From the ideas to music sheets: guide to big band arranging

Authors

  • Mikko Toivanen Savonia University of Applied Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24195/artstudies.2025-2.22

Keywords:

jazz art, big band, arrangement, language, instrumentation, musical text, composition, phenomenology, semiotics

Abstract

The author considers this work as a prolegomena to a manual (“guide”) on arranging a musical work or a certain thematic material for a big jazz ensemble – a big band. The work has a solid methodological foundation. The art of jazz is interpreted in the spirit of philosophical phenomenology (E. Husserl’s teachings). In his understanding of arrangement, author relies on semiotics as a universal theory of signs, in particular on the achievements of Finnish semiotics scientifical school (E. Tarasti, A. Broms etc.). In his practical recommendations on arrangement, the author relies on the perceived experience of leading jazz musicians (Kaj Backlund, Raimo Henriksson, Markku Johansson, Pentti Lasanen). The author also relies on common sense and his own many years of experience in the areas of musical performance (playing the saxophone) and compositional activity in the field of jazz music.The compositional and arrangement technique of the author is manifested in the “Missa Jazz” he created and other works. Arranging is defined as the act of transforming existing musical ideas (compositions, melodies) using certain techniques into a new composition, often intended for new instruments. Arranging jazz music is a creative activity, seeing the old in a new light, seeing possibilities, and focusing on what is not yet there. The main attention in the manual is paid to tonal music. The author relies on horizontal organization (rhythm, phrasing, logic) and vertical order (functional harmony, tembre, color), that is, on the unity of the syntagmatic and paradigmatic organization of musical form, which has its roots in natural (verbal) language. The meaning of the relationship between the tonal and modal musical “worldviews” is revealed, that is, between the pole of “verbal” musical thinking and the pole of a more archaic “pictorial”, spatial experience of the world in sound form, the antagonism between which is of great importance for jazz and music at all. The secret of creative work lies in the harmonious movement between these opposite poles.

References

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Toivanen, Mikko (2018). Ideat stemmoiksi! : big band – sovituksen opas. Savonia University of Applied Sciences. 359 pp.

Toivanen, Mikko (2021). Ideat stemmoiksi – big band-sovituksen opas (Ідеї для музичної композиції. Посібник з аранжувань для біг-бенду). SYNTEESI No 1, 2021 (40.vuosikerta). Suomen Semiotiikan Seura. Helsinki. S. 59-70.

Toivanen, Mшikko. (2000). Jazz luonnollisena systeeminä: Fenomenologis-semioottinen tutkielma modernin jazzin myytistä ja sen merkityksestä (Джаз як природна система: феноменологічно-семіотичне дослідження міфу про сучасний джаз та його значення). Jyväskylä Studies in the Arts 72. Jyväskylän zliopisto 2000.

Published

2025-04-24

Issue

Section

SECTION 2. MODERN STUDIES IN ART AREA