Arranger, Flutist, Choral Singer
9 questions to Joachim Linckelmann, the arranger of great choral works for small scorings
Due to the limited sheet music for the wind quintet, Joachim Linckelmann began arranging great choral works for smaller scorings while he was still a student. Today he is responsible for most of the published arrangements in our category “Great choral works in small scorings“.
1. How did you come to arrange large-scale (choral) works, and what was your first arrangement?
I had already begun making arrangements for wind quintet whilst I was a student, as the original literature seemed to be too limited for our quintet back then. My first arrangements for choir and small ensemble were made in 2009 at the suggestion of the conductor Johannes Tolle, then conductor of the John Sheppard Ensemble Freiburg, a choir of around 35 singers. The first was an arrangement of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Athalia. In this, the whole orchestra was reduced to a wind quintet. This was great fun for the players, but required a certain amount of stamina.
This worked so well that Johannes Tolle asked me whether I could imagine the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms in a reduced orchestration. Because of the small size of the choir, the original version for large orchestra would not have been possible, and Brahms’s own piano reduction is in fact only a support. A wind quintet alone would definitely not have been enough with this work, so I ended up with a scoring for string quintet, wind quintet, and timpani. The first performance in 2009 took place with single strings; this is also reflected in the arrangement where, for example, at the beginning of the first movement, the bassoon plays one of the divisi cello parts. These days most performances of this arrangement take place with a larger number of string players.
2. How long do you “tinker” with an arrangement such as Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” for reduced orchestral forces?
That is actually quite difficult to answer. “Tinkering” alone doesn’t quite do it justice, because quite a considerable part of the work requires great diligence, namely capturing the complete musical text. With a work such as Elijah, it takes quite a while before all the notes and text for the strings, singers and timpani (who all play the original music, with just a few exceptions in the strings) are entered into the note-setting program. All in all, dealing with such a work can stretch over several months.
3. To what extent does it help that you yourself are a wind player (flautist)?
Without a background as an orchestral musician, I don’t know how I could have created the arrangements as they now are. Knowledge of the other instruments I have played with over the years is also crucial to me. I sometimes receive suggestions from proofreaders to swop oboe and flute round in one passage or another, for example, as the notes would be a bit too low for the flute. But when the oboe and the flute play a passage originally written for two oboes, it is better to have the oboe play the first oboe part and the flute the second oboe part, as the overall effect sounds more like oboes and is therefore closer to the original. As a flautist I know that nowadays, on modern instruments you can produce quite some volume on the flute in the lower register too (which wouldn’t have been possible in Brahms or Mendelssohn’s time).
4. Do you also compose yourself?
I did compose a little earlier on in my career, but not for a long time now. I am therefore very grateful to all composers whose works lend themselves to arranging.
5. Are you an active choral singer yourself?
For a good three years now I have sung in the extra chorus of the Stadttheater Freiburg; before that it was just the school choir a long time ago…
As an orchestral musician I am familiar with the perspective from the pit; now it’s also the singers’ perspective from the stage. With this experience I have developed a greater understanding of why an opera chorus can easily sing behind the beat.
6. Which composers particularly inspire you?
I am often asked this question on occasions like this; I have neither a favorite color nor a favorite dish. The same applies to composers.
7. Are there compositions which you should leave alone, which you cannot or should not arrange, or present difficulties?
The first limitation I would name is copyright. Without the agreement of the respective copyright owner, I can only arrange works by composers who died over 70 years ago. To avoid any misunderstanding, this is in no way a criticism of copyright, which I naturally support and find a very sensible idea.
The most extreme example of an oratorio which could still be arranged would be the Requiem by Hector Berlioz – but its very essence is its exuberant orchestration and to a lesser extent the musical content, with quadruple to eight-part woodwinds, 12 horns, 16 timpani, and 108 strings. Here, it’s the original or nothing.
With Mahler symphonies with chorus I am not yet so sure …
8. Will you reveal the project you are currently working on?
After the publication of the Verdi Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Elijah last year, and St Paul this year, the major works are almost all ticked off. Last summer I arranged the Mass in E flat by Schubert; the publication date has not yet been announced by Carus. I was unaware of this Mass before, something which turned out to be a significant gap in my knowledge. It is very moving and also really modern music; the wild modulations in the Sanctus alone could be used as highly dramatic film music. If the “Et incarnatus est” were a pop song, it would top the charts for weeks on end.
Postponed for the second time because of Corona, next Christmas there will be a Humperdinck program with the Camerata Vocale Freiburg conducted by Winfried Toll (who premiered the arrangement of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in South Korea). For this, I have arranged the second act of Hänsel und Gretel, excerpts from Dornröschen and Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar, as well as Gruß an die Heilige Nacht by Max Bruch.
In addition, a version of the Fauré Requiem is in preparation, which can be performed without organ.
9. And when you’re not performing or arranging, then …
… I pursue my main activity as a music engraver. And when that’s done, the nearby Black Forest beckons with its many and varied natural riches. The peaks of the Kandel or Schauinsland, within sight, are my favorite places to climb, and from there you can continue with a paraglider, sometimes circling with the buzzards, kites, or even peregrine falcons, all of which can be found here.
Joachim Linckelmann, born in Munich in 1964, studied the flaute at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich and at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg. He was a flautist for various well-known orchestras in Germany and abroad and has also worked as a music engraver and arranger since 1995. Since 2009 he has been arranging oratorios for smaller scorings for Carus. Since 2018 he has been a member of the extra choir of the Stadttheater Freiburg.
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
Arrangement for chamber orchestra (arr. J. Linckelmann)
- full score: Carus 27.055/50
- vocal score: Carus 27.055/03
- choral score: Carus 27.055/05
- Carus Choir Coach (audio only): Carus 27.055/91
Mendelssohn: Elijah
Arrangement for chamber orchestra (arr. J. Linckelmann)
- full score: Carus 40.130/50
- vocal score (ger./engl.): Carus 40.130/03
- choral score (ger./engl.): Carus 40.130/05
- Carus Choir Coach (audio only): Carus 40.130/91
Beethoven: Missa solemnis
Arrangement for chamber orchestra (arr. J. Linckelmann)
- full score: Carus 40.689/50
- vocal score: Carus 40.689/03
- choral score: Carus 40.689/05
- Carus Choir Coach (nur Audio): Carus 40.689/91
Beethoven: Missa solemnis
Brahms: A German Requiem
Dvorák: Mass in D major
Dvorák: Stabat Mater
Mendelssohn: Elijah
Mendelssohn: St. Paul
Puccini: Messa a 4 voci con orchestra
With this arrangement for chamber orchestra, more choirs now have the opportunity of performing this work without the choir being dominated by a full-scale symphony orchestra.
Puccini: Stabat Mater
Verdi: Messa da Requiem
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