Santa Susana High School

Chasing Runaway:
The Intricacies of Arranging an Artists Original Piece
Senior Project Research Paper

Haley J. Perkins
AP English Literature Period 2
Mr. Frederic White
20 November 2015

Perkins 2

Haley J. Perkins
Mr. Frederic White
AP English Literature P2
19 November 2015

Chasing Runaway: The Intricacies of Arranging an Artists Original Piece

Introduction
For as long as I can remember, music has always been an integral part of my life. I have
been obsessed with unraveling its mysteries and analyzing exactly how it works, so I found
myself at something of an impasse when I was faced with deciding between finishing my album
of original songs or arranging an a cappella piece for sixteen people, something I had never
attempted before and found absolutely. After much thought and many sleepless nights, I finally
came to the conclusion that I would challenge myself and attempt arranging a song. The first of
the problems I anticipated was the run-ins I might encounter with copyright law and how to, if
possible, work my way around them. The next problem I foresaw was how to convert the
musical ideas in my mind onto paper in an organized arrangement. Yet another issue that
occurred to me was working out how I could, with the music theory skills I possessed, arrange
the music in an intricate way instead of just oversimplifying it. The final roadblock I suspected I
might encounter was how I would maintain the artistic integrity as well as intentions of the
artists original piece. The process thus far has been arduous, tedious, and, at times, frustrating,
but undoubtedly rewarding.

Perkins 3

Research
The first of the roadblocks to tackle was copyright law. Due to the fact that my project
entailed arranging an artists original song, AURORAs Runaway, instead of creating an
original piece, the legality or illegality of the project had to be taken into account. Through the
research it was evident that one of the pillars, so to speak, of music copyright is when a
composer of music grants permission for a person to record a composition and distribute and
further disseminate it to the public, anyone has the ability to record and/or distribute that
composition if a royalty, or fee, is paid (Bach). In effect, if a person is going to arrange, record,
and sell an artists piece, the person must pay a small sum to the artist in order to do so. Another
of the most important pillars of music copyright law, revealed through research, is that the
elements melody, harmony, rhythm, and form are the rawest building blocks of music and, on
their own, are not granted protection under copyright law. However, if they are developed to
create an original piece, they are entitled to copyright protection (Rosen). This pillar is key to the
project because, while it is an adaptation of AURORAs original song, the arrangement possesses
differences in harmony, phrasing, and rhythm that qualify it as a work all its own and not a copy.
Also, derivative works, or written arrangements, of a composers original piece, may not be sold
as sheet music by anyone without a license from that specific composer and no one else (Bach).
It should be expressed, at this point, that this project is not intended for release to the public for
purchase.
Another element of copyright rules that had to be considered was the advent of the
Internet. It is an evident reality that there are several hundreds, perhaps thousands, of locations

Perkins 4

on the Internet where music, in digital form, can be given away or acquired for free without any
sort of copyright owners permission (Segal). However, although student arranging is very
common, there is no specific language that currently exists in copyright law that can allow an
entire song to be arranged without permission (Minkoff). Yet and still, it is largely up to the
music industry and the legal profession to devise which Internet protections are available to
copyright owners and how to enforce them. Copyright law is not yet equipped to keep up with
the rapid changes of electronic communication and, in effect, the question remains whether
copyright law, as it stands currently, encompasses the digital distribution, and dissemination, of
music in the first place (Segal).
The next foreseeable challenge was one that proved difficult to research: how to convert
the mental musical ideas onto paper as an organized arrangement with limited knowledge of
music theory. In the online paper Explaining music: Essays and explorations, composer
Leonard B. Meyer expresses that understanding music is simply recognizing and understanding
tonal-temporal, or tonally balanced, relationships between notes, phrases, and other aspects such
as melody and harmony (Meyer), a reassuring fact in an otherwise seemingly complicated
process. Another significant detail to be considered in the process of translating musical ideas
into physical ideas came in the form of this lengthy but invaluably insightful quote in Lindsay
Nordens paper "A New Theory of Untempered Music: A Few Important Features with Special
Reference to A Cappella Music:
Orchestral players learn, after experience, that, owing to some progression or
modulation, they are obliged, in certain places, to play a little sharper or flatter than
would seem to the intonation originally established. But the players do not understand the
reason for this, and no theory book based on equal temperament will give it. The absence

Perkins 5

of the necessary information results in much out-of-tune singing of a cappella music, and
also in the creation of much music that cannot satisfactorily rendered a cappella. An
orchestral player can deliberately raise or lower the pitch, but, when an a cappella piece
is improperly written and goes out of tune in performance, it is impossible (to salvage its
sound) (Norden).
The final major component of translating a mental arrangement into a physical one came in the
form of a question: How does one capture the musical nuances and complexities of the original
song? The first step is to take note of who is speaking in a song, with or to whom they are
speaking, and what effect the song is trying to create (Brackett). The next step is to treat
arranging like a foreign language by listening to it over and over again and listening for elements
such as textures, rhythms, chords, and other features that might have gone unnoticed (Sharon).
The next foreseeable difficulty with arranging was how to arrange the music intricately
and not simply chord after chord, which is common of first-time arrangers. In Psychology of
music, the author illustrates to the reader the importance of phrasing in creating emotion in
music by iterating that one of the most essential features of singing and music as whole is that a
performer is able to manipulate sound signals in a way that relays phrases, not simply strings of
unrelated notes, to the listener. There is also unique pattern that emerges between signals and
emotion in that each emotion studied (joy, sorrow, fear, anger, and neutral), possessed its own set
of acoustic characteristics (Deutsch). Sweet anticipation: Music and the psychology of
expectation outlines how a composer can use expectation, tension, and satisfaction to capture
and hold an audiences attention. This begins with the imagination response, a psychological
response that, through daydreaming, makes future outcomes emotionally palpable and cause a
person to have changes in behavior that increase the chances of a favorable result, or, in the

Perkins 6

music listeners case, an expected result. Tension is also necessary in order to heighten the
mental and physical experience and hold attention (Huron) and, in the case of music, requires the
listener to feel uncertain as to what to expect.
Musical tension can also be found in the form of deviations from melody and how they
affect an audiences aesthetic response and emotions. In Emotion and meaning in music,
labeling piece of music as emotional tells a person nothing about how the emotional effect is
achieved but, by studying specific musical process and elements, such as deviations from
structure, aesthetic response can be measured (Meyer 2). Such deviations as well as features that
create musical interest include rhythmic variations, syllabic sounds, voice leading, duet/trio,
arpeggiation, as well as quoting other songs, or borrowing a particular phrase from another
piece (Sharon). Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, second son of revered composer Johann Sebastian
Bach, maintained that deviations, by a soloist, from the structured written melody, are often
exceptionally beautiful (C.P.E. Bach). Leopold Mozart, father of composer Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, also notes that a soloist must only improvise or deviate from the melody if the
deviations are skillful as well as thoughtful (Mozart). Therefore, when arranging, it is important
to take note of which parts of the melody an arranger wishes to be sung exactly as written
(Sharon).
The final, and perhaps most daunting, of the potential challenges was that of maintaining
AURORAs artistic integrity. A philosophical perspective arose in The interpretation of music:
philosophical essays. The thesis of this document highlights that, when one interprets music, the
person, perhaps even subconsciously, takes into account their own philosophical views about
musical interpretation. These philosophies come in the form of which version of a piece a person

Perkins 7

decides to use, which elements of the music the performer wishes to emphasize, and even which
instruments the person uses when performing the piece (Krausz).
Bracketts Interpreting popular music addresses the essence of singer-songwriter
pieces, a category that Runaway falls into: In this category [singer-songwriter], the songs
lyrics usually fall into the confessional mode, appearing to reveal some aspects of the singersongwriters inner experience. At one level, the idea that there exists some correspondence
between the biography of the singer-songwriter and his or her songs seems unquestionable
(Brackett). Artistic integrity also comes in the form of treating an arrangement as a living
document. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the arrangement develops and changes with
the group that sings it (Sharon). Although sometimes a persons interpretation of a song has little
or nothing to do with what the performer, or composer, experienced emotionally when he or she
wrote the piece (Brackett). Often, the greatest arrangements are those that simultaneously
maintain the feel and intentions of the original piece but also bring new, fresh elements into the
picture (Sharon).

Application
With regard to the aforementioned issues, I have already begun to use my research to
either invent innovative solutions to them or work out an alternative way to avoid the problems
altogether. In terms of copyright law, I have found that my project is not a violation. This is due
to the fact that, because no official copyrighted sheet music for AURORAs Runaway currently
exists, to my knowledge, anywhere on the Internet. Therefore, there is no original for me to copy
my own sheet music from. Also, my arrangement possesses deviations and alterations in
phrasing, melody, as well rhythm that qualify it as an original adaptation instead of an exact one.

Perkins 8

In regard to the problem of converting my mental musical ideas into physical ones, I
began by creating a version of the arrangement in the Apple program GarageBand using only my
own voice. I recorded each voice part and stitched them together in an organized track and have
since used this as a road map of sorts in physically arranging the parts into notated music.
Whenever I forget how I want a voice part to sound, I simply access the track in GarageBand,
isolate it from the other voice parts, and use my keyboard to play it into the arranging software. I
also use the playback feature in the arranging software to ensure that none of the parts are ill
fitting. In addition, I have taken great pains and care to ensure that the harmonic and melodic
relationships between the chords, notes, and phrases in my arrangement are tonally balanced as
well as exciting.
Using my prior knowledge of music theory as well as the artistic opinions of other
singers, I have especially found great value in my research on the aesthetic musical appeal in
deviations from both the melody and phrasing of the original version of Runaway. Before even
beginning my arranging process, I asked three different singers to send me their personal
interpretation of the same section of the song. I found that, while few of them actually deviated
from the original rhythms or melody, they were tonally and acoustically different. This
fascinating observation has led me to my decision to, upon finishing the arrangement, encourage
potential soloists of Abbe Road A Cappella, the choir for which this arrangement is written, to
take artistic liberties when vocally interpreting the solo. I have also added my own artistic
opinions to my arrangement in the form of adding new textures and tonal clashes to certain
simple chords that existed in the original piece, effectively eradicating my fears regarding adding
complexity to my arrangement.

Perkins 9

The final piece of the puzzle, maintaining artistic integrity, is something that I value
perhaps more than any of the other foreseeable problems. I have since tackled this concern by
constantly referring to the original song and listening to it in secluded places where I can more
carefully assess the music. I have also watched several live performances of Runaway, both
acoustic and electronic, in the hope of uncovering even more musical elements than I previously
knew existed. These performances have also allowed me to make more informed inferences as to
AURORAs internal feelings about Runaway as well as to whom she is speaking and the mood
she has attempted to create. These aids, coupled with the guidance of my choral teacher and
mentor, Mrs. Abbe, as well as suggestions from my fellow Abbe Road A Cappella members,
have allowed me to compose an arrangement that is not only a personal, but a collaborative
musical effort; one that I, equipped with new insights and knowledge, have taken great pride in
creating.

Perkins 10

Works Cited
1. Bach, Scott L. "Music Recording, Publishing, and Compulsory Licenses: Toward a
Consistent Copyright Law." Hofstra L. Rev. 14 (1985): 379.
2. Brackett, David. "Interpreting popular music." (2000).
3. Deutsch, Diana, ed. Psychology of music. Elsevier, 2013.
4. Huron, David Brian. Sweet anticipation: Music and the psychology of expectation. MIT
press, 2006.
5. Krausz, Michael. "The interpretation of music: philosophical essays." (1993).
6. Meyer, Leonard B. "Emotion and meaning in music." (2008).
7. Meyer, Leonard B. Explaining music: Essays and explorations. Univ of California Press,
1973.
8. Norden, N. Lindsay. "A New Theory of Untempered Music: A Few Important Features
with Reference to" A Cappella" Music." Musical Quarterly (1936): 217-233.
9. Rosen, Ronald. "Music and Copyright." (2008).
10. Segal, Adam P. "Dissemination of Digitized Music on the Internet: A Challenge to the
Copyright Act." Santa Clara Computer & High Tech. LJ 12 (1996): 97.
11. Sharon, Deke. Contemporary A Cappella Arranging in 10 Steps. The Contemporary A
Cappella Society. 19 June 2005. Web.