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 expectations by Larry Clark.
Cheers to starting the conversation!
This is in the key of concert E flat and 4 4 throughout with one 2 4 measure thrown in there on a release point, but mostly 4 4 throughout.
It has one clarinet part. It is about two minutes, a little more than two minutes in length.
It has one clarinet part, one trumpet part. So all of that is really nice.
Percussion is really important for color and effect in this piece.
So you do want to make sure that the bell part does not always double the flute.
That is important. Malat percussion is important. Tempani is very important.
In terms of accessory percussion, the cabasa and suspended cymbal are most important here.
One of the things I love about expectations is it is a great piece for you to consider if your band is ready to start exploring some lyrical music,
but maybe they are not quite mature enough to handle a full lyrical piece.
This is a nice little one to kind of dip your toe in. You get an introduction that's really beautiful and lyrical, and then we get to the good stuff.
Yes, and it's really beautiful here at the beginning.
So while it does say expressive and it's marked at 68, it's completely appropriate to just go as slow as you need to for it to sound musical and lyrical.
But that would be pretty slow to go with a lot of younger bands. So maybe even 75 to 80 would be appropriate.
Just as long as we're making good phrases and good sounds.
It opens up again with upper woodwinds. Well, actually all woodwinds.
Beautiful woodwind choir feature.
Really, really pretty here. And you're going to want to make sure you're teaching students from the very get-go, not to breathe on bar lines.
We're going to do some sneaky breaths here and there. But this just really makes it be like elongated lines of music.
Mr. Clark has done a really good job of showing like pushing through bar lines and crescendoing into the next phrase.
So just ensuring that your students are following that.
Flutes are so important.
And there's a lot of...
They need to like shake the earth with their vibrato.
And there's a lot of beautiful color. The oboe provides that for the group.
And then they're going to do like a slight ritardando at eight as the rest of the band adds in quietly.
The trumpet provides a really pretty color to the chord.
And then a nice release, as Laura said, with just a two-four bar there.
Timpani can really help build that suspense as you lead into the release.
And it's kind of a tension chord.
It sounds really cool.
It's really pretty.
And then at ten we're back to the woodwinds having this little opening again.
But now we're adding in the bells and the vibes.
So like Laura said, that kind of adds a new texture.
And then at ten the trumpets are going to take over the melody.
And the horn part here is really pretty.
And this kind of little horn counter melody comes back over and over and over with the altos.
But of course, altos should always color the horns.
And so working on that, the leap from F to C down to E flat would be a really good thing to have your French horn players vibrate on their mouthpiece.
Definitely.
Many, many times so they hear it.
And it's something that they're very familiar with since it's going to come back over and over and over throughout the piece.
This little descending low brass and low reed line from 12 to 13 is really beautiful.
Make sure that they're getting stronger.
And like I would tell my tubas not to de crescendo at 13.
Just keep playing strong as you're going lower to make the band sound big and full.
And of course, with any lyrical music, you really have to make sure that the instrument group passes to the next instrument group.
Like here at 13, do not let them stop their sounds until one so that that way it's always there.
And then we have another little crescendo day crescendo, but oboe adds in a really pretty color here again with the flute.
And we are going to do another little retardando from 17 to 18 and just reminding students again not to breathe on any bar lines.
You can even do like little micro crescendos from half notes into the next measure.
And then we have the really pretty little horn color here with alto and oboe at 17.
So make sure the horns bring that out.
And to help this little retardando before you transition at 18, because it has so many moving parts,
you can have the students like watch you and clap their part to really feel where each of those notes is supposed to move
because every beat will end up slowing down just a little bit.
And of course, you can do the same thing once they get it in their ear and get a little more confident putting that on the instrument.
At 18, I love bass clarinet. It is cued in low reed and tuba in Berry Sacks and tuba,
but I love the color of bass clarinet playing this if it's possible.
Now on the suspended cymbal part, there are several times in this piece where the suspended cymbal part has a roll with sticks.
And it's important that they that that be the color of it with sticks is really cool, but the roll has to be very fast.
Otherwise, it sounds tinny.
Yeah, it sounds more percussive and less the color. Yeah, that it's meant to be adding.
So I would be intentional about that.
Now we've gotten to the fast tempo. Everything picks up here at measure 18.
It starts with clarinets and altos really setting the statement with this motor two and three, four and one, two and three, four and and the staccato quarter notes
need to be very open throat release, very light, but not clipped short.
We don't want to hear. DTD DTD DTD. DTD and he's be very resonant. TTTD TT.
Flutes, again, we say flutes are super important in this at 22 flute comes in flute and oboe with the melody kabasa also adds in and kabasa.
We mentioned at the beginning is one of the more important, percussive instruments that you haven't hear so timing between suspended cymbal and kabasa a lining that timing up with the motor parts in clarinet
clarinet and alto are gonna be really important.
Flute and oboe having the beautiful melody here.
We're wanting again, no breaths on bar lines.
Lots of vibrato on half notes
when you have the opportunity to showcase that.
We want to do that seamless sound all the way through this.
When we get to measure 30, now the trumpets come in,
the horns have a little, it almost,
and mallets doubles with the horns,
it almost feels like a little bell tone.
Beam, bomb, beam, beam, bomb, beam.
So we want to make sure we have really firm articulation
on that, the low brass and low reeds that come in on beat two.
I had my students write a little accent on that note.
Now, it shouldn't be, it's mezzo forte,
it shouldn't be overly strong, but rest, dah, rest, dah,
just a little bit of punch and firmness
to the front of the note.
It's easy as more of the low reeds start adding in
on this on these long sustained notes to get too loud,
especially with bass clarinet,
doing some of that motor part,
just making sure all of that
and the motor in the percussion stays underneath.
Now the low brass here get some of the melody,
and I love this part, it goes back and forth.
So it passes from one measure of trumpet and flute,
and then the melody goes in to the low brass.
Now, you need to spend some time
making sure that your low brass
can move around that technique clearly
and articulate the exact same as the upper woodwinds do.
This is another example,
you hear us talk about melody sheets a lot,
where a melody sheet of writing that melody out
and having the whole ensemble learn
how to play the melody together
and how to articulate it the way you want
that can pay dividends big time
when you actually apply it to the music here.
For sure.
We want it to sound, that whole melody
should sound very playful.
It's very, yes, very light, very, very playful.
And then now we transition into this section at 38,
where we crescendo in.
And then it's just kind of like the beginning again,
except not slow anymore.
So we've got the upper woodwinds,
or all the woodwinds again, coming in,
and again the bells and the vibes are playing as well,
and then you have little response in percussion.
And then at 40, we've got again the trumpets
and the same little low brass thing from before.
Make sure that they're playing that really nice and full,
and again percussion leading us in to 42.
And we have no pulse in the percussion section here,
like keeping time.
We've had all of the suspended cymbal cabasa before that.
That drops out here.
Super important to watch the director.
Absolutely, change in time together.
Yes, and you could even do like a little bopping here,
like just play the beginning of each note
to make sure we're all aligning.
Again, super important not to breathe between 43 and 44,
as we're passing it in,
making sure that everybody's doing the right articulation
here, and again not breathing on bar lines.
And then we have again,
just some more little percussive effects,
a nice little bell and vibes and flute moment at 48,
and crescendoing into 50.
At 50, we get the lows are coming in with their part,
and we wanna make sure that we can hear the horn
and the alto line as well here with the moving half notes.
And then as we're going into this section at 52,
this is another place,
again where as Laura said,
you wanna make sure everybody's moving right together here
with no snare drum part underneath them.
So this is a great place to bop,
so that you can make sure that all the quarter notes
and half notes are lining up in all of the parts.
And just try, this is a great piece to train students
to look up on, right?
Like the parts aren't so hard,
there's not a difficult rhythm,
there's not like a bunch of dotted quarter notes,
even though that's not difficult.
But you know,
except for the introduction,
this is very playable.
It's very playable.
And the kids can like memorize four quarter notes
to look up, you know, which is really awesome.
Then at 54, again,
we have that little clarinet part just like the beginning.
At 56, now we have everybody in again,
we want the low brass melody to kind of come out
a little bit more here.
Timpani, this is one of the places
Timpani has a bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
And they do that for a long period of time,
so it's real easy for them to get carried away with that.
And that become way too loud.
This section can be noisy.
If you don't balance it correctly,
look, the ensemble volume is just mezzo forte.
All right, so we're not looking for anything crazy,
but then having to go in and be real specific
with each individual part about,
okay, I really want this to be mezzo piano,
I want this to be piano, right?
Trumpets are gonna have the lead here.
And then just like before,
we, the low brass and low reeds are echoing them, right?
So fitting those parts of the puzzle together
and making it sound exactly the way you want it to sound
is really important.
Not letting the rhythmic ostinato get out of hand
and cover everything up.
I like this little brushes part here at 56 too.
It makes a cute little, just.
It's a color change.
Yeah, it's a color change.
And I like it because then now the snare drum
can play something that's a little more active,
but you don't have to worry as much about volume.
That's right, it's not in your face.
For sure.
Now when we get over here,
we start to see some staccato markings
in the low voices on their part and accents.
This is the first time we've seen accents in this piece.
So at measure 65, it is really important
to make sure that we are unified on how we want those accents.
Make a difference there.
He wrote the accents there for a reason.
Da, da, da, da.
It needs to be real firm articulation on that.
So again, so that we're making a difference.
And timpani can really help lead into 66 as well
with those eighth notes.
And I would put a crescendo underneath that
so that way they can do that.
This is just like when we get to 66,
it's just like what we saw at 38, right?
Yep, yep, so it's the same stuff.
Copy paste, copy paste.
At 72, more of these accented notes,
again, wanting to make a difference
between those accented notes and what came before them.
And then I love how this piece ends.
It almost feels like an evaporation.
Everything just dissipates.
Yep, and I love the horn and alto part again here.
It's 74, 75.
It makes it sound so beautiful.
I mean, it's just a really, really well-written piece.
And then 76, like you said, it's just diminuendo-ing.
That's what I'm trying to say.
I'm trying to make a verb out of it.
Yeah, just a big old long diminuendo,
getting softer and softer and softer
to the very, very end.
Vibrato, vibrato, vibrato, vibrato.
Yes, but then at the very end,
you get to end it with a bang, which is fun.
And the students love that
because you can really do a lot with dynamics here.
And I-
To make it sound really, really cool.
I love that contrast at the end.
So we're just fading down to this nothingness.
We leave it with just suspended cymbal,
that ride cymbal feel and bass clarinet,
bing, bong, bing, bong.
Four and one, and then a big, four and one,
big statement at the very, very end.
And dampen, have all the percussion dampen at the end.
Actually, I will tell you, I think on this,
I had our Tempani player let it rain
for just a split second.
So we got a little bit of a resonant sound.
And I think that made the, for our ensemble,
when we played this, I think that made our last note sound
a little bit more full.
More mature.
Yeah, more mature.
Yeah, this piece is well written and not super difficult.
It is not terribly difficult.
It's a great introduction, like we said,
into some lyrical parts.
And especially, it's wonderful
if you've got good woodwinds, especially.
Yes, 100% like flute.
They can really shine on this piece.
All right, well, we hope that you will consider
programming expectations for your next concert.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.