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Can anyone tell me what instrument plays at the start?

aurorajones

New Member
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to learn more about music composition and production by recreating Frank Sinatra's "Witchcraft". I'm stumped about what instrument plays at the beginning- it sounds like a train horn, and then I think that "quick falling sensation" part sounds like a violin but I'm not certain. I looked online to see if anyone has listed a key of instruments used in the song and didn't find any- no live videos of the band playing either.

Can you use your ear to tell me what this could be?
 
Hi aurorajones and cuttime,

The version of Witchcraft that you reference is Frank Sinatra’s 1957 recording, arranged by the wonderful Nelson Riddle. I can offer a few pointers that may be helpful.

The 1957 and 1963 Frank Sinatra recordings use the same full orchestral score. There’s a reduced transcription (not by Nelson Riddle) for a standard 17 piece big band, with the first few pages as a pdf preview. The transcription agrees with cuttime’s sharp hearing of cup muted trumpets and trombones. I also agree, though I hear a clarinet as well in the video linked just below. The quick falling part sounds like a larger string section to me, and is moved to saxophones (and possibly simplified) in the transcription.​
There’s a video of Frank singing live along with the original score. You may be able to pick out other instrument lines from this recording (like that clarinet). It does show the size of orchestra needed for the original, full score (probably 42 or 55 pieces).​
There’s a video of the https://nelsonriddle.org/nelsonriddleorchestra/ (<u>Nelson Riddle Orchestra</u>) playing a reduced big band arrangement (by Nelson Riddle), which sounds different from the transcription above (for example, the falling string parts are excluded, rather than moved to saxophones).​
The University of Arizona has a https://collections.music.arizona.edu/riddle/collection/index.html (<u>large collection</u>) of Nelson Riddle’s works. I just skimmed their https://collections.music.arizona.edu/riddle/collection/MMS4NELS.pdf (<u>catalog pdf</u>) and they do have an original score for the 1957 Sinatra version of Witchcraft. Maybe you could contact them and ask about educational access. If they do share something with you, I’d love to see it too.​

Warm Regards, David
 
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