Noteworthy

Hannah Debenham | For The Post

From the first tone on the pitch pipe to the wailing of horns and beating of drums, the music
enjoyed by many during halftime or at singing ensemble concerts is the result of tireless work
from Ohio University student composers.
Its all about music theory, said Joe Brenkle, president of Singing Men of Ohio and a senior
studying music theory. You figure out what the chords are in the song and you give each voice
part a different note in the chord.
Brenkle arranged the piece Streetlight by Joshua Radin for Section 8, a student-run
subsection of Singing Men of Ohio, as well as various pieces for Leading Tones and Title IX.
Technically theres not one person in charge, but we tend to give control to people who know
what they are doing, said Grant Johnson, a sophomore studying music who is in Section 8.
The groups latest hit, Drakes Hold On, Were Going Home, was arranged by Adam Cesarz, a
Section 8 alumnus who did not study music. Cesarz said he arranged the song by listening to it
for an hour until he began to hear the different parts, and from there he split the parts up for
each section.
Brenkle said the way he usually arranges pieces is by letting the basses take the root of the
chord, while the baritones get the fifth and the third and the tenor Is and tenor IIs get the root
againjust an octave higher.
The members of Section 8 said beatboxing tends to find its way into each song as a way for the
group to add rhythm to the songs.
Johnson, Brenkle and Devin Sudman, a sophomore studying choral music education, have all
arranged their own versions of popular songs. Johnson recently finished Retrograde by James
Blake, which Section 8 will begin work on soon, while Sudman arranged Forget You by CeeLo
Green.
I added a bunch of different rhythms but it still sounds like (Forget You), Sudman said. Its a
different way of applying your music theory because as a music major we do a lot of classical
composition, so its nice to do contemporary music.
The time it takes to compose the arrangements widely varies: Brenkle spent just two hours on
his arrangement of Streetlight and Retrograde took Johnson one night to arrange. Johnson,
though, said he has also taken months to arrange a song.
The work of student arrangements isnt limited to vocal ensembles; many compose for
instrumental groups such as the Marching 110.

Aaron Campbell, a junior studying music education, recently placed in the top three of the
Marching 110s arrangers competition for his composition of the James Bond theme
from Casino Royale, You Know My Name, in addition to many other works.
For Campbell, the process of composing for the 110 mirrors that of composing for vocal groups,
but instead of figuring out which voices get which parts, he has to figure out which instruments
take which sections. He added that the trumpets and trombones typically have the melody.
And while the rights give OUs musical ensembles the ability to perform the songs, its the
student composers who ultimately give the songs an original flair.
Without composition, we would only have old music, Phillips said. In order for music to be
relevant, it needs to be renewed.