, leaving Parts 1 and 2 to look after themselves. At least the anthem would sound complete, even if
the remainder of the programme proved a bit of a problem.
BRASS BAND
These arrangements will adapt well to the brass band. You can produce some textural
contrast by adding tacet sections, for example, by restraining
(if that is the right word) the E flat soprano cornet and omitting the instrument from the quieter sections. Because the trombone parts are
covered by other instruments, you could give the trombones tacet sections during the quieter sections and at the same time reduce the tone by
using only 1 bass. Do feel free to adapt the suggested instrumentation to your personal preferences.
STAGE BAND - BIG BAND
I dont suppose there are many occasions when a big band would be called upon to play a
national anthem, but you never know. You'll notice that in the instrumentation suggestions that come with each anthem,
I have usually omitted Part 5 from the saxophone
section, partly because there are not enough saxophones and the part is usually non-essential anyway. In any case, it is covered by the
third trombone. You could omit the trumpets from quieter passages,
and even the trombones too, if the saxophone section is strong enough to go it alone. For smaller groups, the piano reductions should come in handy.
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
In theory, these arrangements can be used with full orchestra, although the use of flat keys
will require more experienced string players. If you were to merely hand out the parts to all the players, every instrument would be playing all the time
and the woodwind and brass sections
would probably dominate the sound. The quick way around this issue is easy: create tacet sections for the woodwind and bass in various passages.
Let's take the Danish national anthem, for example. The first five measures could be played by the whole orchestra. From
the anacrusis at the end of measure 5, the next couple of bars could be played by strings, woodwind and horns with the full brass returning
for the accented passage. If your woodwind section
is strong enough, they could play from the anacrusis before measure 10 for the next two measures, with the horns playing the little
fanfare motif. The strings and low woodwindmight go it alone from measure 14, bringing in all the instruments for the final tutti
just before measure 18. But this is just one idea. You may well have much better ideas of your own.
