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 talking about blue and green music by Samuel Hazo.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
Blue and green music is an absolutely gorgeous, rich, thickly textured, beautiful piece. It is in 3-4 most of the time, though it does have some 4-4 measures thrown in throughout.
It's in the key of concert A-flat. It does have a key change to the key of concert B-flat.
Lots of split parts, two flute parts, three clarinet parts, two alto parts, three trumpet parts, a split horn part, three trombone parts, and a slew of mallet percussion.
Yes, lots of percussion parts and a really important synthesizer part.
Yes, which you cannot do without.
That is absolutely accurate. This piece is just beautiful. I have played it with my group several times because as the conductor, I love this piece.
I love playing it with my kids and teaching them about it. It's based on a beautiful piece of art by Georgia O'Keeffe.
I'll always pull that up and show the students. I relate it to painting and how different colors mesh together.
Is this the blue part? Is this the green part?
Talking about how it relates to visual art, too.
I don't know if he wanted me to do that or not, but that's how I talk about it.
The texture of painting and the textures in the music lend themselves really well to kids feeling that when they play.
I think Sam Hazo is masterful at scoring that type of stuff. I feel like his stuff is always so beautifully written and scored.
You hear colors in musical colors in a different way with his music. He's just brilliant, I think.
The piece is about almost five minutes in length because the tempo is so slow.
It is about 60 beats per minute the whole time.
You really want to pick this piece if you have a more mature ensemble that can deal with the fact that their part might have a lot of rests.
But then when they come in, it's really important and it blends well with other parts.
I've never had students say, this piece is boring, but I could imagine if I had a group where they weren't as mature, they'd be like, are we done with this piece yet?
I think that's important to think about before choosing if it's right for your group or not.
They definitely need to be musically mature. There are, because of the tempo and lots of white notes in this piece, they need great breath support, being able to follow through on phrases, control the ends of their notes.
It definitely takes a mature ensemble.
The whole piece starts off with a big vibraphone solo at the beginning along with chimes. I cannot say how important percussion is on this piece.
You've got to make sure everybody can play their parts really well.
There's big wind chime things that go throughout. There's a completely separate glockenspiel part.
There's a different part for timpani, a big timpani part that is so cool.
There's a suspended cymbal part that helps with the effects. Again, there's a synthesizer part.
Making sure that everything is covered is really important in this piece for the colors.
The percussion need to treat this like it's its own ensemble.
That will help them in terms of utilizing each other like chimes, striking the bar at precisely the right moment.
They need to spend a lot of time just as a percussion section being rehearsed and working on this.
Again, like I said, treat it like it's a percussion ensemble.
Teach them how to look at each other and move together, breathe together because timing is so important in this.
Speaking of chimes too, a lot of times people don't teach their kids and maybe I'm wrong in how I teach it,
but I teach my kids to turn the entire chimes facing me so they can look through the chimes to strike right when my hands strike.
Instead of having the chimes sideways to where the kid's head is turned and then they can't see the bar and me at the same time.
I have found that that makes my kids more successful at moving together when they look through the bars in order to stay with the conductor.
So that's just something that's worked for my kids.
The three leads to one all the way throughout this piece.
It's so important to teach that and that kids are always thinking about pushing their note all the way through the bar line whenever they're going to the next little section.
So it starts off after the percussion with this beautiful clarinet opening with all three parts in bass clarinet.
So this real pretty little choir, one little measure of four four.
Everybody's moving on a different beat, beat three, beat four and one.
Then we hit beat the next three four section.
Some of the mids and lows come in with like a little like I told the kids that this is almost like, yeah, it's almost like a breath or like a sigh.
They'll come in strong and then they'll get softer.
So we talked about that.
Making that entrance beat in time together.
Oh my gosh.
That is, I mean, yes.
And that's difficult for all the brass to breathe and come in in a slow tempo like that.
Yes, and sound nice and a nice chord.
So yes, that takes a lot of practice.
Then at 10, the clarinets continue their beautiful little feature, but now the rhythm has picked up.
So it's one and two and one and two and three and one along with an alto one part.
And it's a one player.
So it's kind of like a little solo.
And I told my students this felt to me like waves like going on and on and there should be no stop in the sound.
So we had to talk about smart places to take breaths, weird places to take breaths, not on bar lines, you know, sneaky little places so that it felt like like almost like an artist, you know, brushing their stroke on the canvas.
They don't pick up the brush and starting again.
They just keep it going.
So we talked a lot about that, making it sound as seamless as possible.
Katie talked a lot about making sure that beat three leads to beat one.
I think with some of the rhythms, the one and two and and it's tied a beat and a half that they're sustaining at 60 BPM.
I mean, that's really slow.
Their tendency is going to be to taper the end of that and they need to do the exact opposite.
Yep.
Right.
So the vibraphone part two has pedaling through on each measure and it's like it's just kind of a hard technique to like get it to sound exact and like check your vibraphone pedal and make sure it like works correctly and all that good stuff too.
Yeah, mine is constantly coming undone.
It's so annoying.
I know that seems like a weird thing to think about, but it's important on this piece.
It is important and the vibraphone player will have to practice that making sure that as they are raising the pedal and dampening the bars.
That's not happening at the exact time that they're striking the bar.
Yeah, it's actually a really difficult little part.
Then the flutes and an alto two get to come in and kind of add in at the very end of this little phrase.
It goes back into four four for a measure then back into three four and trumpets take over.
So Mr. Hazel has taken all these beautiful colors and just changed it even for one measure.
The trumpets get to be the important color.
Then it's the sigh again from the low brass with a hard cut off on beat two with the synthesizer only holding underneath the band.
A little drone.
Yeah, and then at 19 the woodwinds all come in and they have this part again that I feel like it sounds like waves coming in and out and or like breathing.
You know, just it just sounds beautiful.
If you can get it to sound as seamless as it needs to the low woodwinds have this side.
Woodwinds have this like really cool little counter melody part.
And I just think the bass clarinet part is so cool on this piece.
They just frequently have this four and one leading into the next little section.
Horns get a little feature along with altos at measure 21 22.
We have another four four measure.
So you notice we haven't talked about low brass very much.
They don't play a lot until a little bit later.
So again, you have to pick this for, you know, a mature low brass section that isn't going to be like doodadoo.
It's time to play, you know.
Now when they do play, it is so cool.
It is cool and it's important.
Like when they come in right here, one of the things that I love about Hazel's writing, but that makes it challenging is that they're not traditional chords all the time.
Right.
There's always color nodes and in the chords and, you know, teaching the kids how to balance that appropriately.
And in your low brass specifically here.
There's also a really cool like tuba entrance at measure 23.
They come in along with the horns and the low reeds and they kind of lead us into this next little three four section.
Then the low brass get to do finally come in along with the tuba and they have this one three one three.
So I taught the kids it sounded like it was breathing and getting more full then an immediate piano drop down and a four four again.
And then the whole band kind of leads up being followed or being led by the upper woodwinds into a big forte three four section.
That is just a big arrival point.
Yes, full and awesome.
And like the kids will go, yes, this is why we're playing this piece.
You know, it's just a beautiful chord.
Then there's this big like trumpet one alto and clarinet one two like bell tones and then one along with chimes, of course, then they all get softer and we go a little bit slower.
Then we go back to the vibraphone melody at the from the beginning with this real pretty little flute part.
Yeah, this little section right here starting at measure 33 we have these little solo features that are being passed around.
We've got this this flute duet passing off to clarinet passing off to alto.
And then there is a really cool bell part that is a 16th note bell part of the whole ensemble at this point or the woodwinds that are playing are sustaining through long notes and the bells are playing one and two and they have this little moving part that has to be in time.
And mallet choice is so important here, making sure that it, you know, that what you're hearing is articulate enough, but it doesn't get too many overtones that it, you know, it sounds messy.
For sure. I think we played that a lot of times to find the right one for us, because of the overtones for sure.
And I told my kids this is kind of like the little twinkly part because it's got the cute little flute and the cute little clarinet cute little bell part.
So this is like the the cute part before it's about to be more of like the brassy moment.
Then we have more of these like little waves in and out in the woodwinds brass are mostly resting brass finally get to come in and they do this really neat like little low feature part of the melody at 41 to visit featured here very cool to bun you phonium.
So they get that little melodic part from before along with the low reeds and then percussion plays alone for a measure.
And then everybody that's playing the low people they're going to want to take a breath before measure 44 but they cannot there needs to be no break.
It's just a long held note and then all of a sudden they're louder one and two and the whole band then has the blue and green feature.
And then we get soft again and then we build it up and there's another retardando.
So this piece has a lot of retardando written in it's like a one measure retardando and then it goes back to a tempo.
So again just watching there's not like a pulse or anything in this piece like the kids have to be really good at watching the woodwinds here a little variation on the melody they add a little trill it's a very fast just quick little trill on an eighth note.
That I think takes time to make them feel and make sure that it's aligned correctly.
And you know we've talked about this several times before but not every student needs to play it if it can't be played cleanly if you just do one on a part on that that's fine but I do I do like the little variation that it brings.
There's even a cool like beat four leading into the three four here with the tuba and trombone three kind of like the bass trombone part along with bass clarinet.
It's important because it leads us into this next section which feels like this is like kind of a big moment.
We're quieter at measure 49 and everybody's playing the same thing for the whole band basically but the timpani comes in on beat three with like this little don't don't don't don't and they're quiet and then they're leading it up because they're going to keep on get jamming it's this huge like timpani build up here and I just love love love this timpani part so much.
It is really cool and it's very effective if it's done correctly you need a little bit harder mallet for clarity purposes and then the timpani player just has to be money in time and keeping their hands really even on all that so you don't hear like a right hand over a left hand.
I would venture to say I can't remember for certain but I am pretty sure at this section our timpani player moved to wooden mallets like for real because it had to be so articulate it's got triplet 16th notes and you have to be able to hear that driving rhythm underneath the band and the whole band is forte here and we're all jamming and playing really full and now articulated.
Yes, very articulate very articulate accented this is where the moment changes at 51.
Trumpets get to have this really cool moment leading upward in 52.
Then the horns and upper trombone and kind of the mid instruments have like a response to the trumpets.
Then the trombones have their own response the next measure flutes are kind of in this little section flutes are kind of up in the stratosphere so you want to make sure that they're playing with really beautiful sounds and not overpowering what's happening in the brasses.
Yep, and then everybody is together at measure 55 everybody has the accent blue and green and then the next measure is slurred blue and green and the altos and trombone one go like against the band here they go upward when everybody else is going downward it's just beautifully scored.
Then everybody has the blue and green again I'm not sure this is just how I taught it to the kids but it's all accented again and the big timpani leading us in big suspended symbol then there's this huge low brass moment blue and green trumpet and horn then it's a big key change.
And this is where like you sang came out.
That's exactly what it feels like you feel like the arrival point was earlier but then you get here and now it's clear this is this is the very emotional piece it starts out very pensive and quiet and sad.
Then this is the angry section 51 to here is like somebody's very angry and they don't know what's happening and then it's like oh I see we're okay and that's happening at measure 50 59.
So the key change happens there the sunshine comes out we're back to the slurring huge timpani moment again here lots of percussion happening changes tonality goes to major right here major yes.
Trumpets are very important flutes have like a cool little counter melody part we're going back and forth between 34 and 44 often here we have another ritardando it's like another little climax leading up again like and then we hit measure 65 and it's at the same tempo again the blue and green part is harder to hear here because everybody else is playing to in the band.
So we we had to make sure that like lows kind of came down a little bit here because everybody's so excited so pretty and everything's marked for Timo but you don't need everybody to play the blue and green part that loud well and I think when I've taught this piece one of the things that I have found to be the most challenging is that that because they get so excited and everybody loves to play loud and when it sounds good and it's you know it can be so effective but sometimes you'll get an individual that sticks out of the texture.
Or you know that causes a chord tone to come out in a way that it shouldn't yep so you know once again I know we've said it several times but it takes a lot of maturity to play this and play it play it well yes.
There's another really cool part marked triple F and of course my horns loved this a cool little like horn alto third clarinet and first clarinet get this for three and one and then they hold the suspension two three four one and two that's the last like big different moment leading up before we all come back down
there's a little bit of tension in it yes and then we start to lose different parts like people are starting to rest now we get a last little like breath or sigh if you want to call it and measure.
71 coming into 72 and then we're losing parts so we're losing like the lows drop out then we're losing like the mids and then we just have strong like hordes holding mezzo piano and everybody the chords have to move together they have to stay connected no break.
And then we go back to the just one clarinet now holding and you have to actually have two people hold it because it's so slow and it goes for the rest of the piece so you have to practice stagger breathing and the clarinet has to sound like in the same person and it's very difficult so like we we like had auditions like you to play that e forever and ever until I tell you stop and like just seeing
can their tone sound the same can they come back in at the same volume.
Then there's this beautiful little flute part at the very end it's a flute duet.
But it's written in the staff it's just so pretty.
Lots of just beautiful vibrato options here and it's written mezzo piano but it absolutely can be played out there's nobody else.
It needs to be strong and then with all the mallet stuff that happens here at the end because we've thinned out the texture so much it's much like the beginning it the timing of everything coming in right in time together is so important.
Like but there's clarinet a clarinet and vibraphone playing eighth notes together like that's super exposed and making sure that they work together as a team.
The last thing is bass clarinet playing on beat four and then they lead us for one and we've gotten the arrival chord and the arrival chord is being held by base clarinet clarinet two three one flute and again they have to practice stagger breathing this chord because it's long because then the percussion plays at the end on one two three and then they hit the last one.
And I remember when we played this one time at a festival they had done such a great job until the very end my percussion didn't move together and I was like no you know because it's like they have to strike at exactly exactly the same time and it's so slow like we've already mentioned but it's just something important to remember.
And then there the wind players are sitting on that for Mata forever and ever and ever we're waiting on the percussion to strike that so we're waiting on the percussion to go a full measure at that super slow tempo before they arrive on beat one on a for Mata and then that's not enough when there's
wind chimes so you have to hold the note even longer so that you get the effect of the wind chimes and then the sound just kind of evaporates. It's so beautiful. It is so beautiful. It's and you have to have the right group for it.
I like full fully believe that you know it's got to be the right players. Everybody gets to do cool things but if they aren't okay with like a lot of resting and like really getting into the music and may not be the right one for your group.
And again lots of good percussion for sure. Yes. Well we hope you will consider programming blue and green music and thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFS.
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