Stranger in Paradise, Grade 8 singing Options

[jm-hamilton]

Hi, hope someone here can help.

I have a piano student who is doing Grade 8 singing in July. I am accompanying him for it (I'm not his singing teacher). One of the songs is Stranger in Paradise, words and music by Robert Wright and George Forrest. He wants to sing it in a different key to the one in the book - transposed down a major 3rd. He gave it to me yesterday to look at. If I were an accomplished accompanist I'd of course transpose it without any problem, but I can't and I'll have to either find a lower version of it, or transcribe it into music software and then transpose to make a copy for the exam. The problem is it'll take me ages and ages and ages to do it. So my question is: Does anyone know of a version that starts in Ab instead of the one I've got starting in C? And another question is - if I do have to transcribe it myself, will I be breaching copyright if I play from the transposed copy I've done myself?

The song is in the Singers musical theatre Anthology Volume 1 for tenor; it doesn't seem to be in any of the other books in the same series.

Thanks in advance

[Seer_Green]

Do we know what key the original is in?

[Dugazon]

Onlinesheetmusic.com (formerly Freehandmusic) have a transposable version of it - the piano reduction might not be the same as you have, but it maybe gives you something to work with?

Here's the link: http://www.onlinesheetmusic.com/stranger-i....aspx?type=list

[jm-hamilton]

Hi Seer Green
The only thing I can find so far is the Tony Bennett version (1953, the year Kismet was first performed) which is in Gb all the way through. The copy I have goes as follows:-
First 3 bars - piano intro - no sharps or flats
Bar 4 - 50 - one sharp but starts in A minor and is pretty chromatic in the piano part.
Bar 51 to the end has 6 flats

Dugazon - thanks for this - I'll have a look.

[silverfoxx]

Hi Seer Green
The only thing I can find so far is the Tony Bennett version (1953, the year Kismet was first performed) which is in Gb all the way through. The copy I have goes as follows:-
First 3 bars - piano intro - no sharps or flats
Bar 4 - 50 - one sharp but starts in A minor and is pretty chromatic in the piano part.
Bar 51 to the end has 6 flats

Dugazon - thanks for this - I'll have a look.

HI JM,

Please check the exam board's requirement in respect of transpositions.

If all is in order I would recommend this site

http://www.musicnotes.com/docs/playport.as...&rev=1.24.2

Best of luck to you both

Silverfoxx
Grade 8 singer

[jm-hamilton]

Hi Silverfoxx, sorry not to have acknowledged your post earlier. I've checked the "playing from a transposition" issue and I'm told it'll be okay. I have now done the transposition myself - didn't take as long as I though it would, so all I have to do now is learn to play the thing!

[Barry Toner]

A medical friend of mine once refered to this song as "Take my hand, I'm a strange looking parasite", so I can't think of it as anything else.

[linda.ff]

A medical friend of mine once refered to this song as "Take my hand, I'm a strange looking parasite", so I can't think of it as anything else.

I reckon that's done it for most of us now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[jm-hamilton]

A medical friend of mine once refered to this song as "Take my hand, I'm a strange looking parasite", so I can't think of it as anything else.

I reckon that's done it for most of us now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

We did the Polovtsian dances when I was in the county youth choir many aeons ago, and we sang "Rake my land, I'm in danger of parasites" - always think of it when I hear it.