November 29, 2004 - 4:47 PM

Attacking Eleanor Rigby With a Cello

I'm sitting here at my computer at work, headphones on, attempting to transcribe the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby" for string octet (all parts to be later performed by me on the cello), understanding that there are probably transcriptions out there on the net or in music stores which would make my job easier, if not downright unnecessary. But I can't find anything on the 'net, and I don't feel like dishing out money for some sheet music that is probably a dumbed-down version of the song. Anyways, this is a good way to pass the dead-time as well as a way to get the music muscles in my brain moving again.

(The more I listen to it and figure it out, the cooler and cooler I think this song is...like, how the strings are ostensibly 2 quartets doubling each other, but every so often, the two cellos will go their own ways, or a single violin will break off and solo...and did you know that the verses are not built in sections of 4 like most songs usually are, but instead are built in sections of 5? While analyzing this, I came to the conclusion that this little adjustment works subtle magic in shifting the usual stability of 4 bar sections, thus making the lyrics, the story, the song, and the listener slightly unbalanced. If you listen to the song, note that each time that fifth bar comes around, the lyrics are almost tacked on like an afterthought, and Paul barely gets them in before rushing into the next line. There's a sense of them tripping up the normal balance. But the lines aren't throwaways, and the uneven pacing isn't a mistake. That extra beat brings attention to those particular lines, and those are the lines that really cut, the ones that make you feel the despair of the story in the song. Listen to it! Ahhhh...)

There's a familiar sense of well-being and self-esteem stirring in me as I do this. It's tied to the fact that I recognize my abilities in this special skillset that not everyone has (hearing and writing music), and how I've been wanting to reawaken it for years, but I've been too slackerly to pick it up for any appreciable period of time. I feel like a part of me is back in my apartment in Boston, circa 1999, writing out string arrangements for class. Even though, in reality, I'm sitting in an air-conditioned basement of an office building in Glendale, I can still feel heat rising up my neck and toasting my ears, as if there's a radiator clanking away next to me, doing it's best to keep the cold New England winter air at bay.

Even though it's slow-going right now, I'm enjoying working out the different parts. What can I say, after several months of non-brain-challenging work on this show (don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying my job and am very happy that I have it), it's refreshing to slog through an exercise that taps my musical resources. And, it's not just for kicks or entertainment, like a crossword; I'm doing this for LDBL and Mer's wedding.

I finally got off my butt this past weekend and did some leg work in figuring out a setlist for when I play at their pre-reception cocktail hour. Well, hmm..."got off my butt" and "did some leg work" in a metaphorical sense, because, really, all I did was sit down at my computer and go through my music collection, my sheet music, and a classical music newsgroup to cull my selections. I even *gasp* downloaded a bunch of mp3s from the newsgroup which probably makes me a hypocrite, and for that I apologize. But, see, here's the thing: all the songs I downloaded are classical pieces whose composers are long dead and for whom there are no songwriting copyrights to payout (the publishing rights are in the public domain, so anyone can do anything with them, including wiping their butts with them); and as for the recording royalty rights, I didn't download the songs because any particular artist or label put it out...I would have taken anyone's performance of the songs I was looking for.

If I may digress a bit, I should admit that I am fairly lackluster in the classical music knowledge department. I know! Me, with the cello-playing since I was 5, and the being brought up in a household where we listened to classical music or NPR exclusively for at least the first 8 years of my existence (with occasional dabblings in the Beatles, Peter, Paul and Mary, Paul Anka, the Beach Boys, and the Smurfs All Star Show album). What sacrilege!

Actually, I do know a lot about classical music. I can recognize a lot of pieces, and I know a lot of composers- I just can't put the two together. Play me a symphony, and I can say, "oh, I know that", but I can't tell you who wrote it. Give me a composer and the title of his piece, and I can tell you I know about it, but I don't know what it sounds like. I've become better at being able to say "oh, that piece sounds like it comes from the Baroque period" or "that's a Romantic period song", but I'm no good at identifying names of songs and who composed them. Well, unless I've performed them myself (that would be pretty bad, wouldn't it, if I couldn't tell you whose Sonata it was I was playing?). And for the most part, that's about as far as my classical music love extends: the songs that I've performed.

It's not that I don't like classical music. I do, really. And there are certainly pieces that I dig that I haven't performed. But most of it is just a pleasant wash for me, background music for a rainy day. Once it's in my repertoire, though, it's special to me. There's an intimacy that comes from reading a piece of music, struggling through the initial process of getting the notes right, letting the phrases become embedded in mind and muscle memory, understanding what the song is about and infusing the passages with emotion. You learn to interpret it for yourself, to put your imprint on it; after all the hours and work you put into practicing and playing, you can't look at it as just another piece of music.

I don't have many classical CDs, but the ones I do have contain compositions which I have performed. And all of the songs I downloaded this weekend were selections for which I could easily hum along the cello parts without even thinking. A little Dvorak's Ninth, some Respighi, Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Grieg's Hollberg Suite, and, of course, good ol' Bach. "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" to be exact, and the "Air in G". I'm not going to arrange all of those pieces for the wedding. Probably just the "Jesu", maybe the "Air". Those two lend themselves to a small string ensemble while the others are much more orchestral.

I just hope that this transcribing stuff gets a little easier because I don't have all the time in the world to get this done. I've got my sights set on a couple other Beatle pieces, including "Here, There, and Everywhere", "Here Comes the Sun", and "In My Life", as well as perhaps Coldplay's "In My Place". To break those songs down into manageable parts that can all be performed on the cello is gonna take some creativity on my part. I'm excited to hear how it all comes together as I layer cello part on top of cello part in my computer over the next month or two.

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