It's wedding season, which, for myself here in coastal California is basically year round now, and I think a lot of string players can relate to this question posed recently in a violinist forum: How do we approach learning contemporary pop repertoire requests when the melodies and rhythms transcribed from the original vocal performances seem so strange and non-intuitive?
The song in question, Turning Page, has been a top song request for weddings, particularly bridal processionals, for many many years. It's not as popular as Can’t Help Falling in Love or A Thousand Years, but in my experience it's even rivaling Pachelbel's Canon these days! Yes, it's one you should definitely have in your wedding music repertoire!
While every song is unique, my approach to preparing pop music requests is always the same.
First, I listen to the original version. Clients sometimes send me versions of other violinists performing the song, and although this can be helpful to listen to, unless they specifically want me to recreate that specific arrangement, I find it much more helpful to go right to the source, noting the meaning of the lyrics, the nuances in the voice, and the energy of the track to help be craft a bespoke arrangement.
In the case of Turning Page, we first note the prominent piano melody opening the song. Some violin sheet music doesn't even include this opening, but I'd argue it may be what draws clients into the song, possibly more than the vocals, and perhaps even beyond the meaning behind the lyrics. Whether we're performing solo, with other musicians, or with a backing track, this opening melody needs to be represented.
And thankfully, unlike the vocal melody later on, it's also very straightforward. A player could switch to the melody the strings play when they come in, or continue with the piano melody through the opening bars.
Once the vocal lines enter, the violin would switch to covering that melody. We shouldn't worry too much about how the lyric melody is written as sheet music. It looks complicated on the page, with a lot of syncopation, ties, unresolved phrases, and how it seems to meander with long gaps in between phrases, but it's actually a very simple song if you listen to it a few times. I use the sheet music as a rough guide for notes, but play it more from my memory of the flow, and I say “flow” because it’s not a rhythmic song at all, especially performed without accompaniment. One really doesn’t have to worry about what the rhythms look like on the page. Each phrase has 2-3 notes that anchor the overall melody and the rest are passing tones to add color and gesture.
I will also memorize enough of the lyrics to have them running in my head while I play so I can connect to the feeling of the original and approach of the original vocal and the meaning of the song. In the case of Turning Page, I try to capture a feeling of longing and tenderness with legato bows and somewhat airy tones, but also a lot of bow speed modulation to frame the phrasing with subtle dynamic shifts.
If this is your first time improvising to any degree it can feel scary and foreign to not be doing what you see explicitly written on the page, but it’s freeing once you realize that your job here is to create an atmosphere, not stack up against to some preconceived idea of how a piece needs to be performed.
And yes, it can be annoying for Classical players to be asked to play contemporary music when we already know so many beautiful pieces that would suit the moment too, but there are increasingly fewer numbers of wedding and event clients wanting Classical music. The last 20 years have been a huge shift, and shows like Bridgerton have only solidified the fact that to stay booked and playing our instruments we need to adjust to the demands of the times.
It is certainly within our right to refuse to play a certain song, or even non-Classical music in general, but especially the latter is going to severely limit the amount of work we get. We can certainly try to suggest Classical options to our clients and educate them about all the great Classical music that exists, but even orchestras, both youth and professional, are programming more and more pop concerts to help them stay afloat and appeal to new ears.
It can be healthy to separate our performance capacity into "artist musician" and/or "service musician," diversifying our roles and career options while staying clear on what our goals and duty is to each orientation. Many of us dream of being an artist musician, where we present concerts filled with music we choose to perform for listening audiences. Even then, while we could get to a point where we are only programming material we want to share in concert, I'm sure even Hilary Hahn or Joshua Bell must sometimes play concertos that suit a symphony's program and season rather than the work the artist personally most wants to perform.
And when we step into a service musician setting to perform event music, including not only at wedding and corporate events, but also at bars and restaurants where music is not the main draw, instead of being frustrated about what we may be asked to play, we should pride ourselves in our ability to deliver music that so critically helps create the atmosphere of the celebration or occasion. We're no less the artist when we choose to make good money playing what our clients want at their events. It can give us not only the option to financially support ourselves with music, but to afford us the option to book more concerts, which, depending on ticket sales, might not always pay as well, but where we can choose all the music we present.
