Michael AllenNov 26, 2019K.I.S.S.It's snowing to beat hell here (thanks for the euphemism, dad) and I'm on a week away from my day gig, chipping away at some BIG...
Michael AllenSep 23, 2018Another possible approachI might have tried to transcribe something as awesome as the first movement of Mahler's 5th Symphony decades ago - I might have even...
Michael AllenJul 28, 2018Get your head out of the scoreConductors who can't lift their head out of the score are a pet peeve. It usually means they don't trust their own understanding of the...
Michael AllenNov 9, 2017Bass DoublingI wrote something yesterday that was confusing even to me when I read it again today. Mea culpa. The offending sentence was: Wright notes...
Michael AllenAug 26, 2017Willow, WillowMany years ago, I was walking past Bill Stanley’s trombone studio at CU Boulder and heard a most remarkable thing. I stuck my head in the...
Michael AllenAug 25, 2017Huzzah! to the Queen's ChapelRenaissance keyboard music is really fun to arrange. The simplicity of the music (well, at least some of it) lends itself to crafty...
Michael AllenAug 16, 2017Arranging with intentMany years ago, my friend and colleague Bill Stanley (professor of trombone, University of Colorado at Boulder) pointed me towards an...
Michael AllenAug 11, 2017Writer's blockI wrote recently about starting with the bass line when beginning work on an arrangement. That is generally a true statement. However,...
Michael AllenAug 8, 2017Thorny texturesFor those that aren't familiar, Grainger frequently reworked his own compositions for instrumentations other than the original. Handel in...