Numb is a contemporary rock/metal piece by Linkin Park that I have chosen to arrange. I decided to arrange this piece for a string quintet because I wanted to contradict the heavy, rough timbre of the original piece with a much more elegant instrumentation. While the original piece is at 110 BPM, the cover is at 114BPM. This is because without the rock band instrumentation the piece feels emptier, by slightly increasing the speed the arrangement feels more energetic to compensate. Throughout the arrangement, E# is used which is not in the original. This note is used to bridge between notes (EG, bar 27) whilst giving the piece a harmonic minor quality, adding more serious feeling to the piece. Throughout the piece, the melody constantly moves between different instruments to create interesting timbres and keep the listener’s interest. The piece begins with just violin, viola, and cello to create a warm, midrange sound that is expanded on in bars 5-9, where all the instruments come in. In bars 5-9, the violins 1 and 2 play the melody and harmony, the cello plays a countermelody, the contrabass plays the bass of the chords (which is done throughout most of the song) and the viola plays punchy, staccato line. The viola and cello part in bars 5-9 are not in the original piece, the viola part was written to reinforce rhythm and harmony that compensates for the lack of drums and guitar and the cello part was written to make use of the harmonic capabilities of using a string quintet by adding harmonic depth.

 

In bars 10-15, the contrabass and viola have a call and response pizzicato line to reinforce the chord progression in a light-hearted way that contrasts the intensity of the rest of the piece. The viola and contrabass go back to arco in bar 14, with a note slide into bar 15 that imitates the slide of a bass guitar. In bar 15, both violins play a third above the original melody, which is taken by the viola, this is to reinforce a harmony line that adds extra harmonic depth that the original song lacks. In bars 18-23, the contrabass takes the bassline and rhythm with repeated staccato notes whilst the cello plays an arpeggiated line to accompany the rhythm, this adds a rhythmic build up that transitions well into the chorus part of the song. In bar 24-27, all the parts play the same rhythm except for the contrabass, with different harmonies of the same melody being used. The melody of the chorus is an iconic part of this song and I wanted to make sure it stands out in my arrangement of this song, by having all the parts doing the melody in this section of the chorus it makes the melody more powerful and reminds people who have previously listened to the song of this melody or familiarises new listeners with this melody. In bar 32-35, a countermelody is used to add extra harmonic depth, in bar 32 the first note in violin part is accented as a subtle way of changing sections. In bar 36-39 the cello does a walking bass line to contrast its faster sections later in the song. In bar 40-46 staccatos are used frequently to make the section feel short and detached to create tension and contrast the legato of the following chorus part. Bar 47 is the loudest section of the song, so the violin parts are very high to show that it’s a high point of tension in the song.

 

Bar 48-55 is like the first chorus, but this time features a countermelody for greater note and rhythm diversity to the first chorus. Bar 56-63 is the bridge of the song, where soft dynamics are used as the main way to contrast this section from the chorus. In bar 63-65 all the instruments do a tremolo with crescendo; this creates a large amount of tension that is released in the chorus. In bar 67-82 is the final chorus, which involves the violin playing an ostinato of the high F to keep some tension which is released at the end, this part also makes use of the verse melody in the viola and cello part to counter the chorus melody. Bar 83 to 91 is a breakdown part that I added as a slow, second bridge section that contrasts the fast pace of the rest of the song to make the constant fast pace less tiresome. The piece slows down to 100BPM and plays the same melody used in the opening, with instruments gradually stopping until there is only a violin left. Using high notes with quiet was an intentional choice to create a frail, weak sound that fades away into nothing.