THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALICE PARKER AND ...

Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier
Choral Arr, 1956, SATB(S), Tune source: Trad USA, Text source: Trad USA, LG502
This second excerpt, a love song, is taken from “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” which
was recorded on the My True Love Sings album of 1955. Between measures 9 and 23 we
observe:
#9 A wide variety of dynamics and articulation, often with sudden contrasts
Choral voices behind the soprano solo swell from p to an apparent f at measure 17, and
quickly diminish to pp within a measure. The marking espressivo is given to the basses at m. 12,
and, more emphatically, basses and tenors are told to sing “hushed, but well marked” at 18, with
alternating tenuto and staccato articulations from m. 17. The altos are told in m. 20 to sing p “as
an echo.”
#11 Counter-melodies and background harmony lines largely taken from melodic motives
In mm. 13-14, the soprano and alto background harmonies echo the beginning of verse 2,
which began in the soprano solo at m. 11. This same figure is taken over by the tenors and
basses at m. 15-16.
#12 Harmonies not complex, “resultant harmony” frequent
This arrangement moves in fairly standard harmonic progressions. There is not an
accidental in the passage, and functions within the modality are simple. Instances of resultant
harmony are found at the end of this passage, in mm. 22-23. Here the alto voice, imitating the
melody exactly, operates independently, and skews normal harmony.
#13 Voice part independence in four-part homophony
Measure 17 is an excellent example of how Parker and Shaw alter the rhythm in the alto
voice slightly so as to avoid perfect homorhythm in a block-written passage.
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