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Approach and challenges
The job of the arranger begins by listening to recordings of the original work many times, while following and annotating the orchestral score, to identify the important musical material, the accompaniment, and the overall shape of the movement. Given that a wind quintet has no percussion instruments how can the important rhythmic impetus provided by timpani and percussion be recreated? All this and more must be addressed in the final arrangement, otherwise the original work’s character will be lost. Having undertaken the analysis described above for each movement and made some decisions about how I would share the material between the instruments of the wind quintet, much of the adaptation was quite straightforward. However, there were some challenges to be addressed, three of which I discuss below.

Challenge 1. Third movement: flute melody with harp and strings
The slow third movement opens with violins and violas playing quiet sustained 6 part chords, as a gentle harmonic backdrop to the flute solo. Gentle movement is provided by the harp’s quiet descending arpeggios. My preference would have been to have the flute in the wind quintet play the orchestral flute solo too, leaving the clarinet to play the harp arpeggios. However, the clarinet would have been a touch too heavy, especially given that it would be in the same register as the flute solo – the balance would have been wrong. For that reason, I gave the flute solo to the oboe and the harp arpeggios to the flute. The flute can play them very delicately while the oboe has the tone quality to project over the flute. Although the strings were written in 6 parts, they were only playing 3 different notes so that could be easily covered by the three remaining instruments: clarinet, horn, and bassoon. However, that was not the end of the story. When testing the arrangement with my wind quintet it became apparent that the texture was too clogged up because the sustained string chords (clarinet, horn and bassoon) were in the same register as the solo oboe and the flute arpeggios. This is not an issue in the original because the timbre of the flute contrasts more with the strings, so they can be differentiated aurally when playing in the same register. The solution for the wind quintet arrangement was for the chords to be played an octave lower to give space for the oboe and flute to sound clearly. This worked perfectly and we were all happy with the result.



Challenge 2. Fourth movement: open strings
The final movement begins with the two violin parts playing semiquavers that cross over the open strings. The violin’s strings are tuned to play the notes G, D, A and E. Crossing over the open strings is technically easy for a violinist as they change the angle of the bow so that it moves from one string to the other. I think Malcolm Arnold used this figure because it mimics fiddle players warming up before the ceilidh dance gets underway. He has the two violin parts playing in contrary motion, i.e. when one is going up, the other is coming down. These leaps are easy for string players but a nightmare for winds, because it means very fast changes to lip pressure, to the air support from the lungs, and lots of fast finger-work. It is very difficult to play well. The challenge for the arranger is to retain the feel of the open strings, keep the ‘warming up’ feel, retain the contrary motion, while making it sound as easy for the wind players as it is for strings! I must thank the Melville Wind Quintet’s fantastic bassoonist, Jennifer Kelly, for helping to come up with the solution. Given that I had already decided the clarinet and bassoon would play this figure, it was up to the two of us to sort it out. Jennifer suggested using the same notes but compressing them so that the leaps were smaller and, therefore, more playable. So, the clarinet and bassoon are still playing G, D, A and E in contrary motion semi-quavers, but, as Eric Morecambe (1970s UK Comedian) might have said, “not necessarily in the right order”. It creates the same effect but is playable and remains faithful to Arnold’s original writing.



Challenge 3. First movement: brass triple tonguing
The poco più mosso section of the first movement has the orchestral brass section playing fast triplets. A standard part of any brass player’s tool bag is a technique called triple tonguing, designed to play sections just like this. The player uses their tongue to sound something like ‘ta ka ta’ or ‘da ga da’ very fast so that the triplets can be played at great speed with ease. The horn is the only brass instrument in a wind quintet, so can play this without problem; so too can the flute, where triple tonguing is equally effective. However, triple tonguing is much harder on reed instruments (clarinet, oboe, and bassoon) because the tongue would normally touch the reed with some force to start it vibrating, so that a note sounds. However, when your tongue says ‘ta ka ta’ or ‘da ga da’ it isn’t in the right place to touch the reed. Top-class professional wind players will be able to play this brass section without difficulty because of their great proficiency and technique, irrespective of which instrument they play. The flute and horn players will triple tongue, but each clarinet, oboe and bassoon player will choose whether to play this section with very fast single (normal) tonguing or triple tonguing. This will depend on their own technique and personal preferences. However, I like my arrangements to be playable by good amateurs as well as professionals. My bassoonist friends tell me that the original is playable with triple tonguing but it is trickier for the oboe and especially for the clarinet, so I have given them an alternative. They can miss out some notes if they cannot play all the triplets. Providing the flute, horn and bassoon are happy triple tonguing, the oboist and clarinettist can do what they can and no-one is likely to notice the difference, apart from a few eagle-eyed orchestral trumpet players out there who know the original!



Getting permission to publish
In February 2022, just after I had started work on the arrangement, I approached Malcolm Arnold’s publisher (Novello/Wise Music) to request permission to publish an arrangement. I received some encouraging words but was also warned that it may take some time because all members of the late Sir Malcolm’s estate have to give their approval to new publications and they would want to see the final work. Therefore, I decided to press on with the project, to check that it would indeed work, and so that I could send a full draft to Wise Music to enable it to be more seriously considered. This was ready in May 2022 and the estate and publisher finally granted permission for me to publish in November 2022. I am extremely grateful to Wise Music and the Sir Malcolm Arnold Estate for their assistance and support; and how appropriate that I was able to publish on 30th November, which is St Andrew’s Day.

Summary
The arrangement of Malcom Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances has been a labour of love and I am delighted it has seen the light of day. I am also greatly encouraged that it was recently the Editor’s Choice on the website of June Emerson Wind Music and has been selling well to others who must share my love of Arnold’s Three Shanties and his Four Scottish Dances. One purchaser from Michigan in the USA said, “My quintet is excited to play this because we have played the band version many times and love it.”

Malcolm Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances adapted for Wind Quintet by Hugh Levey is available in printed and digital formats from www.woodwindly.com and www.juneemersonwindmusic.com. RRP £22.50

All extracts from the original score are Copyright © 1957 The Malcolm Arnold Estate. Exclusivelylicensed to Patterson’s Publications Ltd (a division of Novello & Co Ltd).

All extracts from the wind quintet arrangement are © Copyright 1957 The Sir Malcolm Arnold Estate. Exclusively Licensed to Paterson's Publications Limited (A division of Novello & Co. Ltd.) This Arrangement by Hugh Levey © Copyright 2022 The Sir Malcolm Arnold Estate. All Rights  Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Europe Ltd.