Preview: Over The Rainbow
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SKU: A0.1165227
By Judy Garland. By E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Harold Arlen. Arranged by Richard Hirsch. 20th Century,Broadway,Multicultural,Musical/Show,Standards,World. Individual part. 7 pages. Richard Hirsch #765578. Published by Richard Hirsch (A0.1165227).With inspiration in Isreal Kamakawiwo’ole’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World mashup, I offer an arrangement of the song Over the Rainbow for solo acoustic guitar. In my childhood The Wizard of Oz was one of my favourite fairy tales, especially as I spent a few of my early years in the little town of Winfield Kansas where tornadoes were a constant threat. I still remember huddling in the cellar with my mother and little brother when a tornado warning had been broadcast.
With this in mind, the first part of the arrangement is meant to resemble a whirlwind that takes us up to the dreamland of Oz portrayed in the slower second part. In the third part, we come back down to waking reality in another mirror image whirlwind.
The arrangement has an afro-flamenco character with two tiers of rhythm. Tier one is the normal 4/4 rhythm with accents at 1 and 3. Tier two consists of accents falling on beats 2 and 2& and 3& of the 4 beat measures. Tier two can be highlighted by clapping or tapping with a table knife on a bottle at beats 2 and 2& and 3&, with the strongest accent on 3& (an upbeat). The piece ends with a chord of natural harmonics on the 3& upbeat. The natural harmonics in the rhythmic fingerpicking resembling a kalimba (thumb harp) add an African touch to the piece.
The piece is within reach of advanced intermediate students of fingerstyle or classical acoustic guitar. Besides the polyrhythmic fingerpicking, in the second dreamland part the piece offers the opportunity to play a broken chord of right hand harmonics, usually a real hit with listening audiences. I give suggestions for left and right hand fingering where I think necessary. The suggested tempo is presto for the fast first and third parts, but they could be played even faster for dramatic effect. The slow dreamland second part should be played with the melody floating lazily over the beat.
The piece is a good follow up to my arrangements, also available at SheetMusicDirect and SheetMusicPlus of Freight Train and What a Wonderful World that use the same fingerpicking techniques.
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