Ber's A Cappella Arrangements Online

Introduction
Available Arrangements
Wishlist
Submit Arrangements
Links
Disclaimer

Introduction

The a cappella arrangements online is not something new. There have been two before me who made a similar page. Stacy's was the first one to my knowledge and Trevor was the second one to make such a page (compare the logos...).
I wanted to add one small property to the online arrangements. The problem was that I never was able to find complete post-/ghost-script versions of the arrangements with the rest of the arrangements. This meant that I needed to do a lot of additional work. But firstly, it is very hard to reproduce the Writer's intentions and correct (parallel-) lyrics and the like. Secondly, snail-mail causes additional costs and I just don't like additional costs (especially when they are overseas). So, here I want to introduce the following concepts (borrowed from the software scene):

Freeware arrangements
You can download it and you never have to pay for it. You don't even have to say that you downloaded it. However, a note of appreciation is always welcome.
Postcardware arrangements
You download the arrangement, try it and then you send a postcard to the person who wrote it. The only cost is a card and a stamp. However, it is mandatory to send the postcard if you like the arrangement to keep the writer posted that his/her work is appreciated. Alternatively you can send an e-mail to the author with the same intensions as the postcard.
Shareware arrangements
You download the arrangement, try it and you pay an amount of money directly to the writer if you like the arrangement. These arrangements are not my own preference, but it is only fair to include this strategy.

Some of the arrangements will be downloadable directly, while others might require a form interface. This is to keep the authors posted that someone is downloading their arrangement. Fill out the form and you will get the files posted by e-mail as attachments. This procedure has to be worked out in better detail in the future.

All of these xxxWares should include at least one of the following formats for download, but preferably all formats:

Sequencer source file
Midi file
MusiXTeX/Encore/Finale file
Post-/Ghost-Script file

I would like that at least the midi and PostScript files are available for download, so you can hear and see the arrangement. I plan a PostScript to picture converter for online viewing of the score in the future.

There are now page previews available in jpeg format (most browsers can show this directly). These are about 60..100Kb each. Another format available is multipage TIFF which can be used to print the arrangement if you do not have access to a PostScript printer or do not have GhostScript. The TIFFs are rastered at 150, 300 and 600 dpi which is a tradeoff between file-size and quality. Most can suffice with the 300 dpi versions. I use ACDSee to view and print the TIFF files (when I do not use Ghostscript or ImageMagick), but there are many other image programs.

There is yet another document format available: PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format). You will need Acrobat Reader to view them and you can print out from there (slow). Printing the PDF file should basically give the same quality as the original postscript files (the PDFs are generated with GhostScript's ps2pfd).

Available arrangements

Title	Author(s)	Performer(s)	Arr. by	Availability	Voices	Voicing	Format (*)
I do it for your love	Paul Simon		Bertho	Freeware	6	SSATBB	-M-P
Doewa (Pauze)			Bertho/Gilbert	Freeware	4 (6)	SATB	-M-P
Breaking up is hard to do	?		Bertho	Freeware	6	SSATBB	-M-P
Just the way you are	Billy Joel		Bertho	Freeware	8	SSATBB	-M-P
Is she really going out with him	Joe Jackson		Bertho	Freeware	6	SSATBB	-M-P
Muppets theme	Jim Henson, Sam Pottle		Bertho	Postcardware	8 (6)	SSATBB	-M-P
Street Life	Joe Sample, Will Jennings	The Crusaders	Bertho	Postcardware	8 (6)	SSATBB	-M-P
I won't last a day without you	P. Williams, R. Nichols	The Carpenters	Bertho	Freeware	6	SSATBB	-M-P
Baggy Trousers	G. McPherson, C.J. Foreman	Madness	Bertho	Freeware	8 (6)	SSATBB	-M-P
Yesterday	J. Lennon, P. McCartney	Beatles	Orlando Pandolfi	Freeware	6	SATB	-MSP
A man with a child in his eyes			Koos van Zanen	Freeware	?	SATB	-M--
You to me are everything		The real men	Jantine Zwagerman	Freeware	?	SATB	-M--
New With or Without You		U2	Isaac Shalev	Freeware	?	SATTB	-M--

(*) Q=Sequencer, M=Midi, S=Source, P=PostScript

You might like the songs or dislike them. You might think it is arranged good or bad. Just mail your comments to the writer and discuss the problems or commendations you think there are. This will help the quality of future arrangements and add to the writer's skills.

Wishlist and ToDo

There are a couple of things that keep spinning in my head and I would like to do some work on them. These songs include:

Al Jarreau - Roof Garden
Al Jarreau - Boogie Down
Bangles - Walk like an Egyptian
Bangles - Eternal Flame

Maybe someone has these and wants to put them here???

Submit Arrangements

I strongly recommend that you consider to increase the choise of arrangements by submitting your own to the database here. If you like this idea, have something and you want others over the world to appreciate your effort, then you can send me an e-mail at bertho@akhphd.au.dk. I might add a full featured form-interface at some stage, but that is too much for now. Let us see how things develop.

Links

A Cappella Arrangements Online	Stacy's updated page with many songs.
(Link is dead) A Cappella Arrangements Online	Trevor's page with very nice Yes songs.
A Cappella Arrangements Online	Shawn & Joe's arrangements
Casa	The resource for contemporary a cappella.
A Cappella Arrangements Online	Arrangements by Div

Disclaimer

Any legal consequences are not my concern. Copyrights and fees are responsibility of the writers and users/performers of the arrangements. I only provide the means for easy access. Everything is on an "as is" basis and you can not hold me responsible for correctness or whatever you think might be wrong (in a legal or other sense). Contact the writers and/or users if you have complaints about the arrangements.
Alternatively, you can interpret everything on this page as educational, as long as you don't make me responsible for the contents...

This is how popular this site seems to be: hits since 21-Sep-1998.