Saturday Night Star

The inspiration for this unique arrangement came from Carol Cantrell, who often shares her wealth of knowledge with us and others on the MK8 Mailing List. She said that her favorite way to teach F natural was to use the tune "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," in the key of C as it naturally takes you from G down to C step-wise. Unfortunately, she added, there just isn't a published arrangement of it out there.

Well, that's all of the encouragement we needed, but we wrestled for a while with what style and orchestration to use. Teresa said that perhaps it should be "Saturday Night Star," and the rest is history: move over John Travolta!

Even if we weren't in the midst of the umteenth disco revival, this arrangement would be fun. It begins with a building introduction that is also a nice little warm-up for your players on the notes G, A, and F. It's fully orchestrated, with period guitars, drums, and a big string section and full brass. As the piece progresses, the brass add a countermelody full of fun-loving disco clichés.

One nice thing about the disco-based setting is that the tempo is relatively slow, giving young players a chance to play more securely. Note that the arrangement features a da capo al coda, which causes a fairly complete repeat of the work, jumping to the coda for the last four measures. You can either use the full divisi at the end, or use any of the notes as a unison. For performance, a nice mirrored ball with a spotlight will add just the right touch. Enjoy!