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On today's episode we'll be discussing Arctic Wars, Rise of the Penguin Army by Brian Balmages.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
Okay, if you know anything about Katie Lewis, you know that she is a huge penguin fan.
I do, I love penguins.
So you can imagine when this piece came out many years ago, or a few years ago.
I bought it right away.
Yeah, she was too worried.
She was one of the first.
Yeah.
Okay, so this piece is in 4-4 time all the way throughout.
It starts in the key of B-flat or G-minor and transitions to the key of F or D-minor.
It does have two different tempos, but the tempo changes.
It's double time when it changes and it changes at the key change.
So that's kind of a nice, you can treat it like two little small independent pieces.
There are two clarinet parts.
Neither part crosses the break.
There's only one alto part, but it is divisi a lot.
So you're going to want to make sure that you have both of those parts covered.
Two trumpet parts.
First trumpet never goes above a C. Low brass part and horn part are all very, very manageable.
The percussion, you do need, I think, a minimum of six percussion to pull this off.
You could probably tweak some parts and do a little modifying with five percussionists,
but all of the parts are important.
So you want to make sure that you do your best to get those covered.
For sure.
So I really do love this piece.
Fun fact, our band plays it every year as our beginner honors band piece, at least for
the past three years.
And the kids love it because it has some really cool effects and those like more mature students
in your band get a chance to play some more slow music and then it transitions to quicker.
They just think it's so much fun.
So this is a good teaching piece if you've got some upper level beginners.
And I like the imagery that you're able to kind of convey and we'll talk some about that.
The imagery you can convey with this whole rise of the Goodwin army.
So the students love it and I think it's a really well written piece overall.
It would be super great to do with a non-varsity or sub-non-varsity band as well.
Or just a fun like holiday tune, you know, for a holiday concert.
Anyways, so it starts out at the beginning with this ostinato and the low brass and low
reeds and the timpani also gets a chance to play like one, two, and then they roll.
I would add an accent on beat two just to kind of add in that effect.
Then the clarinets and the altos come in with bass clarinet on beat three and they start
off very soft and then do a little crescendo and then a day crescendo.
So that effect is really fun.
We talk about foot tap.
Each foot tap gets louder.
Three, four, one, two, three, four touch.
And the suspended cymbal can help support that as well.
And we want to make sure that the note goes all the way to the barline at three and they
don't let go early.
The toms get to have this little like conversational part.
It's like echoing that the penguin army is on its way.
And then at three, they do the same thing.
We add in just like the low part and the clarinet too is really cool.
So just bring that out.
Then at measure five, we have the horn and the tenor sax coming in.
And they need to make sure that's a hard note to come in on for French horn.
So make sure that they practice coming in with a pretty sound on a low A and make sure
that they're articulating the same way as the low brass that we're playing before them.
Then we have this really neat, well, same thing.
Trumpets are adding in with the clarinet sorry at measure five and doing the same effect.
And then we have this really neat little bell part at six.
You want to make sure they start loud and get softer on those octaves.
That's a neat effect.
And this comes back several times.
Yes.
And then at measure seven, same thing.
We've got the trumpets and the first trumpet goes to a B natural.
That tuning tendency for younger players is to be a little flat.
So make sure they draw an up air and keep their corners in or you draw it in for them
when you're marking their parts.
Trumpet two may also need to kick their thumb slide.
And then low people have this four and one, two going into measure nine.
So just making sure that they play that out a little bit.
They're bringing us into a new section.
And then we have Altos joining us in a higher register at measure nine.
And man, that can get really loud and crazy.
So just encourage your Altos not to get louder as they go above the staff.
They even make it be like a little solo or something if that fits your band better.
And I talk about gripping the corners of them of the mouthpiece or gripping the mouthpiece
with the corners of your embouchure when they're up in that register.
So they keep their air more focused like flat, like laser pointer air and not flashlight
air.
So if you can imagine what a flashlight beam looks like, we don't want the air stream to
look wide and spread like that.
We want laser pointer air.
Yep.
And then still same effects going on here as we're going into measure 13.
Then we have a new part here.
The Altos have one and two and then Flute and Oboe.
That's a great place to use covered C sharp in the Altos.
For sure.
And then clarinets come in on beat two and three with their own little part.
Make sure that they're counting that really carefully.
They have a long tied note too.
This is the low brass melody though at 13.
So you want to bring this part out all the way into measure 16 and go ahead and let those
low low brass and low reed shine there because that's a neat part for them.
Lots of tuning things with the E naturals thrown in here for the low brass.
So just really make sure that that sounds nice.
And then 16, same little thing except the trumpets have what the clarinets had before
and they don't need to play it too loud.
It's Mark Mezzo piano.
It's just a new part.
And then we're passing the alto to the tenor and horn this time instead of to the flute
and oboe.
And then at 17 the bells part is leading into 19 along with just kind of like as a color
instrument.
And then the flute and alto and oboe have the melody three, four, one, two and three,
four.
And then it doubles in tempo.
Make sure they keep their articulation long there.
At 19, this might even be because it literally doubles in tempo or it's really close to doubling.
I would just double it.
It might even be a great teaching tool for teaching cut time.
So you might be able to teach your students to keep their foot tap exactly the same even
though we're now going to be feeling it differently.
So I'll tell you that what we do is we still do it in four, four for a while and then we
switch over to cut time once they feel comfortable with the rhythm.
And that does help it not rush or drag.
It's more the feeling that you want in here.
Now I love this now here where we are at measure 19 when it starts going faster, layering the
parts in here is really important.
Making sure the students know what line is the biggest priority.
We add in a wood block.
So now this is a new color.
This is literally the marching penguins.
We talked about that imagery.
Here they come.
The penguins are marching in.
It's a low brass army first low brass and low brass.
That's right.
And with all of these eighth notes again making sure that everything is very even and that
all the eighth notes sound the same.
And they do this for a long time.
So that consistency just making sure that they mentally stay focused and keep that really
consistent all the way through.
One cool thing is that you'll notice in this piece that there's not a bunch of like staccatos
and accents and style markings added in which is nice because you don't have to spend time
unifying that in your group.
When we get to measure 23 and again we get that effect in the clarinet and low clarinet
that crescendo day crescendo effect.
Then we have a new penguin.
A new penguin army leader making an appearance right here in the 25.
This is in the alto saxophone and this little line comes back several times.
This is the first time we're hearing it and it needs to be the most important thing that
we hear right here.
Then we get little what we think of as like little baby penguin.
You know notes that happen in the flute and oboe and clarinet those just nice and nice
and soft at measure 29.
Now we've got another penguin.
This is the emperor.
That's what Katie.
Yes.
That's what I tell my kids.
Let's go with that.
Let's go with it.
The emperor penguin is making its appearance at 29.
Now this is in a great range for trumpet.
They do not need to overplay here.
All right.
Just it's metto forte.
They are the melody.
This needs to be the most important thing but they do not need to overplay here.
Just make they can sound really beautiful in this range.
When we get to measure 32 and we land on that D in trumpet that they need to kick.
You're going to want to make sure that they kick on that and that we focus on the tuning
and encourage them to push their air through the bar line from 32 to 33.
In fact when I mark my parts for the students I'll add in breath marks in different parts
at 31 if the kids need it or they can breathe after the half note and 33.
But that way we don't have a humongous gap going from 32 to 33.
When we get to 33 the flute and oboe take over the melody now or they add in the melody
with the trumpet.
And we have the alto saxophone that other penguin.
I'm thinking of that one with the crazy yellow.
I don't know what kind of penguin that is but you can picture what I'm talking about.
That guy comes back in and the tendency of course of that guy he always wants to make
a statement right saxophones.
So making sure that it's not too loud.
It's not too loud.
We still want to make sure that the emperor penguin melody is the most important thing
and then horns add in tenor sax add in.
They have the harmony part to the melody.
So the texture starts to thicken up as we are going through this.
And then just a nice big crescendo from everybody leading into measure 17.
Don't overdo it but we want to make sure that that's effective leading into 37.
Yeah and I really like that the G sharp and the C sharp going into 37.
Just trying to bring that out a little bit and then the low brass tonguing firmly going
into 37.
Now you've got some crashes added in and it's like the two armies coming together.
Maybe it's the saxes versus the trumpets.
I didn't want to put that out there with children because then it's like going to be like a
bad scene.
But now we have a new statement in the flute part.
The altos along with clarinet get to take over the melody and now trumpets are in the
background along with the ostinato for the low brass.
It gets really noisy here if you don't talk about the layering like Laura mentioned earlier.
So everybody needs to balance down to the alto and clarinet here and then the fluton
oboe are just a brand new little counter melody part.
So you want to hear that.
You do want to hear it but you want to make sure everybody else is way underneath that
so we can hear that neat part.
And encourage your flute players and oboe players to use lots of vibrato as they're going between
38 and 39 pushing all the way through breathing just on the rest there.
Also flutes will tend to want to possibly breathe between 41 and 42.
So just encourage them to maybe sneak a breath before the half note and 41 if need be.
They're continuing on here and now the trumpets add in with them back on the little melody
part at 41.
And then again we have another B natural at 42 in the upper trumpet part so just watch
the tuning there.
And as we're going from 44 to 45 we're all going to do a crescendo to the bar line there.
This is where the low brass takeover and now they're the melody.
So this is like the Big Daddy penguin coming in and he's taken way over.
So you want to make sure everybody else at 45 is way underneath them because again now
they have the ostinato part.
A naturals are a tuning nightmare here in the low brass sometimes so just make sure that
they're really paying attention to that.
All of the eighth notes that are happening elsewhere I mean it is a 2 and 3 and 4 and
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and what like it's back and forth so you want to make sure that all
of those parts line up.
Same volume too.
And then 48 leading in again now we have another accidental note in the alto tenor horn and
trumpet two part.
Again I think that's important note to bring out of the mix not the not the remaining note.
And then we have an arrival at measure 49 with that's the C in the trumpet that's the
one lonesome C.
So make sure that that's in tune for them along with the E in the trumpet.
Then the flute and the oboe and the clarinet have this little real important melody part
1 3 4 1 2 3 4 and 1 2 3 and 4 1 and it's with the low people.
So that's kind of neat.
Everybody's in unison there.
You want to make sure everybody's moving together and sounding the same and there's no percussion
beat here.
So this is a recipe for rushing.
If you haven't worked on this students looking up and really worked out your pulse and your
rhythm make sure everybody is an excited to have the melody and then goes faster and faster.
52 is just a little transition point but this horn and tenor sax and alto sax counter melody
is neat leading into measure 53.
So be sure to add a crescendo there and have them lead in.
Once we get to 53 the trumpets are now the only people who have this melodic statement
that we've heard several times.
There's all of these moving eighth notes happening or all of this this eighth note stuff happening
around it.
It's easy for this to get too loud.
Yes.
So again we talked earlier just making sure that balance and the layering everybody needs
to know their role.
Are you most important second most important third most important whatever.
With all of the eighth note parts you'll notice that some of the eighth note parts stay the
same.
They're on the same note all the way throughout some of them change notes.
We'd want to prioritize the ones that are on the moving notes of course but still not
letting them play very loud.
All of this just really needs to be underneath so we can hear that trumpet melody coming
through that's going to be the most important thing all the way through this whole section
as we get into 61 again another crescendo then 61 no breath between 60 and 61.
Whether they play on the downbeat of 61 or whether their note goes all the way to a rest
that needs to crescendo and we need to make sure there is no gap in the sound for those
people that do play at 61.
This trumpet part here is now new.
Now we've got this cool trumpet this effect.
You want to kind of bring that out this bell thing that happened earlier at the beginning
we told you this would come back here is another appearance of this cool bell part that we
want them to start really strong and day crescendo on that octave bell part that they have there.
This is the first time that the flutes have that crazy haired penguin yellow hair part
that the saxes had before at 61.
So now it's flute and clarinet one.
A different color now.
And you want to kind of bring that out a little bit but not any louder than the cool
little trumpet part.
This continues on more of the same we just again thicken the texture so now the out those
in the horns and tenor are adding in with the trumpet so we're kind of just just beefing
that up a little bit then in these last four measures much like what we had before only
now instead of it being the low voices now we have the trumpet the upper and middle voices
playing this this is where horns get the melody.
This is where the emperor penguin wins basically that's what we said because the trumpet melody
wins out but yes my horns are so excited because they have melody for 65 and part of 66 for
the first time in the piece.
So they get that little moment of glory and then just this really neat little part here
with the bells and the flutes coming in on beat four leading into the end with the timpani
really being nice and strong.
Yes.
And four and one and dampen everything.
This whole note chord that you have leading into that last note you want to make sure
you spend a little bit of time tuning that's a cool sounding note and you want to make
sure the kids don't kind of shy away from the tension that's in the note but make sure
that you spend some time balancing those parts appropriately and then lots of energy on that
last measure dampen all percussion all percussion at the end.
This piece is so fun.
It's enjoyable.
I love it and it's really well written and again like I mentioned there there are no
stylistic markings.
So you're really just teaching you get to do extra effects as needed.
The kids will love getting a chance to talk to you about the different penguin armies
and and just have a fun time with it.
We hope you consider programming this piece at some point.
Lots of options for it.
It's such a cool piece.
Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.