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 discussing
Tunbridge Meadows by Mark Williams. Cheers to
starting the conversation. Okay, I have to apologize
first for the quality of my voice today. The
wind in Texas has been out of control lately,
and I spent several hours outside yesterday,
and my allergies have caught up with me all of
that outside time. I told her she sounded like
Eeyore. I promise I'm happier than my voice eludes.
Okay, we're excited to be talking about Tumbridge
Meadows today. This piece is a grade one on the
Texas PML. It is in the key of concert E flat.
It's about two and a half minutes long. It starts
in 3 -4 and goes to 2 -4. It never changes key
signatures. The 3 -4 stuff is a little bit slower
and more lyrical in style. The 2 -4 is a little
faster and has a little bit more articulation
in it. It does have split clarinet parts, split
trumpet parts, and split trombone parts. Minimal
percussion requirements for this and range considerations,
even though it is a great one on the Texas PML,
your clarinets, first clarinets play consistently
over the high trumpets, same as well. Yeah. So
definitely you need to have good saxophones,
good clarinets, good horns for this piece, but
it has a lot to offer. So this piece again starts
off a dagio and in three four with a clarinet
solely they have pickups and they have one one
and a two and three and one And one and a two
that's the rhythm kind of at the beginning So
it's got some 16th notes a little bit of trickier
counting with some ties in there. I definitely
think Laura and I agree this is more like a 1
.75. Yeah, this is definitely a little bit of
a trickier grade one, but it is beautiful. Everybody
else, it's written beautifully so that they're
going to play underneath the clarinet solely.
There is a little a natural accidental in the
trombone one part that you have to be aware of
and make sure the tuning is okay. The bells and
flute and oboe do not play the first time. The
piece has a ds all coat up. So they play on the
DS time only. There is a crescendo leading into
measure... Five and then there's us the clarinets
keep going But now the clarinet one and the clarinet
two are both above the break The lyrical nature
of this beginning is a great opportunity if your
band is ready for it to really Use this for phrasing
purposes to teach shaping. It's got a real I
think it just musically makes sense how you would
shape the phrase for the melodic line and then
in terms of where to breathe and where not to
breathe be really intentional about that is going
to help to make this as smooth and lyrical as
possible. There is a little bit of movement in
the low brass here in this section. They're just
playing eighth notes but it's really important
to make sure that it's as legato as possible
and doesn't sound bumpy at all. And the trombone
two and euphonium and tuba have the same part
there along with bassoon and base clarinet but
the trombone one part mirrors the horn and alto
part, tenor sax part. So it's just it is a little
bit tricky if you don't have kids that can be
independent of each other. You'd have to have
a pretty good trombone section as I just mentioned
with the two trombone parts moving totally differently.
Then you've got the end of this first phrase
going into measure nine with a little suspended
cymbal roll and a crash right on measure nine
and the trumpets come in with the same melody
that the clarinets just had. So we pass it to
flute and trumpet here right? Yeah the clarinets
were by themselves. This is where flute nobo
come in since they didn't play the first time.
The bells also come in with them at this moment
so everybody else is playing underneath them
just a nice pretty little harmony clarinets get
this cool little like counter melody line that's
really pretty and they're under the break again.
The trombone part goes up to a Cs and Ds in this
section at measure 12 and 13 and then at measure
12 to 13 the whole band is leading up to the
impact point at 13. Flute, clarinet, one and
oboe along with only trumpet one keep going on
the melody. and oh and bells sorry and then we
have that's a great moment too by the way to
make sure that nobody's taking a breath there's
a big crescendo that's teaching those like phrasing
skills to students giving them other places that
they can take a breath and then at 14 the horns
and the altos have like a little response to
the melody and then the melody finishes out that
phrase back all the way in all clarinets all
trumpets flute and oboe everybody else again
is just underneath them playing in chords with
a little what I call a sigh whenever this is
written in music and two three so it's just like
getting softer and then we get to the two or...
time signature change and it goes Allegro. So
at the Allegro section here it's an immediate
tempo change and we have xylophone and tambourine
and clarinet that are laying down the pulse with
eighth notes. It's going to be really important
that the clarinets do their best to match the
articulation of the xylophone and it's written
on top line F for the first clarinets and a fourth
line D for the second clarinets. So when you're
over the break like that it's not always easy
for young players to get that really crisp articulation.
I make my clarinets practice it on low E. So
we play low E and if they can play really crispy
and nice and light staccato on that low E, it's
the same type of air and articulation that they
will use when they're over the break. but you
want to make sure that they're really listening
to the xylophone and the tambourine. Then the
altos and horns get to have some fun melody here.
It's a dotted eight sixteenth rhythm. It does
have a pickup note. All of the melodic lines
in here have a pickup note and one, two, and
one, two. So again, the firmness of articulation
on that dotted eight sixteenth needs to match
what's happening in the clarinets and in the
percussion and then making sure that the altos,
tenor and horns align. perfectly on that rhythm.
And they have an eight measure phrase so that's
something that you would have to work on with
them making sure that they don't breathe in the
middle or find other sneaky spots to take a breath
if they have to take a breath. And it's in two
four right so an eight measure phrase is not
is not that big of a deal. Your brass with the
exception of the horns are completely laying
out right here so it's kind of a nice little
face break for them. Then we have the melody
getting picked up and added in on the flute and
the trumpet. The flutes are on a high E flat
above the staff. So I mean, that's pretty high
when you think about it. The horns, by the way,
and this melody are up to a D. So it's just a
little bit more. Highly written in their range
in my opinion So this is just first trumpet that
comes in oboes join in with the clarinets on
the ostinato 8th note part and then second trumpets
add in To have them finish off the melody they
have a fun little accent It's the first time
we've had an accent in the piece two and one
and and one and two so they get to have a little
syncopation There's a little real pretty cord
in the clarinets above them and then they have
the end of the melody and the whole band has
and and one so another little syncopated moment
again with an accent a staccato and then a house
top accent and then want to make sure you line
up all those stylistic markings and where this
happens this is two measures before 35 so measure
33 the trumpets are the only ones who take the
phrase all the way to beat one so like the clarinets
what I have found when I've played this before
the clarinets have a half note and measure 32
and then when they do not wanna hold that note
long enough, it needs to touch the silence, sound
to silence. In measure 33, where the entire band,
except trumpets, have a rest on beat one. And
then they finish out that syncopated phrase,
and, and one. The whole ensemble comes in at
that point on that syncopation. And the trumpets
are holding a D below the staff. So make sure
you're kicking and tuning it to make sure you're
ending the phrase in a nice way. Then we have
pickups on beat two going. into measure 35 and
we're back to the lyrical style even though we're
in 2 -4. And it's faster. And it's faster. We're
having flute, oboe and clarinet. They have the
same type of melody that the trumpets just kind
of gave us beforehand. Everybody else needs to
play softer underneath them. We have a little
bit more excitement in the percussion coming
up and then the trumpets take over and join the
upper woodwinds with the end of the melody. The
whole band has some accents in measure 40 and
then we have a sports on the piano at 41 so that's
really important to practice everybody hitting
it quickly right away strong and then going all
the way down to a level 2 dynamic so that you
can build it up again I frequently will tell
my upper people like the clarinet one is on a
high C I don't think I would actually have anybody
play a high C here. I would rewrite that so that
the clarinets were playing the same thing under
the break. And then just going up to a regular
third space C But either way what I was about
to say is I usually just tell my upper woodwinds
not to do a crescendo at all and Rely upon the
lower voices to really carry through that crescendo
Yes, so that's a good way to make it sound full
without it sounding top -heavy and right and
bright Yes, everybody releases on beat two and
then we have another and pickup going into 43
we're back to Alto horn tenor sax with the melody
it's the same as before With the xyloh and the
clarinets holding down the fort underneath them
the trumpets take over with the melody again,
but this time At 49 the trumpets just had the
end of the melody and then at 49 the low voices
have a little echo of it And they're getting
softer and softer and we're getting slower than
the flute have an echo of it for two measures.
Then the sax and the horn have it again. So we're
getting slower and slower, but we're having these
little echoes and everybody else is just holding
long chords. So this would be a part where you'd
really have to make sure tuning is really set
and quiet underneath these little two -bar phrase
echoes because it's not that many kids playing
it. So that would be a part where you might need
to also say like only one on a part place here
while the you know the flutes and the oboes have
the echo. And then we're getting slower and slower
because we're about to de -s back to the beginning
basically. So we go back to that adagio three
four and one and two and three and one but now
we add the counter melody in in the flute and
oboe that was not there the first time in the
bells that was not there the first time so it's
a little different but what I like about this
is it's relatively easy to teach because of the
there's a lot of repeated rhythms and things
in it so that part is really nice but you know
the phrasing and the maturity of sound especially
the ranges I think are ultimately what makes
this challenging. Yep. Then the flutes and the
oboes as she mentioned had that counter melody
they go back to having the melody at nine just
like the first time and then at measure 14 we
go to the coda and it ends out in this lyrical
manner it's pretty um thickly scored here so
the like flute flute trumpet oboe and clarinet
one have the end of the phrase horn and alto
have a response to that then the trumpets end
up having the end of the phrase together everybody
else is playing chords and then there's like
a little suspended suspension chord on beat three
of the third measure of the coda and then horn
and alto end will not end it but they are about
to end it with the one and a two and three and
then we have a four four measure the trumpets
play the melody one last time one and a two and
three four one and then we end with a really
nice chord nobody's up high in this case and
I thought it sounded really nice on the recording
that I heard so probably don't have to rebalance
it or anything and it ends really really quietly
So there's just not a lot of like pulse stuff
to help you in this piece like there's not a
snare drum very often Right, there's not a lot.
There's a tambourine and the clarinet but like
your kids have to have a really good sense of
pulse They have to be willing to work on mature
beautiful music and and really work on phrasing
and some a little bit trickier counting because
of ties dotted eighth notes 16th notes not compressing
that one and at that adagio tempo that's right
and slurred, that's real easy for them to do.
So this is definitely one of those pieces that
will stretch your band, but that we both think
is just absolutely gorgeous and we hope that
you will find a way to program at Tunbridge Meadows
in the future. Thanks for joining us on this
episode of Band BFFs!