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Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFS!

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The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.

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On today's episode we will be discussing some of fanfare by William Owens.

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Cheers to starting the conversation!

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This is a fantastic, great one on the Texas PML piece of music that is kind of as

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the title would indicate fanfare kind of March style.

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It's in the key of concert E flat and 4-4 throughout minus 1, 2-4 measure grand pause.

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It is less than 2 minutes in length.

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It has split clarinet parts, split trumpet parts.

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The trombone and uphony parts are not doubled.

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They have some independence.

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You really need five percussionists to make this work.

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The bell part is important.

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The new bass and an accessory percussion line for symbols and triangle.

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I would say five percussion minimum on this.

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One of the things I love that William Owens often does in his music writing is he gives

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a simplified snare drum part or an advanced snare drum part.

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I love that ability to differentiate depending on the skill level of your percussionist.

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So this piece is, as Laura said, really great.

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It's in lifted style all the way throughout.

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You must have really good trumpets and again, it split trumpet parts.

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So you should have a fairly large trumpet section in order to make this work.

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The piece starts off with a fanfare between trumpet flute and Obo.

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They come in on beat one and then the rest of the band comes in on beat three with a nice

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accented front, then the rest of the band's going to back out of the way so we can hear

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the melody but there's a nice little intro.

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There's some cute little chromaticism in measure four that is really nice.

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But you do want to make sure that that lines up really well between your flute and trumpet

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part, your upper people so that that way it doesn't sound like a wrong note or anything

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like that.

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Then immediately there's a four tapiano in measure five.

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The horns and the tenor sax and clarinet two get to continue on with trumpet two with

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like a little fanfare type moment.

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It's softer, the whole band kind of backs out of the way and we build up the excitement

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into the first melodic point which is going into measure eleven.

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The nice part is, everybody is tungging like pretty much 2D rhythms.

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It's just one, two and three, four and one.

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I don't even remember they're being any dotted or dotted, so it's fairly easy for kids

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to line up and to make it move together and have really nice alignments so you can focus

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on balance and things like that.

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At measure nine right before the first moment of melody there's a big timpony feature.

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So as Laura mentioned you definitely want to make sure you have a strong timpony player who's

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not afraid to play out and then the band kind of day crescendo's and the clarinet's

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come in with the melody.

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The melody here that the clarinet's have, it is below the break.

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It's in a great register for them.

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The first and second parts double except for for at least the moving line then it splits

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to harmony.

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Flute and obo come in and echo them along with the alto saxophone.

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It's a nice little woodwind feature here.

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There are no brass players playing but there are cues in the brass so if you needed some

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support.

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Like if you don't have any low-reads exactly.

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Exactly.

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Yeah, good use of brass.

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But I love the little woodwind feature here.

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Bells play a really important role.

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They are not doubling the flute part here so they are adding this nice little tinkling

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moment accompanying the clarinets here.

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Really nice woodwind feature moment.

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When they are dropped out we just have that bell or churn.

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The bell or churn.

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And they keep the tempo moving for sure.

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I love this part too because again it's kind of like a typical march even though it's

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a fanfare and not a march where the woodwinds do get to be featured.

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It feels almost like a trio.

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Yeah.

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The beginning of the piece.

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The articulations are really well laid out by Mr. Owens.

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It's tongue, tongue, slur, tongue, tongue, tongue, tongue, tongue.

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So getting a chance to work on that with your students and making it not it's not something

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horribly difficult.

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But making sure that they can line up.

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That's right.

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The tendency to add an extra note under the slur.

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So when you are marking your parts ahead of time that would be a perfect opportunity to

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write TST above a few of those moments so they are getting in the habit of how to retung

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from the get-go.

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There's a fun little harmony in measure 17 where the note should be an E flat but it changes

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to an E natural and makes it a different chord.

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So making sure that the flutes and obo really align there and the alto saxophone so

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that they sound like one.

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From the last time I remember playing this piece every time there would be an accidental note.

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It just didn't sound right.

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It was probably partially my kids fault but you know it just didn't always settle.

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So just working on those chord changes and making sure that it sounds really accurate

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would be helpful just to help the kids ears.

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There are some accidental also written in the clarinet part so when you're marking your

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parts ahead of time make sure you mark that that it carries through the measure at least

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a few times to remind your students.

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And then we have some trumpets taken over the melody.

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The trumpets come in at measure 19.

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They are taking over exactly what the clarinet stood.

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And I should say each time the melody occurs in this piece it's always on a pickup

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note on four.

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Yes.

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So we worked really hard to make sure that everybody who was passing on the melody would

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hold all the way to beat one so that it would touch and not be let go early.

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And that the pickup note plays really confidently so it's obvious that it's not just

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one, two and three, four.

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It's four, one, two, and three.

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Long pickup.

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Yes.

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Pick up notes leading to the downbeat.

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So trumpets take over right here at 19 the same melody that the clarinets had before.

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So now it's a little bit more of a brass feature but we do still have a lot of the woodwinds

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playing flute, no bow or out at this point.

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But the clarinet and saxophone families are playing with the brass kind of supporting what

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the brass we're doing but trumpets are leading here for sure.

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And they're in split parts.

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You have the melody together for one measure and then they're split.

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So as I mentioned, you want to make sure you either have a really confident trumpet

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section or a big one where you can have enough players to get both parts to come across.

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Stylistically, I feel like I have heard this played times before where people put a lot of

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space between these notes and I really don't think that that is how this should be played.

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There needs to be clear fronts to the notes for sure.

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Firm articulation to find note fronts but there does not need to be space between the

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notes.

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So just making sure firm fronts to the notes but note space in this section.

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Yes, I completely agree with that.

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We get a little bit of some space coming up in a moment.

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Again, the brass are kind of having their moment here.

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lead us also with a crescendo into another new little section at measure 22 with an A flat

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in the low brass so just making sure again that you're really positioning right on third making

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sure that it's correct. Sometimes the kids have trouble with that and you can hear that whenever we

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have judged people before. Then there's a pickup and the flute to add in with the with the trumpets

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along with the obo. Flutes are above the staff a little bit here so just making sure that intonation

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is really solid between flute and trumpet one is a very important detail to pay attention to here

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and this is a repeat of the opening statement. The first couple of measured opening statement right here.

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Because they're alone. Nobody else is playing one and two then the full band comes in on three. Yes.

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So that needs to be accurate and intuned because it's all by itself. Then we get this

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some more accents in the low brass like I mentioned before. Now we actually have some stylistic markings,

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accents, decado, accent, accent, accent, accent so that the lows are doing something a little different

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underneath as kind of like a little fanfare as part. The clarinet alto and horn here as we transition

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into this new section have a cool little not really so much accountability but like a response

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to the statement that the flute and trumpets have made. It's really important. It does have an accidental

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in there so you want to be really mindful of that but that moving part right there while everyone

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else is holding long notes is really important. We land on a full chord at the end of this as we

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start to transition into this new section and it's important to make sure that that chord is intuned

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and balance. William Owens is fantastic about scoring this stuff really well for

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middle school ensembles. So you know unless your ensemble is instrumentated in a unique way,

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you shouldn't really have to do many regrets here. He's written it so well. There is another

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tempany moment here while everyone is holding this long moment getting ready to transition into

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the new section. So again, as Katie said at the beginning, timidies important. Really important.

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You want to have a strong player. This chord I remember whenever I played it with my group and

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you know everybody has different instrumentation. Our trumpets were good but not the best at playing

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an upper C in tune. So I remember what we did to rescore is we had only one student play the

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upper C because we're holding it for a long time against the flutes and all the other first trumpets

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moved down to the A and played a different part the third of the chord. So that's something for sure

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that you can always do is just have one person on the upper note. The flute part is even split here as

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well. It's a G and a B flat together. So I think I think B flat sorry it's cut off a little bit.

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But you could just say only one flute gets to play the upper note and everybody else can play the

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lower. So that's always a good option. Or take some down an octave so you don't get too many

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people on the third that will look the chord sound really unbalanced if there's too many people on

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the third. That's absolutely right too depending on the instrumentation. And then at 27 the

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clarinets and the trumpets take over with melody but this time the melody starts on beat too.

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And now I love it. It's a little sexy. And now we're getting a little bit like spicy. So the articulation

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changes it's slurred in the melody but it's staccato in the other part. And you even hear this in

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the percussion. We had clavise in the percussion. So there's even that more that more staccato

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element in the percussion accompaniment here as well. So like all the low brass now have staccato

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quarter notes. So making sure that they're light and quiet behind the melody is important.

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All the upper woodwinds just have one in for in one in. So they're light and quiet behind the

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trumpet and clarinet melody. And trumpet and clarinet does not have staccato. So their parts

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actually I take that back. clarinets have the melody with the trumpets for like a second.

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Then they go to the accompaniment and it's just trumpets with horn on harmony. So at 28 trumpets are

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alone on the melody with y'all on the melody. So they need to be really confident and they have

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no staccatoes here. They are playing long like they were before and everybody else is playing a

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different moment. Horn and alto do have a counter melody to the trumpet part here. And again

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they are not staccato either. So making that differentiation between the accompaniment and the

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melody I think is very important stylistically. And then with the melody and counter melody

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working to balance that out so that you like the ratio between what's happening melodically and

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with the counter melody. And he wrote it really well. We're like trumpets have a dotted half note

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at the end of their melody and horn and alto have one two and three four. So it's always like

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they're interplaying their parts. But it's good to just teach students you know through this piece

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that longer valued notes are usually not that important and moving notes are more important. So

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you're going to have to write in like B softer on this note, B louder on this note. And I think

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that's good for us to teach kids really early on you know just because it says forte doesn't mean

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you're actually going to play forte. No, you have a whole note it's not forte. And then the

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melody kind of continues on between trumpet horn and alto in the counter melody. There are some

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accidental in measure 33 that are important to note because kids like forget them sometimes

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because there's so few in the piece there's an e natural in the trombone part. So just making sure

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we're really into and when we hit those moments. And then the melody ends with a nice whole note

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and a new pickup in the flute section. And now the flute's take over the this part that the

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brass just played before. So much like we had earlier now that was more brass focused. This is

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woodwind focus. So flute's are playing the same longer connected melody. Altos have this with

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them as well. And the clarinet's are the ones who have the counter melody part. Well it's slightly

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different than what was played before but it is a counter melody part. And then the accompaniment that

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crisp staccato light accompaniment is happening in the low reads in this section and tubas. We did

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add tubas in you phonyms here. I like in the percussion part here that there are this whole little

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section we've started adding accents and it gives it it helps to give it there's a little rimshot

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moment leading into this which is kind of cool but it gives it it gives it a little bit different

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feel instead of it just being a timekeeping mechanism. Now we've kind of added like Katie said

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it was a little spicy before. Now we've given it a little spicier sound. Yeah, it gives a little syncopated

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type feel. Yes yes I love this horns come in here as well joining the clarinet's on the counter

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melody. So lots of that color grouping in this piece. We add all the trumpets back in joining the

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flutes with the same idea for one two and three. And everybody goes back to the longer style here

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as this new melodic section at 40. So now that the trumpets have added in with the melody now

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everybody's back to the same melody or the same style no more staccato. No more staccato's.

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Yeah. So this is building again everybody together on this line this is kind of building to a recap

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of what we had at the beginning. The low brass parts are moving here a little bit more

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you know they're still on quarter notes but they're not just playing half notes or whole notes

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or they're not just repeating the same quarter note here. So they're moving around a little bit and they

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have a couple of accidental and those accidental happen across the ensemble not just in the

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in the low brass. I like this just like we had earlier in the piece we start to get this one two

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and three four and almost kind of starting of the fanfare and the low voices rest two and three four.

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That part is really important. We want that to project and come out through the ensemble.

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Then it leads us into a a uh, Timothy has another just brief little moment before a grand pause

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and it is actually written out its meter doubt to be one measure of two four on that grand pause

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which I like that that way it's it you know it's very clear to the kids

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and just in case they're not watching the witch. What never happens. Yeah of course it does. Of course it

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doesn't. And then we get to measure 46 and this is exactly like the beginning back to the fanfare.

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Yeah that's the same thing with trumpet and flute there's the cute little two and three

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and the horn and the sax again and then they do it another time and then we have like a little belltone

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type thing three from the end. Everybody's got an accent on one or three and then everybody plays

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on the next measure on one with a big timpany moment. Or timpany. Big timpany and then everybody

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finishes together on beat two. So this piece is just fabulous for a young band. It's it's very

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readable, very doable. The balance is it's well written to where any well instrumentated band

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could easily pull this off and make it sound fabulous. Yes I think it's it's a piece that makes a band

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sound. The piece sounds harder than it is and I think it's I love the key. I love the way it's

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orchestrated it it can make your band sound really good. Absolutely. Well we hope that you have found

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a way to possibly play some at fanfare in the future and thank you for joining us on this episode

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of Band Big AFF.