Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs, the podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
In today's episode, we will be rounding out our new to music pieces.
These are pieces that Laura and I both had the privilege of performing at Texas Band
Masters Association Conference in July.
And not only did we enjoy playing them, but we have enjoyed studying the scores as well
to find ones that we really loved.
These are the most difficult pieces of the ones that we heard, and these are grades three
and four.
Today we'll be talking about Winterscape by Gavin Lent, Spirit of Ostonaco by Jay Bocook,
and Rail Riffs by Ball Mages.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
Okay, our first piece we're going to dive into today is Winterscape.
This piece is a publisher grade three and a half.
It's also about three and a half minutes.
It's in the key of concert E flat.
It changes time signatures frequently back and forth between four four three four, some
two four in there, split clarinet parts, split trumpet parts, three clarinet and three trumpet
parts, split alto parts.
It actually has two trombone parts and a unique bass trombone part, plus lots of percussion.
The percussion in this really don't function in a timekeeping or pulsekeeping type of role.
They're really more color hits and things.
Of course, you've got the bells on the mallets.
They're sleigh bells, which is really the only thing that is timekeeping in terms of
the percussion.
It is so cute.
It has nods of different winter songs.
So we'll get into that, but it is a very, very awesome piece.
So it starts out really fast, just with some eighth notes in the sleigh bells, like Laura
said, with like little clarinet eighth notes as well, some low people parts.
And then it comes in with just this gorgeous French horn melody on.
We wish you a Merry Christmas has a lot of little like little syncopated rhythms, changes
time signature about four times a score page.
So it's very frequently changing it up, which keeps it interesting.
Kids just need to be really comfortable counting in those time signatures.
And this clarinet thing, the clarinet are like almost doubling the sleigh bells with
this eighth note.
Yes, it's kind of like little icicles falling.
Exactly.
It'll be real important that your clarinets, you know, stylistically match each other.
And one of my favorite tricks for clarinet articulation when we're talking about staccato
articulation is to have my clarinets articulate on a low E and make them if they can make
a low E super crispy, dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee on that note
and use the same type of air and energy.
It translates across translates across the instrument.
So that's a little tip for you for clarinet.
There's a really cool cup mute part in the trumpet.
So that's always fun because you know, they love mutes.
Then the lows get a little bit of melody at 11.
It goes back to sax and clarinet melody.
Then there's a trumpet melody.
And again, what I really like about this piece, not again, what I like about this piece is
that the melody goes back and forth between like all the different parts of the band.
So it's not as if like only the flutes have the melody.
In fact, they don't super duper often.
There's some really cool harmonic progressions from 15 to 19.
Then the trumpets get to play on a straight mute.
So another little muted part.
A really cool trumpet solo in this and this goes really fast and it requires that first
of all, the trumpets have the mute in like Katie mentioned.
It's a really fast rhythm one E in three E in one E in three E in they will have to double
tongue that for maximum clarity.
And of course you have the added resistance of the mute in there.
So some cymbal instruments are playing this little rhythm along with them.
So you can use that as a hey, let's match the sound of the cymbal or the xylophone too.
Yep.
And then we go back into kind of like a full 2d 3 4 section.
And it's still we wish you a Merry Christmas.
And then like just really cool harmony progressions.
Like I just really enjoy everything that he writes in this piece.
Then it morphs to a little Carol of the Bells portion.
And again, we've got this cool horn part, but also the trombone one doubles the horn
part as well as the bassoon.
So that's pretty cool just like color wise.
And then at 40 we have more of the little part like the clarinets what they had before
now the flutes have it.
So I love in this that all the little melodies that like their quotes, you can hear the Carol
of the Bells or you can hear we wish you a Merry Christmas, but it has just a little
bit of a spin on it.
And it's not like the whole time they're playing Carol of the Bells.
It's really just it's quoting it here and there.
Yeah.
Yep.
So if you have like a really pretty lush section where it's very like slurred and like lots
of crescendo decrescendos, then the style changes again at 48 to being a little bit
more like punctuated with tons of accents.
Nothing ridiculous range wise, except for I would say like trombone goes up to the high
F pretty much a lot of the time trombone one and the horn goes up a little higher to probably
F as well, but not.
That one sits in a higher tessitura too for most of the time.
And then it goes into a section of noting, oh come, oh come, Emmanuel really cool low
voice featured here.
Beautiful.
And then we go back to a little we wish you a Merry Christmas in three, four.
Then we all have like a 2d section.
The horns have a little fun part.
There is a just a short little section where snare drum is playing that is really important
because this goes so fast and it's a bunch of sixteenth note patterns that are accented.
You want to make sure you have a strong player for that.
Then it goes suddenly slower at 75.
There's a beautiful horn solo and then it says a la mauler above it.
So that's kind of fun.
Your kids will like it.
And then a little flute and oboe solo and then it goes into four, four again.
So it's literally like an eight measure slower.
Different idea.
And then now back into the fast.
Trumpets are featured here so now they get this little eighth note motif that the clarinets
and flutes had earlier and more of this sixteenth note.
So again very fast.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,
and requires lots of really clear articulation from all of the trumpets.
And the upper woodwinds.
So definitely you want to make sure your kids are able to articulate at that speed.
Then the horns have another we wish.
Oh no, it's Okum Okum Emmanuel again.
And they have it accented this time along with sax and clarinet.
So it's really a cool powerful moment.
At 91 we have upper woodwinds having the same melody part and it's their moment of Okum
Okum.
Then we're getting a little bit more slurry into 100.
It gets a little softer and a little slower just for two measures.
A little multiretardando and then it goes back into the eighth note section.
So it's kind of like if you were doing like a little like sled ride down a hill or something
where it's like slows for a second and then it goes faster again.
We come back to this cool quote of Carol of the Bells but this time it's in 4-4 instead
of 3-4.
So yeah I was like that's kind of cool when whenever we were performing and listening
to it.
So that was fun.
Different idea there for sure.
This really is more of the same just more of combining these different themes and these
melodies making it sound really cool.
There is a the trumpet range in this.
We talked about the end.
Going up pretty high.
A flat, C, B flat.
A bunch of like just big moments in the trumpet one part.
Then it's good tidings for Christmas and a happy new year.
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
Sorry.
But it's the good tidings part of We Wish You A Merry Christmas and at 124 and so that's
really fun.
Again another upper C in the trumpet part.
So if you have a good slamming trumpet section this is the piece for you.
Yeah this would be a cool way to kind of feature the trumpets.
There's some cool like powerful hits back and forth with lows and then like kind of
the like euphonium tenor sax low reed parts.
They kind of go back and forth more eighth notes.
Big finish to the end as you would imagine.
A little slapstick like I guess nod to sleigh ride on beat two and then everybody plays
on beat three.
So it's really fun and totally doable by like any high school band.
Maybe a really really confident you know varsity middle school band for the winter time of
year because it is definitely a true three and a half I would say.
Yeah it is and I love that it's a little bit untraditional for a winter themed piece.
It's not We Wish You A Merry Christmas in your face or Carol of the Bells in your face.
So it's a little bit it's kind of a more mature setting for it musically which I think is
really interesting.
And Mr. Lent does really cool like harmonies and good scoring so this is a fun piece.
Our next one is called Spirit of Austin Nako by Jay Bocook.
This piece is really cool.
I love it is written in the style like under the influence of the Cherokee culture.
So a lot of Native American type themes that you hear in there.
Now the music itself is unique to the original to the composer.
It's not actually any Cherokee themes but you know he uses the instrumentation and the
color and the writing in order to convey that it is very much you will hear straight out
of the gate.
It very much sounds Native American.
Very very cool little piece.
It is four and a half minutes long.
It is in the key of concert B flat.
It does have some time signature changes throughout.
Instrumentation is relatively minimal considering the scoring.
It is split parts four horn parts three clarinet parts two alto so that it's thickly instrumentated
for sure.
And with this one we feel like you need to have obviously a fantastic flute player who's
going to be featured for a long solo.
Yes the flute solo at the beginning is 16 measures long and underneath the flute solo
is just like a drum kind of like Native American and then a little like maraca or like a shaker
gourd to make that sound and that's it.
Everybody else is chilling.
The flute solo is not difficult and it's written in a nice range of the flute.
It's really pretty.
You just want to make sure you got somebody that can be featured.
There are flute bends just like you would hear in the Native American culture.
At 16 we get like it starts with kind of the lows coming in adding in new people straight
mutes in the trumpet.
The oboes and bassoons get this little featured rhythm that kind of reminds me of like Native
American like dancing.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
And like little color solos which is fun.
It's still slow here at the beginning.
And the tuning here lots of like some of the chords are kind of clustered a little bit
so to you know it will be something you have to work tuning on to make sure it gets the
sound that he's after.
The woodwinds are just kind of trading back and forth that rhythm and I think it's meant
to sound like echoes like where is that sound coming from between oboe bassoon tenor sax
alto sax clarinet.
Then the all the woodwinds kind of join in together and then it goes to double time at
28.
Now it's at 160 marked.
It's written in a way that it really feels like it's in cut time.
I mean you do not feel like one two three four one two three you feel one two one two
it should have that cut time feel and it layers voices in like almost every two measures or
so so it starts out with just clarinet and flute then it adds in a little piccolo part
with that's like kind of cutesy then it adds in alto then it has these little hits in the
trumpet they have to double tongue again and this is still straight mute the low brass
is just chilling then they come in at 36 with 36 with a huge long extended melody which
you don't have cool it's so pretty and like how often do you have like trombone euphonium
like on the melody for a long time with tenor sax bassoon it is just a beautiful like Native
American sounding melody everybody else is still playing their same parts but it almost
just sounds like river water it really does it's rhythmic and it's meant to be like give
you a motor feel underneath the longer valued flowing type melody that the lows are playing
but it doesn't overpower the melody it's because it's well scored it's very well scored
yep and this melody goes on for a very long time just kind of changing a little bit in
the upper people every once in a while then at 52 the flutes get to have a little important
part with the clarinets again some of those echo features where the clarinets have it
then the flutes then the clarinets again there's a very rhythmic like an ostinato part with
about three quarters of the band so they have to make sure that they can articulate and
play together melody is happening in the saxophone family and then we have this cool like this
yeah this rhythmic thing happening underneath then there's like a little drum break where
they get to be really loud you know kind of again like Native American type culture then
there's these little hits just in the low voices so it kind of sounds like a like a
powwow type feel they're all like around dancing around the circle the fire you know and they've
got drums and low things 72 is another solo moment for trumpet and now they're back on
straight mutes and it kind of sounds again like a little echoey part you have like lows
two and four and and then piccolo to answering them yeah there's just like little answers
and hits so kids have to be really good at counting because it doesn't necessarily like
it's not tootie a lot of the time yeah and doesn't follow like a strict pattern or eight
bar phrases all the time at 80 there's an oboe solo and it's pretty extended it's also
kind of mirrored in the flute part but it's supposed to be kind of the oboe color for
the feature and then there's a little trumpet solo going in along with that and then the
percussion is kind of doing a little rhythmic ostinato underneath it's a very flowing section
with mostly the mids and lows playing high people are just kind of chilling yeah but
still the the feeling of it remember it's fast so that longer value notes still feel
real flowy at 96 there's this really cool like I guess waterfall effect where it starts
in the flutes then it goes to clarinets then it goes to the mids then it goes to the lows
and it kind of just like falls through the band and then everybody's playing together
and then at 104 we have a now the melody is in the trumpets and horns along with the euphonium
and this piece the euphonium is frequently doubled with some of the other parts like
the bassoons and the tenor sax or the horn so it's up pretty high it sits high at many
many moments like up on d's over and over and over or f's e flats that sort of thing
but they're not mirroring the trombones the trombones have like more of the rhythmic part
it really is functioning more like a color instrument here and less like a tenor voice
in the ensemble yep then we have kind of a lot of the same the little echoey things going
on again like what we had before it's pretty 2d written for a long time then at the end
we have some like bell tone hits and the horns which is really fun with euphonium and tenor
sax kind of talking back lots of accents yes tons of accents and then 134 is just a big
moment with all the alto flute gets a little melody portion lows are coming in right after
them so it's like just a really big finish at the end there's a long chord while the
drums do like a syncopated rhythm underneath the long value and then everybody ends together
it sounds like the end of a marshy band show that's what we both said we listen and down
at the end it's very it's it's fun it's aggressive it's exciting yeah so if you want to tie in
like history into a piece this would be really cool everybody gets a melody at some point
or another but i thought it was great because like trombone euphonium have this like real
gorgeous long melody where they are featured so it's just a really cool piece our last
one is probably our most favorite from the ones we played it's called rail riffs by bryan
ball mages and it is a grade four for the publisher so this piece when you listen to
it it's hard to sit still it will make you want to dance it'll make you want to move
this piece was it had it uses utilizes a lot of different styles jazz and latin grooves
and you will hear it immediately it was written the the the school that commissioned the piece
is in a town that has a railroad track that runs through it so this was also meant to
represent a little bit about the those tracks and the town and what is to come in the future
for the town so very cool concepts it's about four minutes in length it's in the key of
concert b-flat it's in cut time and moves pretty fast tempo marking is 116 in cut time
there are split parts for clarinet alto trumpet just two parts for horn three for trombone
the euphonium part is different than the trombone parts quite a bit of percussion in here lots
of latin percussion as you can imagine and it starts with a really important snare part
that is I mean it's giving you that train those train vibes immediately your snare drummer
needs to have really good chops yeah and it starts out like with bell tones like you already
feel like you're on the train then the euphonium and the tenor sax get a really important part
at the very beginning just to kind of get us in the groove then the first melodic part
is with the trumpets and clarinets first trumpet first clarinet sorry yep and this little theme
comes back yeah yeah see we both really like it it's fun there's like a little splash cymbal
part it's just very dancey and fun you imagine you're like at a party like it's it's a fun
piece xylo and flute and oboe take over that same melody at 17 nothing crazy rhythmically
it's just all fast it's just fast lots of technique it'll require some some good technique
in your woodwinds and in your brass players as well at 25 horn and euphonium and tenor
sax get the same little melodic vibe the euphonium as we mentioned it goes up pretty high it's
like it starts off off the gate and like an upper d lot like all above the staff it's
basically like being a horn in this case then trumpet has some little muted parts upper
woodwinds kind of talk back to them the lowers then euphonium and tuba kind of lead us into
33 alto sax gets the part the part of the melody then like the sax family actually
and then the trumpets and the horns come back again so we're just passing it around because
we're passing it between different families of voices too so it makes it more fun and
enjoyable to listen to and it's well written where not everybody's trying to like cover
up other people absolutely when we get to kind of the new idea we hit 49 now low reeds
are being more featured it's a little woodwind choir thing where it's clarinet alto but it
has a really cool thick low reed part here as well brass end up coming in euphonium has
a cool counter melody they actually double the oboe and flute after this section coming
in like four bars into this phrase which i think is i think is really cool we're coming
up on one of my favorite parts of the piece where there is this grooving bass line yes
it's so fun so we're we're now it's like kind of the same railroad e type stuff and then
65 percussion starts to get to clap on the upbeats and then we start to hear like what
is the jazzy portion so the first parts like railroad e and dance natured then we get to
the jazz portion so this is the jazz portion we got some like horn rips yeah the flutes
get the upper melody again we have then as like a string bass pizzicato type part on
the tuba and it's just going it's like a jazz bass line it is it is a bumping bass line
it's fun yes and then it sounds like a train because then the altos come in and like do
like it sounds like train like flutes get like four notes at the same time to sound
like so it's like really fun because it's jazzy but it does sound like a train it totally
gives you the mental image of a train being a train station lots of like fun things that
kids don't always get to see in their music like the rips like we said a glissando in
trombones pitch bending and the flutes to sound like a train or a train horn yeah train
whistle and so tons of that so that's kind of fun because that's different for kids really
important percussion stuff as well of course that makes it sound very jazzy right before
89 we have a really cool euphonium and berry sax feature yes interesting combination there
while the the tuba is still continuing ambasone yeah bass line yeah then we just get some
like little hits it just sounds very jazzy here very fun horn and trumpet two and three
get a little moment of melody with low reeds and then everybody's kind of moving together
we're going up above the staff on a lot of different parts then we're in three two and
then this part is like a little hemiola it's like super fun then we get to hear the timbales
and we're back in cut time and this is the latin groove so again just another style again
with the railroad theme we get to do some trumpet like different things like they're
gonna like they're gonna ham it up quote unquote and they get to do like a little trumpet what
is that called like a shake like a trumpet shake up to like triplets so it's like kind
of jazzy again and they get to do like little lip bends it looks like there are some cool
things happening in the percussion like it calls for a small pot at this point or a kit
you can sub a cowbell but i mean we definitely are like on the railroad yeah yeah feeling
the back porch vibes yep and then um it's just kind of that groove for a long time it's
going back and forth flipping between three two and two two for a while um very slurred
though and like so again the technique is not difficult you're not having to like tongue
really fast like ta ta ta ta ta it's just grooving but you are having to keep those fingers moving
and it has to be very pulse yeah and again we've got the snare drum um having that little
pulse part we go back here to that same original theme that has come back now and we're kind
of recapping all of that yep and then it does kind of like a recap of each little style
at the end it's like a big almost like the the power section of a jazz piece um flipping
back and forth then it's like the latin again we're getting scoops in the trombone there's
lip trill and the trumpet so then it like kind of all backs out again and thins out
and it starts again with flute piccolo and oboe it's like oh the party's not over yet
everybody else is chilling then it's like the little clarinet melody again again with
the bass line and the lows um so it's really thinned back out it's almost like just building
up the momentum again um then it does and everybody's playing everybody's got some really
fun rhythms we've got lots of high trumpet hits here this is the culmination of everything
coming together all the styles yep and then it ends just with a wonderful power chord
it sounds like an organ the way it's scored at the end it's like you just there's no percussion
yeah you know the winds just sit on this big thick fat organ sounding chord and then smack
everything's done yes such a cool piece so much fun absolutely love it we loved it as
adults playing it so yes yes big hits we hope that this has been helpful for you and that
you have found a piece that you can consider adding to your future repertoire thank you
so much for joining us on this episode of BAM BFFs