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
Sun Chaser by Carol Britton Chambers. Cheers
to starting the conversation. Sun Chaser is a
grade two on the Texas PML. It is a challenging
grade two. It's about five minutes in length.
It goes through a myriad of keys. It starts in
the key of B -flat. That's a great word there.
Thank you. Thank you. It's my summer. Keep the
language up. It starts in the key of concert
B -flat, goes to concert E -flat, and then finishes
in concert F. It has a bunch of different time
signatures. four three four so you need to be
like your kids need to be comfortable with all
of that split clarinet parts split trumpet parts
you can do this with five percussionists though
if you have more you could divide some parts
up but you could do it with as few as five percussionists
Love the way Carol Britton Chambers, right? It's
so pretty Yeah as always the melodies are gonna
be catchy kids are gonna like it, but there is
some meat Yes, all the slow lyrical sections
are More challenging than they look. Yeah, definitely
your students will get the parts and go. Oh,
you know, no problem Got this but then when you
start putting it together, it's really difficult
to make it sound mature if your kids don't have
a lot of experience with the lyrical style playing.
Right. So if you were going to program this piece
for like UIL or something like that earlier in
the year for your winter concert or your fall
concert, you should absolutely play something
with lyrical sections. So that way your students
have already talked with you about, you know,
phrasing. That's right. Leading through long
notes making sure you this person breathes here.
I breathe here those sorts of little things Intonation,
you know tendencies when you're talking about
playing softer or you know, whatever Yeah, so
also, you know, this is I feel like it's five
minutes The piece is five minutes in length and
at least half of it lyrical yeah you know and
the the fast catchy part comes back and it's
the same thing at the end which is nice because
you don't have to reteach that necessarily but
the lyrical spots are Media enough that your
kids have to be pretty mature to play it. Definitely.
Yeah. Yeah, so it starts off with just percussion
There is an optional piano part which I was saying
to Laura would be totally cool if you had like
a Bassoonist in your band who could play the
piano they could get up and play the piano just
for like like the first six measures, then they
could go and sit down and play bassoon for the
rest of the piece, because the piano part does
not come back. So if you are willing to do that,
cool. If you don't have anybody that plays piano
or you don't have a percussionist that plays,
then it is also fine to play it on the vibraphone.
When we played it, that's what we did. We played
it on vibes. Yeah. And the vibe part comes back
over and over and is very important in this piece.
So that would be totally acceptable. So it's
just the vibes or... at the beginning, then you've
got like little wind chime effects, little triangle
dings, and some bells. The bells have - Slow
tempo, 76. Very slow, yep. The bells come in
and have like a little moment, and it's just
back and forth between those two mallet instruments.
Then in measure three, on beat three, the lower
voices come in and it's mezzo piano. So they
have to have a really good breath. And then they
have to sneak in with their tongue. Yes, and
play soft when they first come in with no bump.
And that is something that younger bands have
to practice doing really well to make it be effective.
Then the rhythms change. The low, low voices
like Tuba and Barry have a change on beat four,
whereas the tenor voices like trombone, euphonium,
and There are cues for like tenor sax and bari
sax they change on beat 3 so we've got a lot
and she writes like this often where One grouping
changes on three, one grouping changes on four.
So you want to make sure you can hear those different
changes. Now, I like that it's kind of thinly
scored here, but she's put cues and parts so
you can kind of play with the texture to fit
your ensemble. But I think throughout the entire
lyrical, every lyrical section in this, what
Katie was just talking about, about just ensuring
there's transparency when notes are moving. Like
I think that is what makes, yes, what makes it
difficult and to hear all of those chord tones
come through. Yep. Then we kind of have the same
thing and then at measure seven the trumpets
and clarinets come in with a melody and the trumpet
two and one as Laura mentioned are split so they
are different and same with clarinet two and
one so they're kind of doubled each other. The
saxes come in as well now. Cues yep on a little
counter melody and then finally the upper woodwinds
add in we're just kind of building and building
adding more voices, and then we're building to
a full band chord at 11 and Then the lows come
in on beat three with an accent, so it's like
you know kind of like marching band desk one
Three and then you hold the chord and the chord
is three is six beats because it changes Time
signature, so you're holding it even longer,
the timpani starts roll, or not timpani, bass
drum and suspended cymbals start rolling to make
it be more exciting, and then an immediate key
change and tempo change. And style change. And
style change. So right at 14, we hit, we land,
we're in three, four time, and it starts with
percussion. And we're in E flat. And the key
change to E flat, that's right. So percussion
starts and they're establishing the pulse. We
go from basically double time. We go from 72
to 154. whatever so we've double you know we've
we've sped the tempo up by twice yeah so we start
right at the three four and the vibes are laying
down the time for you one and two and three and
one and two and three and one and two and three
and so they're establishing that pulse which
I think is really smart and she does you know
she writes well really like that so the whole
ensemble isn't having to transition this tempo
together but you want to make sure that your
vibe player is locked in however the whole ensemble
does eventually the the eighth note ostinato
does come in and continues going in the upper
woodwinds. So you have to teach everybody to
be way soft on that part because they're just
functioning as the metronome. And I would find
like find the mallet choice that you want on
vibraphone that you want your wind players to
imitate and then make them listen to that sound
and okay that's the articulation that we're trying
to match because this happens several times in
here and we want to make sure the articulation
between the upper woodwinds and the vibes, you
know, matches to the best of their ability. In
the first clarinet part, when they come in and
measure 18 with these eighth notes and trumpets
come in at 18 with the melody, this is the first
time we've heard this cool little melody in 3
-4, but the first clarinets are on a top line
F staccato eighth notes at 156 BPM. So you know
automatically that's not gonna sound great unless
your clarinet players, you know, can play with
a really good sound so like that is something
I would I it's in octaves in the clarinets right
there so just take your one play yeah pick your
one player that sounds really great on that register
or nobody I mean honestly you wouldn't be able
to tell because the flutes are on the upper B
flat and the oboes are an octave below as well
the flute so you can do the same with the flutes
you know if they are just Sharp or something
up above the staff. You could just pull some
of them down So again, like Laura said do whatever
works for your band the trumpets have the melody
alone you need to have a solid trumpet section
for this piece and and I think a bigger trumpet
section because the melody happens in just the
trumpets often. Yeah. And with a lot of other
stuff happening, so they need to be able to project
and play well. I love the little melodic theme.
It's got a little syncopation, like two little
dotted quarters, and it's very stylistic. So
it's written specifically to play all the eighth
notes lifted, but then to keep everything else
really long and connected. So you got to kind
of teach that from the beginning for the whole
group then the melody goes to clarinet and trumpet
at 26 and then the lows come in and they have
just like a little background part but they have
to play light and quiet and that's what I remember
when we played this it was difficult from the
band at the time to balance to the melody because
everybody else does not have the melody it's
just clarinet and trumpet and so you got to teach
your kids to like play soft and and crispy and
really underneath those important voices and
then i also think the challenge in this is that
because those players like you know katie addressed
what's happening in the low voices but in the
upper woodwinds basically they are all playing
different rhythms that come out to be one and
two and three and one and two and three and when
you put it all together but they're playing you
know the saxes are different from the bassoons
are different from the flutes are different from
the oboes and so I think kids can get so caught
up in the, what is my rhythm that they disregard
volume or style at all. And that's when it starts
to become noisy. Yep. So just building confidence
and you know, like beating the part into their
head. So that when you put it together, it's
not going to sound like, Oh, what is happening
here? Exactly. As Laura said, it should just
sound like straight up eighth notes, but she
made it be a little bit more challenging to where
like the flutes play one, two, one, two. and
three, and two, three and one, two and three,
and then like bassoon has one and, three and
one, and three, one, one and, I assume. We have
to turn the page, yeah. So. That's tricky when
you're trying to keep the tempo. And then the
low voice is one and rest, rest, rest, two, three.
Everybody's just. Yeah, yeah. You got to be able
to count and keep it the same sounding the whole
time. And you're going to have to work on that
accompaniment a lot. Like just keeping it fast,
short, in tempo, and light. Yeah. And soft. It's
kind of tricky, so we just talked about it for
a long time. Hopefully y 'all get it. And then
more percussion adds in, which just adds to that
noise factor. So I mean, just in this whole section
right here as it builds in. You got to listen
to trumpet and clarinet. Yeah, and clarinet.
That's it. And they... Finish out the melody
and then we all kind of stop and then clarinet
2 comes in with like the new little melodic theme
2 3 1 and then now we're like less Rhythmic and
we're more flowing. So the mallet the vibes,
I guess Yes, the vibes have the melody at 38
or not the melody but they have the cool part
They have the cool little one two and three and
two three and one two and three so I think horns
are really the lead voice. Oh, for sure. Horn
and clarinet, yeah. And sax, yeah. Oh yeah, I'm
sorry. Obviously, it's horn and clarinet, too,
and saxophones that come in at 38. So horn should
be the focal point, for sure. And again, it's
very flowy. In measure 41, there's a rhythm that
goes one, two, rest on three, and you come back
in on the and. Be sure that your kids don't clip
beat two. So it goes one. One, one. One, two,
three, one, two, and one. So you have to be sure
that the beat two is long and not one, two, and
one. They're gonna make it sound like a hiccup.
They will, yep. So keeping that note is important
and it comes back over and over and over. And
so just make sure that the students know that.
Consistency in that. And then the lows kind of
just have, when they've come in, they have chords
underneath that melody. You know, just making
sure that everything's locking in the key of
E flat. Lots of C's and D's above the staff and
trombones, so making sure that that's in tune
as well. And then the trumpets come in and we
go back to that other style. So we had the flowing
for a moment. Now we're kind of back to the melody.
It's still the same melody, but now the ostinato
short style is back in from everybody else. So
we're passing eighth notes back and forth between
different instruments. So just making sure. And
I remember when we played this, we literally
just said no melody. Everybody just... You know
like making sure that we can stay in time with
no metronome, you know, that's it's tricky It
is yeah and keeping it short the whole time as
Laura already mentioned is so they get lazy They
get so long. Yeah. Yeah, and this piece is long.
It's five minutes So you got to make sure you're
really thinking about that The low people get
to have like kind of a cool little part at measure
54 Then everybody else is quieter underneath
them 58 we're back to the trumpet and clarinet
having the melody and we're back to the same
Exactly the same as what we had before Yeah,
the part where we have to make sure we're listening
to the melody and then lows kind of take over
at 66 for a moment and we're kind of thinning
out we're getting softer Lyrical. Yep. Yep. So
everybody kind of has moments where they're coming
in and out and then we end with like just basically
flute horn, alto, bassoon and trombone. So they're
holding a long note and we change key and then
we go straight into clarinet melody. And now
we're doing like B naturals, F sharps. So that,
you know, marking your parts for your kids is
kind of nice for them. That key from E flat to
F. I mean, that's a big change, right? And there's
no like fermata regroup. This is just immediate.
So making sure that you've helped prep the kids.
This section right here, I think is. Absolutely
beautiful, but you have to have, there is no
percussion going on, so the pulse is all happening
in the wind players. The melody is in the clarinet,
the counter melody is in the alto saxophone,
and it is just the clarinet family and saxophone
family minus bari sax that is playing right here.
It's that exposed. You gotta have a bass clarinet.
Yes, that is the only bass voice in this little
choir right here. So this, now it does have some
eighth notes, but this We've dropped back down,
we're at 76 BPM, we are back to 4 -4 time, and
then we have the new key change. This needs to
sound as rich and lush as possible. That beautiful
reed sound that you're gonna get in your clarinets
and saxophones, phrasing, like make it as musical
as possible. I think the reference recording
online, like that you can just look up on YouTube,
I think does a really nice job of phrasing through
this little middle section here. But it's very
exposed When we get to measure 79 now we are
adding in more people the flutes are coming in
horns And altos now take over what I would really
consider the more important part We add in bells
as well. So clarinets and saxes are still doing
what they did before but now we have this counter
or sorry Yes, clarinets and saxes, but now the
horns are joining the counter melody and flutes
come in with another really interesting little
part, slightly faster. We've heard the clarinet,
so now I would put that in the background and
bring out the flute horn. Yeah, and the flute
part is very doodly for this tempo and it's above
the staff, so it could probably be a little bit
much if you have a large flute section, so you
might want to consider having only part of the
section play just so it's not so screamy over
everything else. The bells part is really important.
It even says play it on rubber mallets. So just
make sure that you - And it's not the same as
the flute. No, it's its own part. It's its own
part. Yep, and then again as Laura said making
sure you hear different chord changes that are
happening here Everybody's changing on different
beats. You want to make sure you can hear all
of those when you're looking at the score you
want to be able to hear what you see. If you
see the quarter note, you need to be able to
hear that, and then you hear eighth notes after
that, and then more eighth notes. So just making
sure that what you see on the score is what is
happening in front of you. Then the horn and
sax have this cool little part in 84. The clarinets
kind of take it over. Some little eighth notes,
and then at 86, the trumpets and flutes take
it over. And then there's a slight cello rondo
through the eighth notes. We're just going up.
four more beats. So we're kind of a cello rondoing
very slowly. Now, this measure right here, measure
86, before going into 87, this part right here,
the accelerano measure, Katie's talking about
one, two, and three, and four. It has a quarter
note on beat four instead of eighth notes. What
your kids are gonna want to do is take a breath.
And brush it. Yeah, they're going to want to
go, one, two, and three, and four, one, and there's
a big crescendo underneath it as well. It goes
from mezzo piano to forte, so we absolutely do
not want... to take a breath there, but just
know that's... gonna be what they want to. And
in marking my parts, I would draw an arrow between
those two measures and put an NB in everything,
like just to make sure you understand you do
not get breath there. No breath there. And I
would make sure they know where to breathe before
that. Like clarinet one can breathe after the
quarter note in 86, the first quarter note. Clarinet
two can breathe between the two half notes, et
cetera. So you can kind of look around and if
you mark those breath marks for them and not
just say, don't breathe here, but say, here's
where you do breathe. Here's where you are going
to breathe, that's right. That helps the students.
So we're at 87. The trumpet part goes a little
higher here too, by the way. It goes up to high
F sharp, the trumpet one part. And then we got
like E and D. So this can be a little bit of
a tuning issue if your kids struggle with that
a little bit. The flutes are up on upper D above
the staff. Clarinets are on, you know, fourth
space E. So this could be a tuning. Issue here
this big moment where everybody's forte. We're
all playing Half notes that are tenuto marked
and then we're playing everything really long.
It's kind of like more decisive of a part I don't
know. That's the word that comes to mind for
me Told my students to tongue a little firmer
and measure 88 Because it's like out this cool
horn and sax part one and two three and four
and a one So that part's really neat. Just bringing
that out again. They're not trying to accent
or play like short They're keeping everything
long and connected since we're in the lyrical
section Then the trombones euphoniums tuba low
reeds have a little response one and three and
four And one. And that needs to be really firm.
And there's no retard onto it. We both sang one,
sorry. But they need to tongue that really firmly.
Then the horns and altos have another little
response. Then we're gonna do a little bit of
a, it's like a modulation sort of. We go into
having D flats in euphonium, A flat in horn.
Everybody's got accidentals here. Then we reach
the peak, the pinnacle. And we all change on
different. Beats so at measure 96. Yeah, it's
like yeah it is. It's like bell tones So I would
bop 90th. I don't know. I just said 86. I'm sorry
93. I would bop 93 quite often to make sure you
can hear all the different parts. And when the
kids come in on a long note, treat it like a
forte piano. It's already marked to decrescendo
as you're holding anyway. So just make sure that
whenever you see the decrescendo, you're really
quiet on that long note. It's different for every
single part. So you'd have to like write that
in for the kids or teach it that way. Cause what
we're trying to do is we're thinning back out
again, we're getting softer. And there's a retardando.
So like it slows. down here as well so I mean
another reason I think that bopping is really
important just locking in the timing so everybody
feels really comfortable with it now we're back
down to 76 and we have that same little clarinet
sax melody with the horn joined in we do have
low people on a different part now and they have
half notes descending which is really pretty
so like lead through those crescendo down And
then we kind of end it again and go straight
back to the same thing we had before. It's just
a recap of the three, four fast part in E flat.
The difference is the melody starts in the flute.
So instead of it being in trumpet like it was
before, the melody starts in the flute. And you
want to ensure that the flute style matches the
style that the trumpet set up at the beginning
of the piece. And then everybody comes back in
trumpets come back in with the melody with the
clarinets and then at 111 the flutes go back
to their one two and and for what I've done or
not for but y 'all remember the part I was talking
about before where they Clarinets and trumpets
have the melody. Yep. Yep Keeps going we get
to 121. It's the same thing as before the vibes
have a little special part Timpani has a cool
part horn and sax and clarinet have the melody
just like earlier just like the beginning I don't
think There's much different except that Sometimes
the trumpets are not the melody in this second
time around and they're more of the background
part with the eighth notes There's a full band
mezzo piano at 137 where everybody gets softer
and then we lead up and it's all eighth notes
except for the lows So gosh keeping that two
and three and went into the same style all the
way through us. It's hard Then we have the melody
again at 141 same people clarinet and trumpet
And then we kind of finish this all the way to
the end. Yep, the lows get the last moment of
glory. One, two, and, and one, two, and it's
D flat. So make sure they're in tune on that.
And then one, two, three, and one. So the whole
band ends on a ta or a tone last accent and quarter
note. So it's definitely a hard grade too, as
Laura already said at the beginning. I think
it looks easier on paper than it is to execute.
To actually execute it, yeah. But great music.
It's beautiful. Kids will love it. And I wanna
go back to one thing Katie said earlier. If it
is something you're looking at programming in
the spring, make sure that you're planning ahead
and prepping your kids in the fall semester for
the skills that they're gonna need to have. Don't
wait until the spring to teach them those skills.
You need to lay that foundation earlier in the
year. Thank you for joining us on this episode
of Band BFFs.