More than a year ago, I got some sheet music for string quartet arrangements for a piece of music from Doctor Who. Since then, an entire season of Doctor Who came and went, and I never got around to doing anything with the music. I planned to figure out how to play the various parts on violin, and then assemble them into one piece, but I kept finding reasons not to.
It was too late at night, or too early in the morning. I was travelling. I was moving house. My bow needed rehairing. My strings needed replacing. My digital recorder broke. My headphones weren’t working. I had no time.
I promised myself I’d do it before the next season of Doctor Who would air. That wasn’t until September, so I had lots of time.
Suddenly it was late August, and I only had one week until my self-imposed deadline. Nothing is as motivating as a rapidly approaching deadline, so last weekend I spent a few hours playing and recording and grumbling and starting over and editing, and it’s DONE.The new episode airs tomorrow, so just in time, here’s “I Am The Doctor” on violin.
This is about 75% of the music for an entire string quartet (orig. Murray Gold/Arr. Minh Pham) played only on violin, and then edited together. It was really hard to get things in the right place, and it didn’t work everywhere. It’s also out of tune in various places, and I hear every single mistake, argh! I know how I would have played it differently if it actually was a string quartet rather than me listening to myself through iPod headphones (also, it *really* needs a cello), but it’s the best I could do… Maybe I shouldn’t pick a piece in 7/4 next time I try this sort of thing!
Right after I finished this, I had a look on YouTube to see what else was out there, and that led me to the MOST AMAZING THING ON THE INTERNET! There is a Doctor Who Fan Orchestra! People each record one part of an arrangement of Doctor Who music, and it’s assembled into one piece and it sounds SO MUCH BETTER than what I did myself! Look/listen!
Their next call for musicians is in September, so I’m going to pay close attention and will try to get in, because this is just PERFECT!
