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 finishing up our winter concert series with three pieces
that we have deemed to be more difficult in nature.
And those are Ukrainian Bell Carol arranged by Richard Sauceto, Jingle Bells arranged
by Jay Dawson, and Toboggan by Gerard Hall.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
This setting of Ukrainian Bell Carol by Sauceto is absolutely awesome.
It's way full of energy.
It's about two and a half minutes long.
It's in the key of E flat, three, four throughout.
You do have to have pretty strong brass, trumpets and horns especially in this one because of
the range demands and the articulation and style demands for those sections.
This reminds me very much, it has like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra Mannheim steamroller kind of vibe
to it and it's high energy.
Kids will love to play it and it will be a huge crowd pleaser.
Yeah, it's super fun.
And again, as Laura mentioned, it's very festive and strong.
You have to have really good articulation because it goes super quick.
You could play it almost in one if you needed to just for the feel.
But it's just like any other arrangement of Bell Carol, it's very Sauceto as well with
the brass articulation rhythms at the beginning.
Then it has a measure not, like a big introduction at nine.
You're going to have this waterfall starting with the lows and then mids and then highs
come in.
So it's just starting the Carol of the Bells theme.
All the percussion is really important through this.
The bells are super important.
They have kind of some feature moments and timpani is really important.
Timpani has several solos.
Big timpani solo at 17, yes.
All alone.
And then we get into the normal Carol of the Bells theme with the upper woodwinds with
just some interjections in the brass at 27, the horns and altos get that famous one, two,
three, four and one.
Two, three, one.
Yeah, sorry.
Two, three, one.
Yeah.
So they have their little flowing line over everybody else still playing the same thing
that they had before.
We get a little trumpet two action followed by trumpet one.
Trumpets go all the way up to a G. So again, the range demands are pretty high in this
piece.
At 35, this lays very easy and the fingers, the one, two and three and one, two and three
and one.
But this is a softer section.
Fingers need to move together.
Dotted quarter notes need to be tongued firmly.
We have thinned out percussion, of course, and brass in this section as well, except
for the low voices do.
Tubas get their little moment of where they get the melody for a four bar phrase before
we get over to measure 43.
This is all the chromaticism part and it goes so fast.
You just want to make sure that the kids fingers are laying very evenly.
And then it also kind of descends.
So that in addition to the one and two and three and one and two, three, one, then we
have a one and two and three and one and two and three and where it kind of falls down
later on at the end.
Fun tremolos and this is written a little bit differently in the oboe and flute part
than what the students might be used to seeing.
So it's a good teaching opportunity.
This is a much softer section here.
It's just building.
Building.
That's all we're trying to do is just build.
Yeah.
Build energy and momentum until we get to 57, which is one of my favorite parts of the
whole entire piece.
Horn.
That's a really cool horn part.
Yeah.
The horn and saxophone here are so important.
They do a little jingle bells over everybody else.
Balance in this section can be a little bit of a challenge just because it's fortissimo
for the entire ensemble.
And you really want to make sure you're layering what's important, that you're hearing what
in your mind is most important.
I like that horn part to come out.
Then we go back to the one and two and three and four, or is it one and two and three and
one and two, three in the upper woodwinds.
And that's the little descending part there I was talking about.
And then at 71, the horns get to have another little jingle bells moment with the trombone
euphonium part.
Low reeds get to play along with them.
Inter drum switches to brushes here and that color and texture change is really important
and it's a cool opportunity for them to get exposed to an implement that they may not
be used to playing.
At 79, the woodwinds, upper woodwinds get to have the jingle bells theme now.
And then we go back to the carol of the bells theme with horn and some of those mid voices.
At 89, it's just like the beginning with the rhythmic brass.
A little fanfare.
And then at 97, we've got that same little waterfall upwards from the lows up to the
highs, kind of like little bell tones.
105, we get another really strong, cool horn part.
It's just kind of like the ending fanfare from them.
Lots of excitement, like Laura said, and very thickly written all the way throughout.
But to me, it's very sasato and very high energy and just a lot of fun for this piece.
It's a great concert closer.
I know we've talked a lot in this winter concert series about if you do elementary tours at
this time, but it's a perfect concert closer, but it is also great for an elementary tour
because the littles love the big brass in your face.
It's like as marching band as you can get for winter concerts.
So fun.
Our next piece is Jingle Bells arranged by Jay Dawson, and we both love this piece.
I think this is a winter concert staple that everyone needs to play at some point.
Shout out to Melody and Mallow for making me play it all those years ago.
It's two and a half minutes long.
It's in the key of F, but it has a ton of accidentals throughout the key.
Signature doesn't change, but the tonal center and key center changes several times throughout
the piece.
So this is one of those pieces that it's a great idea, again, to pre-mark to help those
kids out.
And Laura and I spoke before we started this episode just off the books that we both think
this is maybe not the best piece to play on an elementary tour because it's a little bit
more like classical in nature.
It sounds like Ives in some spots.
It's just more colorful.
It's just a great piece of music and it's wonderful and the kids like it, but it may
not be the most bombastic in your face type piece for a recruitment.
And some of the settings of the jingle bells theme I don't think would be received as well
by younger crowds.
You need a little bit more mature listening palette.
Yes.
So the piece starts out with upper woodwinds and sleigh bells and bells and it's just kind
of like...
And that tuning is not easy in the flute.
And in the clarinet.
It's just, yeah, it's a lot.
It's a mature piece of music, but it's wonderful.
And then the full band comes in with some brass fanfare type accents at five.
We have a random two four bar that comes in often throughout this piece.
It happens a lot.
So just know that there is a back and forth between four four and two four a little bit.
Low voices get to come in and then we get forte piano followed by the upper people,
another two four bar.
And then the trumpets get to have the dashing through the snow part.
And then we have a transition with flute, oboe and sleigh bells going into 15 where
the trumpets get to have the melody and then interjections between.
So it's always the trumpets that start off the melody dashing through the snow four
and one and two and three and four.
Style is so important.
And some of the counting in this is a little tricky because it doesn't go exactly the way
the melody goes.
So again, just making sure that they're counting through tied notes really carefully.
And like Laura just said, style is the most important thing on this piece because it's
going to just now shift going from 19 to 20.
It's got a little bit more slurs in there and the saxophone gets this really slurry
part, which is pretty just just it's just so well written throughout all of this percussion
plays less of a timekeeping role and way more of a color and texture role.
So and that actually can be challenging sometimes for percussionists because they're having
to count lots of rest and they may be transitioning to different instruments throughout.
So again, it could be an alignment issue for your band.
That's right.
I'm not used to like playing eighth note staccato completely lined up with each other without
like a snare drum behind them.
That's right.
Yep.
At 23 we get our first sostenuto section.
It's beautiful.
It has a beautiful horn part and just like kind of like a little warm brass feature.
Then the trumpets come in with and then the upper woodwinds.
It's just so cute.
Then we get a cute little like this is my personal favorite part.
It sounds like a carousel.
It sounds like a toy box.
Yeah, like a little music box that you would open up.
That's that's my favorite part.
It's my favorite part.
That part.
Yeah.
So cute.
And it's like it's I think it's the clarinet three part isn't it that has the melody.
Well, it's not that they have the melody but the like two three four and one.
Yeah sorry.
The like winding up the music box part along with tenor sax.
It's super cute.
And then of course the jingle bells part is in sax fluten go above them.
It's just the woodwinds here and a little mallet percussion here and there.
Then there's a big forte impact moment.
Then the whole band has jingle bells together.
Again, style is very important.
And then we're leading into the next little section have a transitional area with some
fun one and two and four and one.
It's like a play on rhythm between tubas and the tenor voices here.
And it's everybody's playing one and two and three and four but at a different time.
So timing here can be very difficult.
Alignment is really important.
And it does it's mimicked in the percussion as well.
So just making sure they know who they play with in the percussion section.
Then of course we have jingle bells again at 40.
Now in the upper woodwinds again and then they get a cute little...
It sounds like almost like a quote from the Toy Soldiers part.
Ne ne ne ne ne.
And it's muted trumpet.
Yes it's so cute.
And then another two four bar and then you get this little and two and three and four
and one in the horn part.
That's really pretty.
And it's just so fun.
But this is a mature piece.
There is not time keeping in percussion.
It is.
Everybody has to be feeling.
So one and two and the entire time so that everybody can align and keep the tempo together.
And it is not like it's structured in a way where you get the melody for an eight bar
phrase or a 16 bar phrase.
It might be a little two measure thing or even like half a measure.
Exactly.
Right here yeah at 45 the lows get one and two and three and then upper woodwinds and
four and then the horns take over the trumpets and one and two and three.
So it's literally just changing all the time.
So it's a great teaching piece where you can say like OK who has the melody here.
Let's play this part.
You tell me who's who we're going to listen for.
Then we have a cool horn and I love this section as you 50 as well.
It's just this really pretty singingly pretty high up horn part going up to an F. But it's
just beautiful.
It's got little grace note.
The kids love it.
It's so fun.
So we build it up with some more sustained style again to a grand pause and then it's
very like grand.
This is the part that sounds like I've got to be like yeah.
Yes very colorful big chimes here to big percussion.
This is the whole band playing jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way.
Then we kind of come back down a little bit in nature and then build back up again to
the very end with one boom horse boom.
You know it's like very exciting.
Then we get the one and two and three and four and one and two and it goes up and up
passes the band.
Yep.
And then a nice long chord kind of like the beginning and then the whole band ends with
three and four one.
It is just so fun and like a staple like Laura said yes just for for a more mature group.
I love I absolutely love this setting of jingle bells it's one of my all time faves.
Yep.
And our final difficult piece is Toboggan by Gerard Hall.
And this one is by far the most challenging that we're talking about today.
It is four and a half minutes long.
It is in the key of B flat.
It's in three four and it will go to four four.
Yeah it changes.
Tempo.
Yes.
Lots of tempo transitions.
Lots of range and technique required for all the players.
Upper brass specifically some euphonium as well and lots of woodwind technique as well.
Yep.
Laura and I discussed that we also like this piece because it's very not it's it's not
holiday it's not religious and it's not secular.
It's just winter.
So it's meant to be programmatic.
You're supposed to be imagining you know you're on a toboggan ride.
You're taking in the wonder of the snow of the mountains the woodland creatures.
There's all kinds of ways you can go with teaching your kids what to imagine in their
minds when they're playing this piece.
And they're definitely here for it.
You know if you've listened to our podcast before I'm a huge fan of imagery.
If we can paint a mental picture with the music that we're creating and I think that
Gerard does a beautiful job of that with this piece.
And so getting the kids to bite into it.
Yep.
I think is pretty cool.
It starts off with a bells solo at the beginning and it's slow and then we filter in small
small woodwind instruments with like flute and clarinet and then the oboe comes in with
a solo.
It's also cued in trumpet.
So if you don't have an oboe you could have a trumpet play the solo but the oboe is just
beautiful here.
We have a little bit of just some cool mallet parts underneath as well.
It is not super brass heavy.
We are just supposed to be listening and thinking about just the majesty of snow.
It's very white and pure.
That's kind of what I told my students to think of.
It's just supposed to sound kind of like just wintery snow falling and things like that.
And I think if you were considering programming something lyrical for contest season I love
that this has some of those opportunities to kind of start that with your students teaching
them phrasing and all of that but it's not the whole piece.
It's moments of it.
So it's kind of a nice transition if you're planning to do something lyrical in spring.
The French horns take over at 17 with a beautiful melody that I think just makes it sound very
warm and beautiful.
It does go up a little higher up to E flat here in the French horn.
The horns are so important in this.
Oh yeah for sure.
And then like Laura mentioned even Mr. Hall did a great job of writing in some phrase
breath marks for you with eighth rests where everybody breathes together and comes back
in.
But there's no pulse and percussion so it's definitely a great teaching piece where the
students have to watch and we have to all move together and subdivide so that it stays
together.
Trumpets get to take over with this beautiful melody and then again another group breath
with an eighth rest and then we kind of build it up in the upper woodwinds leading in the
33 where the trumpets get to have a really important part and it's up real high.
And I love the way like the technique is written in here.
It lays really quite easy in everyone's fingers and I love the trumpet part here just kind
of soars above everything else.
For sure.
And then the horns get to have another little cool part.
It's not the melody but it's something that you can have featured.
The low part descends down as we're kind of transitioning and then we're getting an accented
moment and followed by a ritardando and the cool little and two and three and one and
two.
It's like a really cool horn part.
Oh my gosh.
So pretty.
And then automatically bam you're in 4-4 and it's fast and it's supposed to go 144 to
152.
It's like you've started your toboggan ride down the mountain.
That's right.
So you could hold it all the way up to the top of the mountain.
Yeah.
I told kids that when we played it like you're thinking of like riding the like ski lift
up to the top of the mountain and you're just taking in all the grandeur and beauty at the
beginning of the mountain and the scene before you and then it's like okay it's here we go.
It's time to go down the mountain.
So it's very fun but rhythmically this is very difficult to put together because it's
very it's varied where you have 16th notes or eighth notes you might be coming in on
a downbeat but you also might be coming in on an upbeat.
So pre marking parts again with rhythms I think is pretty important to make sure it
lines up really well and lots of independence.
We haven't talked about this yet but there I mean there are three trombone parts two
horn parts three trumpet parts three clarinet parts two alto parts so lots of independence
pick and pick a low one and two.
Yes.
And they're all important.
You don't have to have piccolo that's got some it is it's got some moments that I think
it really helps to have the color of the piccolo but it requires a lot of independence on the
parts.
Yeah.
Lots of good articulation repeated articulations on the same notes in the brass here so it's
not difficult technique technique wise but just articulation you have to be set.
And even has three and one.
Yeah.
And it's a pretty high again in that first trumpet part.
There's an alto saxophone solo that's the toboggan guy I guess or you know going down
on the the alto saxophone toboggan I don't know then like the upper woodwinds have these
little moments of da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da
so it's like just it sounds like you're you know zooming in and out of a mountain.
It's exactly not in and out but down a mountain.
That's exactly how I pictured it.
Yeah.
And then at 54 we get the clarinets getting to play that alto saxophone part along with
flute nobo so now it's like a woodwind feature.
Some cool like mallet stuff happening underneath.
The mallet stuff is super important.
And then the brass are just holding down same little like pulse type stuff.
Then the trumpet section all three trumpet parts get to come in at 62 with a very technical
part.
So it's going in on three three and a four and a one and then it's one two and three
and four and one and two and three.
So except faster than what I just counted.
So it goes by really quick.
Your trumpets need to be prepared for that.
That's kind of more like a woodwind part in the grand scheme of things.
Then it goes to the woodwinds and then it goes back to the trumpets and then the lows
get to have a little moment of sixteenth notes.
We have a little two four bar and then at measure 70 the vibraphone and chimes get to
have like this really cool moment.
And then we're kind of just transitioning here to 74.
This is where the horns get to have a very prolonged melody section.
Again it sounds very warm and introspective.
This is a little softer here.
It feels a little less.
The vibas is a little different.
Less texture.
Less energy.
So I kind of imagine this was the part where like the guy is on the toboggan ride and he's
maybe like stopping to look around and he's not so worried about his life anymore.
Now he's just looking up and enjoying the view and just taking in the majesty.
Maybe the trail got really wide.
Yeah.
So you didn't have to worry so much about crashing into a tree.
And then the flute and clarinet get to come in with the horn.
The horn goes up all the way to a G here in the middle.
So it is definitely not for young bands.
And pretty exposed.
Yeah.
And pretty exposed.
They're all basically alone.
Yeah.
The trumpets then get to take over.
Not quite as high as the horns here but they get a little melodic part.
This is all very sustained.
Not difficult rhythms here.
Yes.
The lows get to transition us into 102.
Big like cymbal crash and everybody has accents.
And it's just a beautiful section.
And then at 106 we go slower again to 78 on the metronome.
This is where I imagined the toboggan rider took a break.
Pulled over to the side of the road and was like, okay, I'm taking a break.
And maybe he sees little woodland creatures here.
So it starts off with a little clarinet part.
Clarinet one.
Maybe that's a little bird in the tree.
Then the alto part has a solo.
That was a little, I don't know, wolf off to the side.
I don't remember what I said when I taught the kids.
But then there's a cute little flute and piccolo moment.
I was like, oh, that's the cute little bunny hopping around.
Even though they're not hopping.
It's sustained.
She really wanted it to be a penguin but there are no penguins on the mountain.
On the mountain.
I know.
I did.
I wanted it to be a cute penguin.
You could just make that up and say like it came in just for the song.
But it's like a cute little, again, you're trying to teach your kids about lyrical music.
There's not a pulse.
So this is a good opportunity to watch.
Then we all are going to come in and return on together as we transition back into the
toboggan ride at 116.
It's supposed to go even faster than before, above 160 if possible.
So now he's the toboggan rider is definitely going downhill again and zooming in and out
of different sections.
I even like that he's marked it frantically.
Right.
So there are often times that I will tell students, hey, it sounds frantic.
We don't want it to sound frantic.
We want it to sound fast, but not frantic.
You're going for frantic here.
Right.
Absolutely.
And it's just like the beginning with the rhythmic articulations in the brass and the
woodwinds are doing lots of sixteenth note runs.
And then there's an alto solo again at 124.
He does a great job of cueing all these solos and other instruments.
So like you have lots of options.
There's one little cool part with the euphonium where it gets to play along with alto and
flute on the sixteenth notes.
Then the upper brass get to have an entrance on the and a four.
It's just a little bit of technique in there for them.
Then at 134 the brass are hitting and the woodwinds are doing a big sixteenth note flourish
here.
It sounds very like grandiose.
So like we're at the very end of the piece.
And then there's one measure of three, four, and then there's a whip crack and everybody
ends two and a one.
It's like he made it to the end and slid in with the toboggan.
It made the like ice shoot up.
It's just the coolest piece and the kids loved working on this piece.
This is definitely a challenging piece for that time of year if you are talking about
a middle school.
It's marked grade three.
That's right.
But this is perfectly appropriate if you've got a really strong middle school band or
for a high school ensemble.
Yes, absolutely.
And they would love it too because it gets a chance to feature every single instrument
voice and Mr. Hall is really good about that.
Making sure that everybody gets a moment of glory.
It is just a beautiful, beautiful piece.
So we hope one of these difficult winter concert pieces can make its way into your band hall
in the future.
We appreciate you joining us for this special series on winter concert music and we hope
you enjoyed this episode of Band BFF.