I head Sibelius would take a simple tune, and then arrange it for differing uses.

Like input Mama's little baby likes ...and have an arrangement for Brass Band so it knows which instruments to make lines for, ie. there are no violins in a brass band. As to writing for some 5 man electrical countryfied band, well, maybe not so much.

But any arranger spends hours on a single bar, if not days, so there is no real shortcut, unless you are one guy and his guitar and sit and strum on the park bench by the bus stop in Tumbleweed West Texas.


I think someone should arrange these words to a country waltz version, Mein Herz und mein Sinn...

Sorry, I love that waltz...but I want a pretty alto to sing it to me with violas and oboe d'amore's and scented roses under...

dort wo die alten Häuser stehn
dort wo die lieblichen Mädchen gehn,
Wien, Wien, nur du allein...

Oh could I just waltz again with strong legs, going until dawn....but it is, what it is, I'll just watch, not too soon from above...

John Conley
Musica est vita