Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs!
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we're going to be discussing Donza de Espana by Carol Britton Chambers.
Cheers to starting the conversation!
Alright this piece is such a great piece.
It is in 3 4, it's in the key of F or D minor all the way through.
It's about a minute and 45 seconds long.
It is all about style.
It has split clarinet parts.
The first clarinet part does cross the break and it has split trumpet parts as well.
Trumbone, euphonium, bassoon are all doubling each other which is nice.
That gives you a little bit of flexibility in your low brass and low reeds and obviously
lots of percussion which because this is very Spanish, all the percussion parts are going
to be really important.
This piece on the Texas PML is a grade 2.
It's extremely popular in our state and a lot of bands can sound really great playing
this piece all the way throughout.
So I just wanted to say that I've heard it done very very well at many different festivals
that I've adjudicated before.
Coming out at the very beginning as it's marked it's a lively little Spanish piece and you're
going to have your percussion not playing too loud.
It's supposed to start kind of stately, just a nice easy mezzo forte and the timpani gets
to be important.
They're setting up the 3 4 groove for you at the beginning.
I put in a little de crescendo going into 5 whenever I've played this before and then
when the band comes in.
On the percussion entrance a couple of things.
So I would even have this snare player give just a little bit of an accent on beat 1 to
really give the feeling of the 3 4 in this.
It doesn't have to be dramatic.
And then with your timpani player it's real easy for if we're splitting right hand and
left hand which most of the time that's what they'll be doing for their left their A in
this case to be significantly softer than the note that's in their right hand.
And so you want to make sure because this is functioning like the melody that's right.
Three needs to go to one and so we need to make sure this is functioning as the melody
for the first four measures.
So it needs to be equal volume in both hands.
As the wind players come in at measure five you want to make sure that the melody is very
well presented in flute, first clarinet and first trumpet.
Do not let the accompaniment line be too short.
You don't want it to sound one, three, one, two, one, three, one, two, one, two.
So you want to make sure that everything is very again leading all the way through.
I do think all of the eighth note articulation should be really crispy in this.
A little bit more lifted for sure.
I do think that it adds to the style whenever you do lift a little bit more on the eighth
notes like in measure eight when it goes from one, two and three, one, two, three, one,
two and three, da, da, da, da, da.
So the more you can really make sure that the slurs are long and you don't clip them,
especially going from eight to nine, it leads into it.
A lot of students will sometimes make that note a little bit lifted.
So make sure that it's not lifted.
In the accompaniment part that has the half notes when they have one, three, one, two,
making sure that those white notes don't end softer, then they begin.
Make sure that they have direction.
Even though they're half notes, three still needs to lead to one.
Yep.
And then here at 12, the whole band has a release on beat three.
So make sure that that happens exactly together.
And then 13, we still have the same melodic voices, but we've added in a different accompaniment
line.
So make sure that they're not too loud, but they're adding a fun new element in here.
And then again, making sure that we're keeping it a little bit more light in style on the
eighth notes.
And again, this is why this piece comes together really well, because it's well written.
And I don't really think that we have to do too much to make sure you can hear the melodic
voice.
Same release here at measure 20.
Make sure you're off right on three.
And you can use the percussion to help with that.
The percussion plays, and the band should release right at the same time that the percussion
plays on that quarter note in beat three.
In measure 21, we go to a little woodwind feature.
So we change the percussive element here.
We go from snare to castanets, and that should be really seamless.
You want that transition from snare to castanets to sound like there was no pause, because
there really shouldn't be.
I know it says optional woodblock, but I have never heard it with woodblock.
It's always been castanets.
Yeah, castanets if you have them for sure.
You have to own them, please use them, because it sounds really cool.
Well, I mean, obviously that's where you get that Spanish flair, right?
This part at 21, I do think this can be a little deceptively hard here.
You want to make sure that the flutes and oboes, if your oboes are comfortable with
vibrato, that they are making sure to put some vibrato on that dotted quarter note.
That's going to really help to make that note shimmer.
And then everybody having a half note on beat two in measure 22, it is imperative that we
lead across the bar line and do not take a breath there.
Same really even with the dotted quarter notes.
Those are almost functioning like half notes with the eighth note part of it being a pickup
note into the next measure.
So you want to make sure that I would be very intentional about marking and breathing for
my students here.
So we didn't have any gaps in the sounds after dotted quarter notes or after half notes.
This is where a skid is assigned breathing.
You're going to breathe on the half note, you're going to breathe on the dotted quarter,
whatever it is.
And then that accent makes it sound really cool if you do that really well at 21.
Short.
Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta.
And that's another area where that vibrato is because they can use that vibrato to kind
of give the emphasis on the next.
It just makes it sound really, really pretty.
Again, style is everything on this piece.
So in measure 28 as we transition to 29, first of all, you'll notice that it's a dotted half
note at the end of the phrase and not a half note like it has been in some other places.
So making sure that there is seamless sound from woodwind choir to brass choir as the
brass takeover this melodic line.
Another way I've taught this, it's sorry to interrupt you, but I think it's kind of fun.
It's like 21 is like the girl dancer.
And then 29 is the guy dancer.
He's coming in and it changes to Maracas.
And so it's fun for the kids when you have a story like that.
Yeah, a little, it's a different sound and it should sound different.
It should.
Yeah.
So there are same rules apply in terms of breathing with the half notes and the dotted
quarter notes, making sure that you're really intentional about that.
At 35, when we add the full ensemble back in, we have unison rhythm in here and we want
to make sure that that crescendo really builds.
So start that crescendo softly and then give it somewhere to go, making sure that we articulate
like because it's the same unison rhythm, articulation and style are going to be majorly,
majorly important.
But 37 is an arrival point, we want that note to be full value, da and a statement in the
percussion, do, do, do, do, do, do, one and, and making sure that both of those eighth
notes and measure 38 are of equal length with each other.
Don't make the first note longer than the da, da, da, that's what young musicians will
want to do.
Yep.
And then the xylophone part here is really important.
It's so fun.
It is so great, but it's really important as we transition into 41.
This is where I say the dancers came together at 35 and you know, you can have so much fun
with it.
And then it's like dee dee dee dee dee in the little mallet part at 39.
It's just, it's an adorable piece.
It's so well written.
And then again, coming in soft at 40 to build up that drama again.
So then at 41, we're only at a mezzo forte.
We're back to having the flute and the first clarinet and the first trumpet as the melodic
sound along with, with the xylophone and we're back to the same style we had before.
So everything we said carries over from the beginning.
There's not a lot of like tuning things in this piece, in my opinion.
One of the harder things is actually the trumpet two part all the way throughout.
I know that sounds really weird, but they have to play lower on their trumpet a lot
of times and they have to do fingering combinations from two to six.
I teach positions or two to one and three, like B to D.
And that's kind of a tricky like fingering pattern to get and they have to do that over
and over.
So just really making sure that your, your second trumpet sound just as like easy and
suave as the first trumpet parts with their finger patterns.
I don't know.
It's just caused me some issues before because there are a lot of concert D's in this.
The one thing and I, you've heard us talk about this before.
If you've listened to the podcast, but on horn with those A's, they might be more in
tune without the trigger.
So because they're doubling some of the low brass right here, I would just, you may have
to go player to player, but don't be afraid to experiment with, with different fingerings
like that to make sure that the tuning is appropriate.
Yep.
We're coming back to that same arrival point at 48 where we're going to lead all the way
to the rest on B three and then 49.
This is more like a, an exciting moment.
Again, we're going back and forth between the, the two dancers, if you will, with a
little bit of change here instead of it being woodwind brass, it's more highs versus lows.
So just making sure that that sounds really cool and we're matching the same energy and
the same volume and style.
And then we, this like low part from 52 leading into all the way into 55 is really neat.
Again, don't try to lead too quickly, but make sure that we're doing a good effective push
all the way to there.
54, as it mentioned, as, as you can see is mezzo piano leading into 55.
And now we're back to a really cool maracas part.
Don't like kids get lazy with articulation leading into that 54.
Some of the students will want to score those eighth notes.
They'll get lazy with that.
So make sure they do.
They do.
Yeah.
And then like the, the more like crisp style here for sure.
And then just a little percussion feature for two measures.
Just really have fun with that and make sure those maracas shine at 57.
So we're getting closer to the end here.
This again, same concept like what we had at the beginning.
So making sure that the in the accompaniment part that quarter notes followed by a rest
are full value.
They touch the rest eighth notes, maintain that same crispy style that we've had throughout.
This is all just a recap of exactly the same type of thing that we did at the beginning.
63, we start building a little bit to the end.
There is this weird little hemiola type rhythm that happens over two measures.
And this takes a while to make it sound good.
It's important to like focus in on it.
Yeah, absolutely.
So you, and, and I think if you just make sure that they tongue the start of each one
of those notes really firmly, almost like there's an accent on them, it will help them
feel that one, three, two, one.
So just every note at every note getting a little bit louder and having a little bit
of an accent on it.
And that's a good opportunity to, to teach like a number system for dynamics.
Like say the first note is a level three, the next note is a level five, the next is
a seven and with an eight or something like that.
So that it doesn't sound too crazy at the very end.
And then this last two measures here being unison rhythm with everybody percussion included
or except for timpani.
But most everybody unison rhythm here, making sure that that is really articulate, really
aligned and again, a full body of sound on your last note.
De-de-de-de-de-da.
Yup.
Full value lesson.
And we have the timpani kind of coming back as a feature just like they were at the beginning
here from 65 to 67.
So just again, I really encourage my timpani player to just play it up a little bit so
it's not like what's happening here.
I'm not really sure.
They're the melody part.
So bringing that out more is even, even more important and cool just as a little recap
from the beginning.
So this piece is so fun.
It's so easy to put together.
It makes bands sound really great when you dig into the details.
It's scored well.
It's a great introduction to three, four.
Yes.
Spanish style.
Yes.
With articulation.
And kids love it.
It's, and you know, it's written so well.
Every band sounds great.
For sure.
We hope you will consider using this on your next program.
And thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.