The listening room
At the Arranging Desk
One miniature, 150 individual orchestrations. Find an artist, press Play, and hear how the parts fit together.
Choose an artist · search & filtersDon Sebesky
Period follows the artist’s main era. Size and instruments describe this study; a section counts as one part.
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Original miniature
Small Hours
8 bars · C major · 4/4 Straight eighths
A reduced studio orchestra: a flute melody over four sustained string lines, with horn reinforcement and an English horn octave entering as the phrase grows.
Choose Play to hear the recorded ensemble.
The passage
Read what you hear
All parts at sounding pitch · middle C = C4 · eighth notes follow the selected feel. Select a bar to inspect or replay it.
Inside the ensemble
Listen by part
Combine Solo buttons to hear a voicing or a doubling. Mute removes a part from the mix.
Downloads include every part at concert pitch. MIDI includes the selected tempo and swing feel.
Bar 01 · I · tonic
Cmaj9
Solo the four string parts, then add the flute. Compare a clear melodic attack with a sustained harmonic bed.
Sounding pitches
High to low · muted parts are dimmed · note releases can leave a rest between attacks.
| Part | Pitch | Chord role |
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From the arranging bookshelf Sebesky · Nestico
This original Don Sebesky study applies the books’ approach of examining voicings, registers and instrumental combinations. It illustrates one facet of the artist’s work in a reduced ensemble; it is not a transcription or a reproduction of a book example. The melody and eight-bar progression remain the same throughout the artist collection.
- Don Sebesky, The Contemporary Arranger: “Combining the Woodwinds,” printed pp. 69–70 (PDF pp. 78–79), compares balance at different registers. “Voicing the Strings,” beginning on printed p. 124 (PDF p. 133), discusses distributing string voices. “Combining Strings with Winds,” printed p. 155 (PDF p. 164), demonstrates how a flute changes the color and balance of a string line.
- Sammy Nestico, The Complete Arranger: “Close [Block] Voicing” and “Semi-Open Voicing,” printed p. 24 (PDF p. 26), contrast a compact moving saxophone block with a voice dropped an octave. The part scores and pitch inspector let you examine the spacing used in this artist’s study.
Each artist’s arrangement uses separately recorded parts, so Solo and Mute reveal the same performance heard in the full ensemble. Winds, piano and supported orchestral instruments use MuseSounds; upright bass uses Karoryfer recordings. Other colors retain the credited libraries below. Tempo changes preserve concert pitch.
Performances rendered with free MuseSounds and the libraries below. Recording credits and instrument coverage.
Recordings: VSCO 2 CE (CC0), MTG Solo Saxophones (CC BY 4.0), and Karoryfer Meatbass (CC0). Additional sounds: FluidR3 GM (CC BY 3.0). Full credits and sample changes.
Voicing & register
The strings hold B4–G4–E4 above D3, with C2 in the bass. Opening the gap between cello and viola keeps the low ninth out of a tight cluster; the upper strings supply maj7, 5 and 3.
Timbral combination
Flute gives the phrase a clear front edge; the slower string attacks carry the harmony underneath. Electric piano only punctuates the offbeats.
Voice leading & harmony
The opening E is the third. G–A–G makes the sixth a brief neighbor before the melody lands on D, the ninth.