I have been delighted to see that The Lone Ar-ranger, in its piano duet format, has been popular. A number of people have been interested in arrangements for various ensembles, and so I have initially decided to provide an orchestral version. Rather than keep to Rossini’s fuller orchestration, I have written this with a ’light’ orchestra in mind, and have dedicated it to the Radio Light Orchestra in Plymouth who, I hope, will be able to include it in one of their afternoon concerts soon. As before, I have kept to the harmonic frame-work of the original piece, which is essentially tonic / dominant in the home key, and relative minor. The challenge was always to weave together a number of different tunes each conforming at any one time to this pattern. Introducing a wider range of keys and modulations was never an option in the task I set myself to begin with, in an essentially short work which hopefully gives the listener enough to think about!
The Brass Band version is now published by [[http://www.thornesmusic.freeserve.co.uk|Thornes Music]] (Shrewsbury, UK), where it is now available to listen to, view or purchase, if required.
I am delighted that the Radio Light Orchestra has now been able to include The Lone Ar-ranger! on its first CD, Light Fantastic!, released in Autumn 2005, and the attached MP3 file of this track certainly does them proud, I think!
Following a number of requests worldwide, I have now uploaded a special non-playing score, which lists, and identifies all the tune fragments used in The Lone Ar-ranger!
Click here for further information.