Op. 19 No. 4 'Nocturne' - Tchaikovsky | arr. Nathan R. Nigus for Sinfonietta

This is a project I did for my class in orchestration during the 2021 Spring semester. This was the 4th and final transcription project in the class which was a blend of all of what I'd learned. As this was for a sinfonietta, it essentially combined what I learned from writing for string quintet, wind quintet, and brass quintet.

This piece originally spoke to me as lonely, depressed, and impoverished in the beginning section with a single person as a persona. This contrasts with the more playful and optimistic middle section involving more of a community of people or multiple personae.

The narrative I wanted to accentuate in my arrangement captured the ideas of loneliness and isolation by keeping the original piano part in the beginning. Because the melody and style of this section already lends itself to this almost "Impoverished Russia during/after WWII" vibe, I could almost hear this performed over the crackle of an old radio in a dirty apartment. In addition, the idea of using a solo instrument in a larger ensemble communicates a sense of isolation and smallness by default. The next section I thought could use more bright tones (woodwinds), muted brass, to accentuate the more upbeat and optimistic vibe. I combined a few ideas I had picked up from some Sousa marches for ideas in the brass/percussion and played around with incorporating the piano strategically - I wanted to establish the piano as the "solo" voice, or the main persona which the audience was to identify with. Using the piano in the mid section not only helped with cohesion between sections and added variety to the of timbre, but it played a more complex role in the texture in regards to the narrative. If this was set to film, now you would visually see (or reference was made to) the main character in all sections where the piano is present in the texture.

In the last section, I reestablished the orchestration I'd used before to legitimize and reinforce its use (somber strings, pizz. bass, etc...) as well as highlighting more bright moments with the woodwinds.

One very small note: I changed the notation for the pizz. bass in the last section as the playback wouldn't register the quarter note with the slur. Ideally, I would unify the notation across the entire score, but I changed it only for this video.