Beatrice - Chord Melody

Here is a chord melody I arranged of the great Sam Rivers standard, Beatrice. Man I love this tune! This song has some great Lydian mode colors and very interesting harmonic movement. It was a joy to arrange.

The melody posed a challenge to harmonize as it sits in the lower register for much of the first half of the tune. I wanted to keep it at guitar transposition (octave lower than concert pitch), so you will notice a lot of clusters and closed voicings in the bass register, eg low E A D strings. I tried to make a theme out of those sections by creating a recurring descending run in the bass while keeping common tones. There is definitely some intentional oblique motion counterpoint going on. The lower register chords really do shine on the Trenier archtop.

If you have any questions please share in the comments!

Performed on a 2023 Trenier Continental, fully carved 17" archtop
Quilter 101 Mini Reverb direct to Motu Interface
Bluechip guitar pick
Thomastik George Benson 12 gauge strings

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