Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we'll be discussing Red Giant by Jorge Vargas.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
All right.
This piece, very fast upbeat tempo in the key of FD minor.
It's about just under three minutes in length.
It does have, it's a grade two, so it does have split clarinet, alto trumpet and trombone
parts.
Both clarinet parts cross the break.
Trumpets, you need to have pretty good trumpets to play this.
The first trumpet part goes all the way up to a high F sharp.
And the first trumpet especially sits in a higher tessitura for a lot of the piece.
The trombones, the second trombone part does often double the euphonium, but not always.
So you want to make sure that you have a healthy low brass section.
Then with regards to percussion, you could do this with five players if you had to.
Six makes life a little bit easier.
And in terms of the percussion instruments, I think that the bells are really, really
important in this one.
So this piece is really fun.
It's depicting a star that is taking over everything in its existence.
It's expanding and engulfing everything in its path.
So there's a lot of cool like dissonances and harmonies in this piece that make it really
fun for your students.
We start off really quiet here at the beginning, like your out and outer space.
And there's just one little thing with the bells, like Laura said.
That's the driving pulse at the very beginning.
Low people come in and then as each new voice ascends up and you have a different half note
coming up, you want to bring that new part out more as it's going higher and higher to
measure five.
So for instance, the euphoniums are not going to get louder because they're staying on the
same long note the whole time.
Every entrance that comes in, I would think about just a little miniature accent on every
entrance so that the entrances are really clear.
Yeah.
And it adds a little bit of that cool effect.
And then at five, we now have everybody's up one level dynamically.
We're continuing to rise further with the trumpet part going up to measure eight.
Then it continues to rise up through clarinet, oboe, and flute.
That's just really neat.
It goes all the way from tuba all the way up to flute and your kids will think that's
a really neat writing technique as well.
And then at nine, we don't want to be too loud just yet.
We're only Mezzo Forte here, but the melody is in the flute, oboe, clarinet.
They're adding in this mysteriousness along with the bells.
You do not want the snare drum to be too loud here.
I've heard this piece performed many times where the snare comes in and they are just
a little excited.
Loud.
Yeah.
With all the accents.
So just make sure that they're underneath the melody.
The trumpets have kind of a neat little counterpart here, but they are not the focal point, but
they do need to be in tune.
We have so many E's and D's in the first trumpet part here.
So really focus on that.
All the chords are just underneath them.
Anytime you have written in at like 12, for instance, a sharp accidental note like in the
alto part and the horn part, bring that out.
And then the timpani part leads us into measure 13 along with a crescendo from everybody else,
but make that be the driving force.
Then when we hit measure 14, it's very exciting.
It's like kind of like a little action scene.
You've got the percussion playing and then the band kind of interspersed with them.
Then you've got like the driving rhythm in the suspended cymbal with a snare stick along
with clarinet, flutin, oboe.
You want to make sure that that's aligned and not very loud.
And then the accents going into measure 17 help us drive in.
The low people again have a cool little intersection where they're building it back up into 17
as well.
So bringing that trombone part out, like Laura said, they have the independent part from
the euphonium.
So making sure that that's different.
At 17, we want the trumpet part to be what is leading this right here.
But all of the, we have all these entrances.
There's entrances on beat one, beat three, beat four.
Every one of those, especially if they have tied notes.
Again, I would think about it accenting the start of that note, maybe like a little miniature
forte piano on it so that it's real clear where every new instrument comes in.
We get to measure 19.
Now the flute, oboe and clarinet are coming in with their part.
We start building an energy building in some of the excitement.
We're still doing that same.
You have accidentals in the low brass, low reeds.
You want to be mindful of that.
But we still have that same, the building part, layering part in the accompaniment happening.
So again, make sure firm articulation that we hear all of that very clearly.
Trumpets, it's back and forth between the flow bannette part and what's happening in
trumpets.
They're kind of conversationally going back and forth.
Percussion here again, the volume has come up.
It's ensemble dynamic of forte, but the snare drum once again does not need to, it's providing
energy and intensity, but it should not be covering what's happening in the winds.
We land together on an impact moment at measure 25.
Bells have this cool moment where they are day crescendoing, leading us into this new
idea at 27.
At 27 clarinet.
And if your clarinets are strong, I would not have your altos play the cues.
Let this be a little clarinet thing here.
Making sure they can move together.
We're really solid in tune here.
Cool little suspended cymbal and flute.
One in two, in three, and four in.
Making sure that that matches and lines up really, really well.
Again, this just lets your clarinets kind of shine.
This is almost like a little duet between the clarinets and the percussion section here.
Altos saxophones and horns.
We had more people in at 33, but now alto saxes and horns are going to be the ones who are
leading the melody here.
Lots of people on this whole note accompaniment part.
Don't let that get too loud.
You might even need, depending on the size of your ensemble, you might even need to thin
that down.
Yeah, I was going to say this part sometimes does tend to be too much.
Like the first trombone part is on an upper D. They're probably going to have a hard time
playing that soft and in tune and controlled.
Just making sure you do whatever works for your band.
Yeah, absolutely.
Again, making sure that the melody is what is coming out.
We have this cool moment where we get a little bit softer and energize into measure 37, where
we have a new idea.
Watch the tuning two at 36 in that first trombone and second trombone part.
Really working on these chords here.
Like Laura mentioned before, the first and second trombone don't always double the E
funding part.
So we have literally a chord right here in the low brass.
You do have to have strong players in my opinion in low brass section.
And then we again, like she was saying, flute, oboe, clarinet and trumpet are leading us
into 37.
37, the bells get a cool part again, they get to play this little just shining moment
along with the trumpets.
And the trumpets get to do kind of what the flute played before.
They do need to make sure that they have great articulation.
They're moving right together.
The low people get these little impact hits, making sure that your band knows exactly when
they're going to come in.
They play it all together.
They watch you so that it all lines up 100% here timing wise.
And we want to make sure on every one of those impact moments that you hear chord tones,
those notes should not be so short that you don't actually hear the chord tone that is
being produced.
Right.
At 41, we have this like smooth and not very loud part taken over by the flute, oboe, clarinet
and it's chromatic.
It's got really cool little chromaticism.
And now we get to like convince our players why it's so important to know their chromatic
scale.
Yeah, we do see it in music.
But it's not going to be the loudest part.
We're still going to let the trumpet shine, but it's a neat little effect as we mentioned
before.
And all the whole notes need to be soft again, continuing to make sure that those impact
hits are tone full.
Then we're coming into 45 with this horn and alto part on one end to end and then three
and four and the clarinets, making sure that they have the same intensity and the same
volume between those parts along with percussion in the timpani and the snare drum part.
That's all kind of leading us up.
Make sure the whole note doesn't take over that moving part.
And then we have another day crescendo part here in the bells and the flutes and the
oboes are helping along with that as well with the suspended cymbal snare part, snare
stick part there as well.
At 47, we're starting soft and we have the low person melody here.
They're ascending line.
They're leading us up again.
And then they're crescendoing into measure 49 and 50 where the horn and the alto get
to take over.
So one neat thing about this piece is everybody gets important parts.
You don't necessarily have just the one shining instrument all the time.
And I think that's neat.
It's a great piece to just feature your whole band.
Now the horn up there in that register, again, that's supposed to be mezzo forte.
Yeah, it's going to be really loud.
Yeah.
So you're going to have to make sure that you talk to the students about not letting
it be too overtaking on those upper D's.
Make sure the altos are coloring the horn.
They're not playing louder.
And then again, all these low people, they're marked mezzo forte too, but they do not need
to be loud.
I would mark that down for sure to mezzo piano and then have them day crescendo even more
as they're going into measure 51.
This is one of the places where they all low brass have this unison line, but the ensemble
dynamic is mezzo piano.
So we're not in harmony anymore now.
We're unison.
And we're ascending up from 51 to 53, making sure that we're really bringing that out from
the low brass to the trumpets.
And we're crescendoing.
Watch the tuning on A naturals in 52.
And then at 53, we're going to have an impact point again with the flute, oboe and clarinet
taking over.
And then the long notes need to be a lot softer here with an active snare drum part again,
not being louder than the upper woodwinds.
55.
We have some new material with this cool like upper brass and sax part with the accents
one and two and four and one.
So that's really neat.
And you want to make sure you're working on making sure the accented notes are softer
in dynamics so that the accents are what's coming out of the mix.
Then your low people have a tie.
So make sure you're writing in your counts for them.
I've had students before miscount this part, so it's important to make sure that they go
all the way through.
I think this part is really cool right here where the accents lay in the trumpet horn
and alto part are a little bit different than what's happening in the snare.
So it is almost kind of conversational between them.
And you want to make sure that they hear that, that the snare player hears that, that the
wind players are executing those accents effectively so that we get that cool effect.
And they're conversational with the flute and clarinet and oboe too.
So we have the one and two and four and one, two, three, four, one and two and four and
one and.
So really making sure that you're bringing that out and making sure that the conversations
are just obvious in nature.
As we're going into this next part, the saxes and horns again have the melody and then we
have this really cool counterpart and the tuba, barry, sax and bassoon.
They have like these little moving half notes.
So letting that part kind of really intensify and lead all the way to 61 is a cool thing
to do.
And then at 61, you've got your trumpet section as the primary melodic voice.
Everybody else is a solid note underneath, hard cut off on beat two, timpani humongous
feature here and then a little snare drum feature finally.
And that leads us into 64.
So we have a new idea here at 64.
This is an optional flute solo and I would highly recommend that you use this as a flute
solo if you've got a player that sounds really beautiful and can do this.
It's really a pretty solo.
It is and really, I know it says solo, but it's really like a duet between flute and
bells.
For sure.
So you want to make sure that the clarinets are just really offering that harmonic foundation
underneath it.
But what's happening melodically is a duet between flute and bells.
So getting those parts to work well together, I would have those students work individually
together so they really see how that part fits together.
The dynamics in this section are really important.
We're trying to paint a picture and this effect of all these day crescendos and then
the crescendos and the day crescendos.
And don't let the chords overtake the flute soloist.
That's exactly right.
Even as they're getting louder, right?
Don't let that get too...
And the first clarinet especially being a little bit higher, it's going to be easier
for that to happen for them.
And I love the bass clarinet color here.
It sounds really, really beautiful.
I do too.
And there's a really cool just nice woodwind feature and percussion with the bells right
there leading into 72.
Now again, we are continuing this same type of effect with the swells in the sounds.
But we have an awful lot of low brass and low reeds on that harmonic part.
When the woodwinds were featured, it was just bassoon based clarinet and clarinet.
Now we've brought in the entire low brass section plus some low reeds.
And the trumpets are the only ones, first trumpets are the only ones who really have
that melody part.
And then the cool, again, the bells are still continuing that same little do that feature.
So we want to make sure that the whole notes do not cover up what's happening in the moving
lines.
When the altos take over the melody in measure 74, we have the cool half and horns.
We have the cool half note part, that descending part that's happening in the trumpets.
That is still really important.
So as we're layering and prioritizing, I would put that just underneath the bell part in
terms of priority.
Again, it's easy for this all to get too loud.
Ensemble mezzo-piano, just keep everything nice and controlled, thin out the ensemble,
the numbers of people playing if you need to, making sure that it's really solid in tune.
Once we get to measure 80, now we have this big build, this crescendo building in.
Yeah, and this low brass descending line is super cool at 79.
And it's going to help the crescendo, it will help that volume.
Have those low brass crescendo big time on their descending line.
I love the little, the percussion part really helps with this too, the timpani, the snare,
bass drum, all of that really helps to get that transition into measure 80.
Once we get to measure 80, this is big trumpet melody, but we have...
And notice, we just hit that high F sharp at 79.
So we're like, we are more than halfway through this piece.
So again, like she mentioned earlier, you do need to have a pretty good solid trumpet
section just for their chops and their tuning this late in the game.
Once we get to measure 80, the trumpets and clarinets have the melody, but we have these
cool impact moments.
All of the accents like the one, two, and three, four happens in the low brass.
One and two, three, four, one, two, and three, four.
So again, it's very conversational, making sure that everybody is on board with that.
The clarinet part, first clarinet part especially, sits all around that throat tone range, but
going into B and C across the break, you want to make sure that they're using resonance
fingerings of some sort to help the technique be as clean as possible.
And we don't want them breathing.
Their tendency is going to be to breathe after every half note at the end of a bar.
So follow through on that, and if they use those resonance fingerings, that's going to
help them with that as well.
The upper woodmines, the flute and oboe have this cool little part, and notice it's not
it before it has just been straight up staccatos.
Now we have some accent in it.
They're adding in with the low brass.
That's right.
We want to make sure that they're punctuating those accent and note.
Since it is different, we want to make sure that we hear that difference.
The flutes are up a lot higher here too, so just make sure that they don't take over the
texture.
At measure 84, alto and horn come in with this part.
This is new.
I would make sure that we hear this.
I love this part.
This is brought out.
I do too.
Again, it's that chromaticism that we heard in the upper woodwinds earlier, but now we're
hearing it in sax horn.
Now we're at full ensemble.
The volume is a little bit bigger, so I would bring this alto horn part out.
And it's cool because it has the accents.
One and two and three and four and like just really making that be a big,
big, driving home thing.
And then they go back up.
Oh man, this piece is so cool.
So I love it.
It is really cool.
Just continue building that same energy until we arrive at 88.
And then 88 horn and alto still get to have that little important part.
One, two and three and four.
And then trumpet one and two.
Woodwinds up going up.
So it's just neat because we're passing it around and continuing to build it up even
more at 90 horn and alto takeover and we've got the conversation between them and the
trumpets at 92.
We have got lots of accents and you can kind of treat these like bell tones and the low
brass part.
Trump and alto are continuing to play on this melodic feature here with clarinet.
Again, it's it's mainly led by the horn part in my mind.
I would definitely bring that part out the most.
And then leading into 93 not letting your trumpets and your horns breathe there before
94 flutes and oboes add in along with the first trumpet here on this little descending
line going into 96.
Then the people with the long note, the woodwinds that just had that part and the trumpets,
they need to be very quiet on their long note and it's written in kind of a tough range.
You have a C in trumpet.
You have a high D in flute.
So just be mindful of the tuning here.
I've heard this piece executed very well, but I've also heard this piece where the band
got very tired sounding at the end.
And this is this could be very difficult if you don't have strong enough players just
because the tuning can go very wonky here.
So just be aware as we're getting towards the end, that's really important on these
long notes.
Then the low brass and low reeds get their cool day in the sunshine.
They get to play these awesome quarter note lines really for articulation leading into
the ending here.
And then you got the horn and alto coming back with the cool chromatic line again.
Trumpets build it up a big crash symbol or suspended symbol, something in percussion
shoe.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Crash symbol right there with trumpet and then low people, but they need to get out of the
way so that the flute and the clarinet part can come out of the mix along with the bells.
And then everybody ends with the same rhythm.
One, three, one and two.
And the crash symbols dampen.
It's a hard like ending with those house top accents.
I would even consider adding just a little bit of a crescendo on those last four eighth
notes.
One, three, one and two and just a little bit wrong earlier.
I said one, two.
But this piece is so fun.
It's beautiful.
As I mentioned before, everybody gets important parts.
Nobody's going to go, oh man, where's my cool part?
It's all about passing from one section to the next, passing the baton, passing the baton.
Your kids will love this piece and will love practicing it as well.
So we hope that you will enjoy programming this in the future.
Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.