SKU: A0.521739

LOVE STORY - Taylor Swift, String Orchestra for 2 violins, viola, cello and string bass chords such as C, Em, etc.

Early Intermediate Level

Score:13 pages

Parts: 10 pages 

Time: 4'00

ABOUT DEMO: Begins 2 measures of intro and then cut to the main theme for this demo

MY QUARTET VERSIONS, in short notice work fine for solo, two parts and three parts 

however I also offer individual versions for one, two and three parts that are more detailed for these ensembles.

Please visit  https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?Ntt=sherry+lewis+publishing for all of the titles I offer.

If you can’t find a title then contact me through www.baysbest.com/smp-arrangeme/ and I’ll give you the link back to Sheet Music Plus’s listing.

VERSATILE Titles that include four parts are written with the idea that they can be performed with 1, 2, 3 or 4 musicians. Most of the contemporary/popular titles include a chord chart for a bass instrument.

PRACTICE needs would vary according to the level of the performers but my goal is to be sight-readable for most performers and groups. 

AUDIO SAMPLE The 30 second mp3 is frequently shortened and may not start at the introduction to get to the reprise. The actual introduction will be in the sheet music.

LISTENABILITY I have performed thousands of weddings and special events. I make it a goal for the music to carry as well as possible through loud and large space situations. 

ARRANGEMENTS usually follow the original version. There is an mp3 where you can hear 30 seconds and get a feeling of the originality of the work.

EXCELLENT for corporate events, weddings, social gatherings and recitals.

APPROPRIATE for students and schools.

CHURCH REPERTOIRE I’m always adding more titles.

Sherry Lewis is a professional arranger and musician residing in Northern California. Thank you for your purchase!

SKU: A0.873046

A Week in November… and what a week it was! It was the week of the US Presidential Election 2020. As I write these words, the absurdist tantrums of the Trump-Pence campaign versus the reasoned compassion of team Biden-Harris continues even well after the results have been called in the Democrats’ favour. There will not be the usual respectful concession speech and transition of power. I worry every day about how these next few months will be so very difficult, maybe even dangerous, for my American friends.

Those convoys of flag waving Trumpists gleefully, openly, encouraged by their ‘leader’, attempting to block the democratic process was horrifying to witness. Was America on the brink of civil war? It still doesn’t seem far fetched to think that as I sit in my studio on the other side of the world, feeling helpless. The only thing I felt that I could do for my friends over there was to offer them a way to feel safe and loved in the moment, a bit of musical mindfulness. 

It was in this spirit that I wrote the second movement of this work, subtitled A Pocket Full of Calm. My excellent pianist friends Erica Sipes (USA) and Sandra Mogensen (Canada) adopted my little tune, recorded it on their social media to share said moment in the moment as it were. I hope it helped. I mean, if I can bring to even just one person some sense of calm solidarity, I’m happy with that.

The fifth movement in the set, Victorious, resolute, but gracious, was a stream-of-consciousness creative response to the Biden Harris victory and the way they handled it so eloquently, so humbly, how they gave the world a sense of optimism once more. For a long while, I’d felt that I probably wouldn’t be welcome in America. As a mixed race, queer woman I was the antithesis of everything they valued. But now, people like me over there can feel human again. The relief!

As for the other days of that week in November, they are part of a continuing series of daily composition exercises I started back in October in an effort to end a lengthy period of pandemic-induced creative block. Using a combination of exercises from Music Composition Toolbox (Barbeler/Blom/Hindson) and Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies I’ve been able to find my creativity again. Starting a composition ‘habit’ is the best thing I’ve done for my writing all year and is how I mean to continue for a long time.

Sally Whitwell

12 November 2020 

SKU: A0.859958

Your students will love playing this new arrangement for three violas of one of the most prominentt  concertos every violist studies. Even though research has shown that Handel did not compose this work, this concerto by Henri Casadesus has remained a staple in the viola repertoire. Very few students have the opportunity to perform the work with orchestra. Keyboard accompaniment provides the melodic lines and harmonies, but it is not the same feeling as performing with a string ensemble. Hearing the individual parts adds to the ensemble experience. This arrangement for three violas is designed to provide this ensemble experience. It is intended for three students all working on the this concerto by Casadesus. The Viola I part is the solo viola part as it appears in the original, with bowings, fingerings and cadenzas provided by the arranger. The Viola I part also plays in the tutti sections as needed. The Viola II part consists mostly of the melody in the orchestra tutti sections, as well as harmonizing lines with the Viola I part. The Viola III part provides the bass line and includes melodic lines as well. By learning and playing all three parts, students become familiar with how the solo part relates to the orchestra. Students learn to listen more carefully to the orchestra lines, developing a better sense of ensemble. By playing all parts, students develop a more complete sense of the concerto. College students and professionals will also have fun with these arrangements, a new approach to teaching this Concerto!