Charts and music

Question

There is a new-to-me usage of "chart" in musical contexts. Examples:
"Riddle, who had helped launch Frank Sinatra's comeback with his charts for 'Songs for Swingin' Lovers,'
was between jobs and signed on as Rosie's musical director.

and
"Ithier resumed total control of arranging chores on 1991's Erupcíon!, and the relaxed freshness of some of his charts clearly demonstrated that he had benefited from his respite."
I translate this as simply "sheet music",
but I wonder if that is right.
Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]There is a new-to-me usage of "chart" in musical contexts. Examples: "Riddle, who had helped launch Frank Sinatra's comeback with ... he had benefited from his respite." I translate this as simply "sheet music", but I wonder if that is right.[/nq]
OED recognises it :
>

I suspect it has to be a full score rather than 'sheet music' which can be little more than a simple piano arrangement of a melody.
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]There is a new-to-me usage of "chart" in musical contexts. Examples: "Riddle, who had helped launch Frank Sinatra's comeback with ... he had benefited from his respite." I translate this as simply "sheet music", but I wonder if that is right.[/nq]
"Chart" is just musospeak for "arrangement"; some arrangements may be "head arrangements" and so needn't exist on paper at all. Here, at least in the second case and usually when it appears in music journalism, the word "charts" is used as elegant variation (which may or may not be the same as an Elgar variation) to avoid repeating "arrangements" or "arranging".

Ross Howard

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]There is a new-to-me usage of "chart" in musical contexts. ... simply "sheet music", but I wonder if that is right.[/nq]
[nq:1]"Chart" is just musospeak for "arrangement"; some arrangements may be "head arrangements" and so needn't exist on paper at all. ... elegant variation (which may or may not be the same as an Elgar variation) to avoid repeating "arrangements" or "arranging".[/nq]
The term "chart" comes from jazz musicians and is only infrequently used in classical circles in the US. ("Score" and "part" are the default classical terms here.) "Chart" is used two different ways. It can be used to mean "printed arrangement of a piece." (Ross, I've never heard it used to mean a "head arrangement." Have you?) However, "chart" often means "chord chart":
"A page of extremely abbreviated musical shorthand for players in a rhythm section. It would typically only include slash notation, some general rhythms, and jazz chord symbols." (Definition from tsmp.org.)

-skipka

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[nq:1]There is a new-to-me usage of "chart" in musical contexts. Examples: "Riddle, who had helped launch Frank Sinatra's comeback with ... he had benefited from his respite." I translate this as simply "sheet music", but I wonder if that is right.[/nq]
No, "arrangement" for a plurality of instruments for actual performance is the meaning. "Sheet music" most typically refers to a "hack" arrangement of a tune or song for piano/guitar (and voice), say, but you wouldn't refer to this sort of arrangement as a "chart" if only because only one or two instruments are specifically contemplated, and also because the hack arrangment in the sheet music isn't really contemplated to be actually performed by a serious musician, if you follow me, and in a way isn't really expected to be performed as such by even an amateur musician in the privacy of his home (TWKDITPOHHIHOB(B!).)
I don't think "chart" would be used in classical music in any context, but then again I don't think "arrangement" ordinarily would either.

"Charts" is often used in the context of bands with many instruments (like big bands, or bands big enough to use the word "orchestra" in their names) in twentieth century jazz and jazz-influenced pop, and I think that's the usage in the quotations you provide.

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[nq:1]The term "chart" comes from jazz musicians and is only infrequently used in classical circles in the US. ("Score" and ... to mean "printed arrangement of a piece." (Ross, I've never heard it used to mean a "head arrangement." Have you?)[/nq]
Nope. I wrote that really badly. You're quite right.
[nq:1]However, "chart" often means "chord chart":[/nq]
AKA "tabs", esp. for guitar.

Ross Howard

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[nq:1]There is a new-to-me usage of "chart" in musical contexts. Examples: "Riddle, who had helped launch Frank Sinatra's comeback with ... he had benefited from his respite." I translate this as simply "sheet music", but I wonder if that is right.[/nq]
A chart is a written musical arrangement, generally of a swing, or big band song. In the 1930s and 40s the arranger was the soul of a particular band and that is the era that Nelson Riddle comes from.

A composer usually had nothing to do with a particular arrangement of his song, as in "Begin the Beguine" where Cole Porter hated the arrangement that Artie Shaw played but which made the song a big success.
A particular band could sound totally different if it changed arrangers such as when Fletcher Henderson gave up on his band, sold his book of charts to Benny Goodman, and went to work for him arranging new tunes. At that point the Goodman Band took off and dominated the middle to late 1930s. Goodman used other arrangers also but if you are familiar with the sound you can tell who did the chart after just a few bars.
Most of Glenn Miller's big hits were arranged by either Glen Gray or Bill Finegan and most are rather syrupy, but Finegan took a turn somewhere around 1941 and started writing some charts that were completely different from what went before. His "Song of the Volga Boatmen" has a clean sound that he later used when he had the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra in the 1950s.
Each swing band was looking for a "sound" and the way to get it was to find a good arranger who could write charts for the particular instrument mix or musical talent of a given band.
Brian Wickham

Charts and music

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