Here's an arrangement of yasuo's Vocaloid classic Electric Angel for saxophone quartet. This arrangement is based mostly from the original version, but also takes some inspiration from Giga's remix.
I've provided downloads for the sheet music (PDF), MP3, MIDI, and Musescore 4 file at the bottom of the post.
Electric Angel isn't too far out there in terms of weird rhythms or complex harmonies. I'd say it's pretty standard as far as early Vocaloid songs go. Because of that, the challenge this time around was arranging multiple repetitions of the same theme without it “going stale”, so to speak.
With that in mind, my goal this time around was to create interesting textures around the same basic theme. While I didn't add any changes to the melody itself, I feel that I succeeded in writing some sort of variation into the arrangement.
The intro is pretty much directly transcribed from Giga's remix, keeping the punchy staccato feel of the source. This leads into the first verse, which is accompanied first by short chords on each beat, and then by soft, slowly moving lines. It then shifts back to the short pulses briefly before going into the chorus, which once again is framed by continuous lines in the upper and lower voices.
While these abrupt changes in style might be strange for a pop song, I think they add a good amount of interest to an arrangement like this. And in writing the second verse, I write an even more varied version of the first, swapping the downbeat chords for ones on the upbeat, and adding more flair by moving the flowing lines to the upper voices.
My favorite part of the arrangement, though, would have to be the bridge. Even in the original version it's a big textural contrast to the rest of the song, and it gave me a nice challenge in trying to capture that feel in four saxophones.
The best way I can describe this section in the original song is vaguely "China-esque" in its instrumentation. I can't hear any particular emphasis on the pentatonic scale, but I was reminded enough of it to use it in mimicking the background arpeggios.
Two other things that I had a lot of fun with in the bridge were writing rhythmic texture and chasing after the timbre of the strings. The string line in the original song seems to waver in pitch, shifting in and out of tune ever so slightly. This I delegated to the baritone's high register to take advantage of its unique sound. The rhythmic texture, on the other hand, was mainly the result of overlaying a few vastly different—but fitting—lines.
I feel that saxophone quartets are interesting because they lie somewhere in between the homogeneity of a string quartet and the diversity of a wind quintet. I had fun writing for one for the first time, even if I haven't heard it played on real instruments yet. Maybe I'll write more of these sometime soon.
Downloads
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