Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing Atlantis
by Anne McGinty, which is a Texas PML grade one.
Cheers to starting the conversation. All right,
this is just like a rite of passage. I mean,
honestly, I feel like it is. So this piece, Atlantis,
this is in the key of concert B flat. It's four,
four throughout. It is about two minutes long.
It has split clarinet parts and split trumpet
parts. Pretty minimal percussion, but you need
to have a good snare drum player for this. Accidentals
galore all over this piece. She wrote this piece
with like lots of what I call like color chords.
So everything sounds really pretty together as
long as everybody's making their best sounds.
and can play in tune. And balanced correctly.
It can sound great, but it can also sound really
immature if you don't think about those things.
So the whole piece starts off with snare drum
playing fast at 120 and piano. One, and a two,
and a three, and a four, and a one, and a two,
and a three, and a four, and a... And then the
whole band comes in on beat four with a forte.
There are no style markings. So... Play this
all long and connected. Everybody comes in with
the same rhythm. Four, one. Four, one. Three,
one. But it's like a big jump. So flutes are
above the staff now. Trumpets are on an upper
C. Just kind of pointing that out to you. One.
accidental one, three, accidental, accidental,
accidental for most, regular note, accidental
for most, regular note, one, off. And that whole
time the percussion is getting softer along with
the band, the snare drum. Now the positive of
this is it is 2D rhythm throughout this. So it's
a couple extra tuba notes. Yes. I mean like rhythm
wise, that makes it really really great, but
you have got to make sure that. that we tongue
together and that I cannot stress enough, like
the balance of the chords. Yeah, for sure, for
sure. So making sure that sounds really nice
and just like kind of programmatic as you open.
Snare drum is now at a mezzo piano. We've added
in some rolls and then the full band comes in
at 12. The melody is in flute and trumpet and
they have a cute little syncopated rhythm. One,
two, three, and, and one. Two Don't breathe one
two three and four and one Now breathe so you
want to make sure that when you're learning this
that they're doing a four measure phrase So it
sounds more mature the low people have just chords
on one three long one Three four agreed so they
don't they should not be short and they should
be touching if you have two quarter notes in
a row clarinet Sax and horn kind of have background
parts as well. It's just a little bit different
and more of those like color chords underneath.
And I would consider, there are no style markings
like Katie mentioned, but I would consider either
writing in for the kids on the syncopated part.
Yes, all of that needs, all of the half note
stuff needs to be tenuto. But on the syncopated
stuff writing accents, staccato, accent, staccato,
dee da, dee da. But I thought you were talking
about the underneath part. I would draw a tenuto
on the quarter note, quarter rest, quarter note,
quarter rest. I would draw a tenuto on the quarter
note. Duh, don't breathe either, duh. Yeah, so
a lot of times I've heard bands play this and
everybody breathes right there, like a two bar
phrase. Yeah, that's not gonna be okay, especially
when you go on 120. So make sure that kids are
really paying attention to that. Draw it in for
them on their part. No breath with an arrow.
Lows get a little bit of a moment in the sunshine
at measure 15. They just get to move and play
four quarter notes. 16, we go back to the melody
still in flute and trumpet. Everybody else has
kind of the background part. Again, it's quarter
note, quarter rest, quarter note, quarter rest
for everybody. So not letting those notes rush
and not letting them be short because that's
what causes the rushing is people going one,
three, one, three. So just making sure that that's
accurate together. and not loud. And then we
have concert D flats and the low brass and and
low woodwind so making sure and like they actually
have some the low brass part even though it's
not very challenging rhythmically they move around
and they have to have a good ear they need to
get it in their ear what some of these skips
are supposed to sound like that's going to be
really important for that harmonic foundation
for the rest of the band. At measure 19, right
before the next big box number, there's a little
harmonic one, three, which is fun to bring out
in the horn, alto sax, and clarinet, too. Clarinets
have not gone over the break yet, she says, softly
checking. Oh, we do have one C in the first clarinet
so far. Other than that, it's been under the
break. At 12. The same oh not 12. I'm so sorry
at 20. The melody is now passed to clarinet and
alto Trumpets still have the melody Horns also
have a harmony part with alto. Sorry, not the
melody about harmony part And this I think is
tough because the section that had this before,
you had flute, what? Flute and trumpet, right?
And so it's pretty easy as a color group to match
style between flute and trumpet. But now when
you're talking about clarinet, alto, horn, and
trumpet, and we've split into harmony, it is
tough to match that same style, but it's important
for you to spend time on that, making sure that
just because it's... thicker and we've added,
you know, like conical brass in the horn that
we still get the same note length in the style,
dee -dah, dee -dah. Yep. um snare drum has kind
of dropped out here we have a little crash cymbal
and then they come back in as like a response
so all the melody has one two don't breathe one
two three and four and one snare drum has a little
conversation with them during the long note so
just making sure that they don't rush that and
it's not too loud the flutes uh flutes come in
with a new little melodic part at measure um
22 with altoing trumpet one on the melody with
them. Everybody else continues to now play chords
underneath them. At 24 we have the same thing
we had before where most of the band has quarter
note, quarter rest chords. Trumpet has melody
alone here and then the alto saxophone comes
in and has like a little response at measure
27 as the rest of the band is getting softer.
I guess it's the crash cymbal part moves to bells.
Yeah, I can't tell but somebody moves to bells
and now bells have the melody with At measure
29 and this is like a woodwind. Yeah, this part
can sound really not okay If your kids can't
play with good tone and good tuning because it's
goes up a little bit higher This is where the
clarinets do go up higher in the staff So making
sure that your clarinets don't get louder as
they go higher That they still sound dark and
not bright as they go higher and they're not
the melody yeah they're just chords underneath
but I've heard this piece played sometimes where
like All you can pay attention to is the high
clarinet sticking out. You can't even hear like
the flute melody. So and we want that like where
they're written with the clarinets. We want the
when the clarinets go up in this part and this
is we're talking when they start to get really
high 35 36. Corners need to come in. They need
to be snug against the mouthpiece. Obviously
voicing needs to be high and that air needs to
be going straight across the top of the tip of
the reed. So not letting that their air get too
wide up there and I would put one clarinet player
on it, and that's only if you have one clarinet
player that can play it and sound good. If you
don't, that part is... Double -ish in the sax.
In the flute. So do not feel like you have to
have a first clarinet player play that if they
can't play it with a good sound. I agree. Again,
percussion bells part is very important here,
too, and they can help beef that up. 37, now
the trumpets get the melody, but it's not even
a full melody. It's like a little conversation
with the lows. So trumpets go one, two, three,
and, and low. One, two, three, and, and low.
One, two, three, and, and low. One, two, three,
and, and low. One, two, three, and, and low.
One, two, three, and, and low. One, two, three,
and, and low. One, two, three, and, and low.
One, two, three, and, and low. One, two, three,
and, and low. One, two, three, and, and low.
One, two, three, and, and low. One, two, three,
and, and low. One, two, three, and, and low.
One, two, three, and low. One, two, three, and
low for them to be mezzo piano or piano at most
so we can hear all these differing conversations.
And again, you just have the same style like
Laura said, one, two, three. Consistency is key.
And one, yep. At 41 the trumpets and altos come
in with a little harmony part to the melody and
now the upper people like flute and clarinet
are having another little conversational piece
along with the saxophones too. Now the low voices
right here have a skip of a seventh so like that's
that's one of the things I'm talking about about
this part being a little more challenging for
low voices not rhythmically but making sure that
they hear the notes that they are supposed to
play. So they're going from a low B -flat to
an A -flat top line of the staff. So I mean that
is not easy. That is not easy to do. Nope. And
then they're going to a D -flat. Trumpets have
the end of the melody here at 43. They end the
melody alone and then we kind of get softer and
we have that same 1 -3 at 44. Snare drum now
picks up and gets louder and at 45 the flutes
come in with the melody we kind of have a repeat
of what we have before where the clarinets are
playing soft chords underneath them but now they're
kind of conversing back and forth with trumpet
the trumpets alone have the melody at 47 clarinet
and flute have a little bit of a conversation
piece at the end of the clarinet or the trumpet
solo and then at 49 the the middle voices have
two three four and one and it's like it's very
chordal got to make sure the style is matching
up there. Then it goes back to the flutes with
the melody, then the trumpets with the melody.
So it's pretty obvious who has melody because
it's the moving part, but everybody's still playing
underneath them. So you have to layer this really
well to where your ear knows who to listen for
and isn't overwhelmed by all the color chords
that were written. Then we get to this next spot
at 53 and it is piano and it is so important
like please do not back up. Yes, please do not.
Like use this piece to teach that dynamic level.
Use that in your fundamentals. Make sure that
you're working on that. This is a section in
here that I hear bands not sound very good on,
not, I mean, just because, simply because the
dynamic, they tonally do not sound good when
they're playing piano. And the low brass have
to come in on an upper B flat here. They've now
jumped up again. That's right. But they have
to come in really soft. Piano on a high B flat.
Good luck. some low brass players that is not
easy so make sure again that you're using your
fundamental time to address that and that your
kids can play with a good sound. They also have
a G flat here so it's like a scale going down
B flat A flat G flat F E flat D flat so like
That's a lot of yeah stuff for trombone. Yes
it is So I mean like maybe don't choose it unless
you're you know, like my low brass can play fifth
position That's right. Otherwise, this is not
gonna sound good. It says crescendo poco a poco
I would draw the crescendo and on their part
showing them talking about the number system
Like we're gonna start at a number one here We're
gonna be at a three by this time at a five at
this time That way they don't crescendo to too
fast and too quickly. That's the same word. Sorry
long day at school. At 57 the snare drum is continuing
kind of this like very active part underneath
don't let it take over the rest of the band then
we have our big finish the brass have these chords
kind of like the beginning but we have this little
cute interjection from flute and clarinet two
three and we have to make sure we're in tune.
It's big octaves in everybody. Two, three, and
the lows are moving around, playing those chords.
Again, really tough to tune, but they're there.
And then the whole piece start ends with two,
three, two, three, and the whole band finishes
with like a nice little. last note and I would
make that last note longer than you think you
need to right we talk about like that obviously
you've heard us say before I always like to use
the word tone but I mean I would even write like
t -a -h we talk about in my band hall making
sure that our notes end with vowel sounds and
not consonant sounds so we want to hear a ah
at the end and not a not a uh you know don't
close their throat open throat release otr yep
so this piece is fun. It has a lot of hidden
challenges, but it's a great piece to choose
if your children don't need to rhythmically work
on much, but only if they can play with good
intonation and tone in different ranges of their
instrument. Yes, I agree with that completely.
All right, well we hope you will consider programming
Atlantis in the future, and thank you for joining
us on this episode of Band BFFs! you