Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be talking about Appalachian Morning by Robert Sheldon.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
This is an absolutely beautiful piece.
Absolutely beautiful.
It is-
As all Sheldon pieces are.
Yes.
It is in the key of concert E flat 4-4.
It does modulate to the key of F towards the end of the piece.
It has split clarinet, alto, trumpet, and trombone parts.
It's about three minutes in length.
The percussion parts are very limited in this.
They're really more color effects.
Bells is extremely important.
Timpani is important.
Otherwise, we have like some-
Wind chimes.
Yeah.
Like suspended cymbal rolls.
But nothing that is going to be overly challenging for your percussion.
So Katie and I both feel pretty strongly if you choose to program this piece, which is
fabulous for developing and growing soloists.
But if you choose to program this piece, it would be really important to make sure that
you have someone on your staff that can pull your percussion out so they're not standing
in the back being bored to tears when you're working on it.
And that you program it along with something that does challenge your percussion.
Yes, for sure.
This piece is a Texas PML grade three, and it is very, very slow, the whole piece.
It's like marked at 72, and then it goes to 80, and then it ends at 66.
So you have to be really cognizant of training your students to subdivide, feel pulse.
There's no pulse happening in percussion or otherwise.
That's what makes this piece so beautiful, but also so tricky if your kids aren't prepared
for that.
And it's real easy to make it sound very immature if the phrasing is not executed effectively.
So those things I think are really important.
The tempo feels very rubato throughout.
Yes.
So it starts off with, it's marked peacefully, and it starts off with kind of like a bell
tone hit and flute, oboe, and bells.
That's kind of what I've thought of when I've played this piece before.
I've told students it's like at the beginning of a movie when like just a beautiful serene
scene just pops up on the movie.
That's the flute and oboe, and they're holding a chord, and the bells hit, and the wind chimes
start going.
And then there's this beautiful clarinet solo that comes back later in the piece.
Now I think it's really important.
Oftentimes we don't make our percussionists breathe because they're not a wind instrument,
but this is a classic example of a spot where I would make the percussionist breathe with
the flute and oboe players, and I would practice that repeatedly.
If they breathe with you, they will increase their chances of striking the bars at the
exact right time.
Absolutely.
So this is, you know, we're imagining a morning in the Appalachian Mountains.
So the clarinet is like a little, I've said before, like a little woodland squirrel or
rabbit.
I've said, but some little animal just like waking up and, you know, giving those kids
that musical imagery is so important to make it sound beautiful.
You need a beautiful clarinet player to play this piece.
Needs to be able to play just very smoothly, lyrically, beautiful phrasing.
Then the low voices come in along with some of the mids.
Everybody on beat two, and you have to line this up so much, and it's difficult.
It is.
Especially like Laura said, you all have to breathe together and start together.
And you have to start super delicately.
Like it is a, you don't want an explosive start to the sound at all in order to make
this sound.
These are the challenges that make this piece worth it, but challenging.
And you want to make sure you program it with the right kind of band too, right?
Like if your ensemble doesn't really care about the musicality part of it and like thinking
about coming in beautifully, like maybe this isn't the right piece for the group.
I tell my students when we're talking about a really delicate and sneaky entrance, that
it is like that you are taking your mom's most prized possession, like that is super
delicate like a vase or a picture frame or something.
And you are trying to put it on a high shelf.
You have to be very careful, very like protected.
All of that.
That that's how we kind of treat those entrances.
Then there's another little hit in the flute, oboe and bells, and then the clarinets all
come in, including clarinet too, along with oboes on this little response to the melody
that started on the clarinet solo.
I love to feature the oboe color in that entrance for sure.
Then the lows have another little sneaky entrance on beat two, not very loud.
And if your kids can't handle the, if not all of the clarinets can handle the grace
notes, because sometimes it's written in the first and second clarinet parts.
If they can't all handle that and move together and sound clean, put one clarinet player on
the grace notes and that's fine.
You get the effect.
And then the trumpet comes in with the melody after that and it's only trumpet one.
So you have to be very careful balancing this with your group because it does say everybody
else has a mezzo piano crescendo and a mezzo forte.
So you need to make sure that you balance down everybody else.
So the first trumpet doesn't have to try so hard to be heard over the rest of the band.
That's the new voice of the melodic line.
There's a beautiful little suspended cymbal roll here to help increase that crescendo.
And the note, the final note of that melodic thought on the trumpet is a high D. So you
do need to make sure you talk to your trumpet players a lot about making sure that that's
in tune.
They're holding it for four full counts over the whole band and the band comes in with
this three and four and one and two and three and four and.
And I tell them that's like a little ripple in the water or something.
On this trumpet part right here and several times throughout this piece, the trumpet melody
is written slurred, having a variety of slurs in it with lots of skips.
So it is something that the trumpets have to work on to make it sound mature when they're
making those skips and not bumping those under the slur.
Yes.
And I would definitely take slurs out when first learning this piece and just tongue
everything for alignment of rhythm.
And then later on, once we've got it all aligned and the pulse is totally set, then adding
in the slurs would be good just to make sure because this piece can get out of hand quickly
without good pulse sense in your students.
And in this section we're talking about right now where Katie mentioned that all the accompaniment
is playing these half notes underneath just the first trumpet melody.
Consider having your students subdivide their parts.
Yeah.
Like if you have them subdivide it, then you can hear what they are internally feeling and
it will help them as you know, eventually when you take the subdivisions away to still
feel the subdivision pulse in their brain.
Yep.
Then after this little part at 11, we kind of, everybody's getting softer.
There's like a little ending part, one and a three in the like sax and horn and euphonium
part which is really pretty.
It's like the end of the ripple in the water.
Then flute and oboe come in with a new thought at 11 alone on a kind of a difficult rhythm
on a triplet quarter notes to a dotted eighth note with a 32nd notes afterwards.
So, you know, this is not the kind of piece where kids are necessarily going to understand
how to count right away.
So working that out or writing in counts ahead of time when you're marking in parts for students
will be helpful, especially foot taps where the rhythm is occurring for students.
That's what I like to do.
I think it's really important.
Yeah.
To keep and upbeat arrows on their parts to help them understand the subdivision.
This piece also whenever people are playing in 2D sections, everybody ends at the same
time.
So like here in measure 12, there's an eighth note tied cut off.
So I will always like draw a crossed out eighth note and write off on three so that everybody
when they're counting in their head one and two and off.
So that way it's a very precise finish to the sound and then right on beat four, that's
where the clarinets and the altos come in with a new melodic line.
So right here at measure 13 now clarinets and altos are featured.
We have this dotted eighth and 32nd rhythm again.
The clarinet soloist had it at the beginning and it comes back several times throughout
here.
So again, making sure that the kids really understand how that rhythm works.
In measure 14, we come back with the very cool bell tones.
And again, this happens several times in this piece where the flute and oboe are split in
fifths and the bells double them with these bell tone hits two, three, four.
It's the only moving thing when it happens.
So it's really important that it be precise and in time.
First trumpets get to come back in.
They echo the same melody that the clarinets and altos have just established for us.
And then we get a really cool response in the flute, oboe and upper clarinet.
So it's a little bit of a conversation between the trumpets and the upper woodwinds at this
point.
Most of the accompaniment part underneath it is sitting on whole notes or half notes,
but they are obviously providing the harmonic foundation and they are also helping dynamically.
So there are some crescendos and things.
We want to make sure that the white note accompaniment part is not covering up the melody, but that
they are providing their function, like giving that harmonic foundation and building the
dynamics to help support what's happening in the melody.
The second trumpet part is slightly different than the first trumpet part.
And the second clarinet and the oboe.
That's exactly right.
It's really important.
You want to make sure that you isolate that with just the flutes and oboes, just the clarinets,
trumpets and so forth.
And that you can hear both parts.
They're different enough parts.
It's like now there's two woodland animals is what I have told my kids before.
So now it's a bunny and a squirrel or whatever.
And so both parts are equally important.
And again, like Laura said, just making sure that the low people don't overtake.
The lows do have an important descending line going into 19 though.
And they have a big crescendo there that can help because this is all leading up to measure
19.
It's our first like big arrival point here.
And the dynamic is marked fortissimo.
And sometimes, you know, younger ensembles can, yes, we get to play fortissimo and get
the sound out of control.
You definitely have to spend some time working to balance what does ensemble fortissimo sound
like, and having them work just that measure, building that crescendo to get it to sound
the way that you want it to sound.
Most, or not most, but some of the people release on beat one and others continue to
hold over.
On a concert C, so the clarinet and the trumpet really have to make sure that they're listening
to each other.
And actually the clarinets are a whole step away from the trumpets.
Yeah, it's a little tension.
It's like a little tension chord.
But it's a high D and trumpet again.
So again, making sure that that's an in tune note.
I've heard this piece performed several times where that final moment is impactful, but
then you've got this trumpet sitting on a high note flat and it kind of takes away from
the beauty.
So make sure that your trumpets are really in tune as they're holding that.
If only one trumpet can play it really well, have one kid play it and then everybody can
join in again because the first trumpets take over the melody again with some quarter notes,
three, four, and then we have this really pretty, the trumpets have the melody, the
trumpet one part, but then this euphonium tuba bass clarinet and clarinet one, they
have these just moving pretty quarter notes right underneath them.
It's beautiful leading to a long note and it feels like it's the end.
And then all of a sudden on beat four going into pickups into 22 clarinet and flute, get
a little moment again.
So it's just, it's such a cool piece because he keeps writing it like it's like constant
motion.
I tell the kids it's like water ripples in the water.
And it's really beautiful just because it kind of keeps you on your toes.
It does.
And no one instrument gets the melody for an eight bar phrase, right?
It's constantly passing around the group which requires a lot of maturity.
Yeah.
And counting and pulse and everything.
You've noticed we've not said anything.
There's no snare drum part, so everything's just little colors.
You got little wind chime hits.
Then we got these little bell hits.
This time the trumpets get to have the little bell tone hits at 22 with the bells.
Then there's this really pretty entrance in the bass clarinet, bari sax and tuba where
they play this tied rhythm on three and four and it leads into 24.
It's really, really pretty.
The whole band is playing right now.
This is another big moment.
This is the second really big moment.
Yep.
And we're leading up to a high concert E flat in the flute and a high F in the trumpet
and a high F in the clarinet one part.
So tuning across the ensemble is important.
A flat in some of the trombone parts.
And then we all start to kind of come down from there in dynamics.
And it's doing the little moving quarter notes again, kind of like flowing water.
The quarter notes keep going for a while.
And I want to address real quickly the cross tuning here in this area.
You know, if you've listened to this podcast before, Katie and I are big proponents of
addressing things in music in your fundamentals.
One of the ways that I address cross tuning like this is I will have my clarinets and
alto saxes sometimes as well and flutes, of course.
I will have my upper woodwinds.
We'll play our concert F remington in whole notes and I will have those instruments take
it up an octave.
So instead of playing it in the staff, they're playing in their, you know, in the upper clarion
register or in their altissimo range.
And they have to work to control the sound and balance and play in tune in those octave
splits listening back down to trumpets and to horns, all of that.
So that is a great way to make your kids aware of cross tuning with an exercise that they're
very familiar with.
Then at third, sorry, 27, we have an upbeat entrance on the and of three.
And this entrance, in my opinion, is tough for the kids every time I've ever played it
just because they really have to be counting and come in on and for and.
So again, writing in the foot taps will be very helpful so that they can all enter.
It's clarinet one and oboe.
Then we again, we still have this free leap heart.
It's a little faster here.
The lows are playing quarter notes and half notes.
So are the mids.
So it just kind of has this energy underneath now more so than just the whole notes that
we had before the trumpet one and clarinet to come in with the melody at pickups to 29
and then the flutes finally finish it off in 29.
So we're adding in different little colors.
And this is a great opportunity to talk to the kids about when you hear a new color come
in, you need to play a little softer so that we can hear the new featured part even better.
Then we have this really cool moment at 30.
I loved this part.
Yeah, for the first time in the whole piece, we have like really articulated parts.
Everything else up until now has just been legato tonguing and slurs.
Yes.
And now we have this cool like heroic sounding part in the horn trumpet two and alto one
part.
It goes and and three and a four and it's this big moment in this is our third big moment
now and this is a big horn and sax moment.
Remember saxes color the horn.
So make sure your horn is the prominent voice.
But then above that trumpet and flute and clarinet are also playing a really important
part.
It's kind of like a little conversation.
But I like to feature the horn here.
I agree completely.
Now goes up to a high F.
The second trumpets are doubling what the horns and altos are doing here.
So that can kind of help beef that up with that.
Just for that one measure.
Then that's right.
That's right.
Just on that big hit right there.
But the horn color should definitely be your dominant sound.
And then we're kind of all strong for a couple measures.
Then we have a forte piano at 33 and a huge ralentando while trombone one horn and alto
one are playing these accented quarters and eighth notes leading us up into the big moment
at 34.
And that is something where they really have to be careful to do the forte piano on a whole
note so that we're not overtaking this really cool moment of coming up a little scale.
Now that forte piano your first trumpet player your entire flute section and the first clarinets
are on a high concert F.
So a high G and you're asking those them to play a forte piano up there.
So that might be a moment that you consider just putting one trumpet player on that.
So that or have everybody take it down an octave.
I've done both of those things before.
Like I that's not a place where I want kids trying to play.
Yes.
A high G quietly and yeah good luck.
So the second trumpets have it the exact same thing.
So it's written in octaves.
So I've had the first trumpets just jump down on the pickup notes there and just everybody
be on the lower G and let the flutes shine on the upper note which is cool.
But this trombone moment here with the horns is really pretty.
It is.
Yep.
And the altos have it as well.
Yep.
And then going into 34 it's clarinet and trumpet one only continuing that quarter note alignment
like a scale going upward.
But now they're slurring it before it was accented quarters.
Now it's slurring and we're leading into the new section.
So now here we are at measure 35.
This is the key change.
So now we bring back that melody that we had at the beginning but we're in the key of F
now the key of concert F. So oboe and alto now get that little melodic soloistic line
that we had earlier in the piece and we get the responses again in flute and oboe but
now in alto and horn.
So with those grace notes that we talked about way back like in measure five six seven of
the piece.
So you can treat all of this.
This is great because you can copy paste the same type types of concepts that you were
using in the beginning.
But now we have different color instruments a different color combination here and a different
key.
Yep.
We haven't talked about timpani too much but just know that every time the timpani plays
in this piece it's really critical for them to roll really really well and really build
the suspense up with tubas before final hits.
I just wanted to say that because it's a really cool piece.
And making sure that they arrive in time.
At the exact same time.
Yes.
Measure 38 is a really cool measure because you have the upper people with one and three
and one and then you have the trumpets and the first clarinet sorry first trumpet and
first clarinet on a different part and they go one and two and three and four.
I love that measure because it's really fun to teach the kids like listen there's something
on every beat and they love listening for that and making sure that you can hear those
colors come through.
At 39 at Rolentondo's again there's a trumpet solo followed by a saxophone solo on upbeats.
Everybody else is decrescendoing underneath them then finally a clarinet solo on an upbeat
and then the trumpets finish it out into 41 with the end of the solo three and a grace
note for a one then we have the bell tone hits again in the fluke oboe and bells and
this is just like the beginning.
And now we're even smaller 66 yeah so we're back to the little clarinet melody like we
had at the very beginning a little solo again the same delicate entrance on beat two in
the middle and low voices then those trumpets solo at 45 and that trumpet solo goes all
the way to the end so you want to make sure you have a really strong player in your group
to program this piece.
They're all alone with like a little bit of woodwind above them but not really then the
band comes in for one last swell as I call it with my kids at 47 there's one last crescendo
up and then everybody is getting softer again but on the getting softer work we're ascending
on pitches up to a high e natural in trombone one so I know that all the times I played
this in a G and trombone two we've really had to work hard on making sure that tuning
not only it's in tune but also that we're decrescendoing and keeping beautiful sound
all the way to the end so that's that's a little bit of a tricky measure.
And it slows down so there's in that exact same measure there is a raw lantando so I
mean that moving that's exactly right and then you end with the same beautiful bell
tone hits and flute and the bells like we had back at the beginning and the flutes hold
this this fifth together and they have to sound gorgeous and crystal clear and in tune
and vibrato and they hold it forever yes or wind chimes swipe and they have to play a
C in tune on the flutes forever and ever so pick pick wisely that's right I feel like
every time I've played this I've done it with two kids and that's it that's exactly how
I do it as well and then the entire ensemble comes in piano on a fermata on the last note
after the flutes have been hanging on at this slower than 66 whole note it's a challenging
ending it is definitely a challenging ending to make this sound mature but so worth it
the juice is worth the squeeze for sure on this piece in my opinion we both really love
it and it's been such a pleasure to play each time I've done it I have fond memories of
playing it with my groups and I think it's just a beautiful piece if you have the right
players for it for sure it's even a piece obviously during your contest season that
you could consider but I would also consider it if you're trying to I've used it to help
develop soloists and preparation for contest season but playing it at your fall concert
or a winter concert playing it at some other time to help develop the skills that you want
during contest season but again it's perfect for contest as well we absolutely love this
piece we hope that you have enjoyed this episode and you will consider programming Appalachian
Morning by Robert Sheldon thank you for joining us on this episode of Banned BFFs