Welcome to our podcast, BAM BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we are going to be discussing
Dark Star by Christina Huss. Cheers to starting
the conversation. Okay, Dark Star. This is a
good piece for like a fall concert. This piece
is not on the Texas piece. No, it is. It's a
grade one. It's a new... As of last year, Texas
PML grade one. That's right. That's right. Last
year it was new. Grade one, Texas PML. It is
in the key of F or D minor, really. And four
-four throughout. No split clarinet parts. All
low brass together. No split trumpet parts. There
is a lot of percussion in this and the percussion
is really important. So this is one that you
need. Gosh, let's see. One, two, three, four,
five. You need probably seven minimum percussionists.
Eight or even nine, you could spread parts out
enough to fill a really large percussion section
if you have it. Yep. This piece is like Laura
just kind of mentioned, it's very versatile and
if you think it fits your band really well, I
would save it and perform it perhaps later on
down the road at UIL if you really love it and
if it fits your band really well. Otherwise,
like she said, this is a fun one to do at the
beginning of the year for like a fall concert,
Halloween, quote unquote, spooky type music.
The kids love it. It's very catchy. It's a wonderful
melody and it's well - written, it's not difficult
to perform on each individual instrument. Now
you do need to have strong low brass and you
need to have strong percussion. Yes, low brass
and percussion are basically featured the entire
way. This is a piece you could get away with
if your woodwinds are not super awesome or even
your trumpets aren't super awesome. Right? So
this is about, and how often do we get to say
that? Never. I was thinking, I don't know that
Lauren I've ever said that. so this is this is
a brassy piece yeah put it put an asterisk next
next to this one it's a good one yep um so the
whole piece starts out with a trill Everybody
knows how much I love those but it's a forte
piano trill So I don't mind it as much for four
beats with suspended symbol and then snare timpani
mallet They're right rolling down beat everybody
plays and measure to we start with the melody
The melody is always in the low brass and low
reeds here at the beginning and it continues
on forever and ever got a little percussion underneath
helping keep pulse but it's 1 2 3 4 1 & 2 push
through don't breathe for 1 2 3 4 1 2 in the
A natural, that one, you gotta really make sure
you teach that really good. Everybody has it,
yes, high second position. There's a timpani
part that goes three and four and one, three
and four and one in response each time, so this
is not a piece where you can just cut the timpani
part out. It's all by itself on that. And the
timpani does help to kind of cover up in the
low brass, where Katie was talking about push
through, don't breathe, which is one of the reasons
why I think this is very kind of smart. written
yeah but teacher kids not to breathe after that
yeah then they continue on and we have these
little interjections they start as quarter notes
in the upper upper voices one one then it changes
to eighth notes bump bump then it's even more
eighth notes one and three and one three but
that's it And that's all they're going to play
for a while. So that's not bad. So if you have
kind of weaker woodwinds, this is a great one
to choose. Percussion are going crazy. Percussion
and low brass, they're still playing the same
thing. So now we've landed at 10. They're continuing
on that melodic theme. But the trumpets are going
to add in on it. And the horn. And the horns
have a harmonic helper part. So you want to make
sure that you are bringing that new part out,
the trumpet. put in the horn, low brass is now
not the important part anymore. We've heard that
theme. We've heard that theme. Now we also get
in percussion, we get a thunder sheet here. Oh
yeah, so fun. Yeah, this is really cool, you
know, I mean percussion always geek out when
we get to play something cool like that. Different,
yes, and your kids will too. Yeah, definitely.
So then now there's the new melody, one, three,
four, one, two, three, don't breathe, one, two,
three, four, one, now breathe, four, one. teaching
them about this proper phrasing or writing it
in on their parts for them which of course we
are advocates of draw a little arrow no breath
you're leading through even pushing through with
their with a small little mini crescendo is a
great idea to make it sound more musical but
again the range is great the trombones are just
going up to an a trumpets are landing at the
end of the phrase on a B natural Or at the height
of the the phrase on a B natural so that's got
to be in tune Just like we talked about the trombone
a natural making sure they're not flat on that
note So they keep going. The woodwinds are still
doing the little interjections we've already
talked about. And we end at 18. Now it's a new
theme. Now 18, this is like literally the only
eight measures that the woodwinds, I would say,
are quote featured. Yes. And it's not a difficult
part at all. The flute, the clarinet, and the
alto sax are playing this. The alto sax is kind
of a harmony to it. But this new little line,
it's all slurred, it's in a very comfortable
range, clarinet is at the bottom of the staff
or in the chalomo range, and flute is in the
staff, barely gets to a G above the staff at
one point in here. Now the oboe and the horn
have the counter melody here, but it's just a
little eight measure phrase, it's really no big
deal. Now what you do have to watch out for,
in the mallet percussion, mallet or on eighth
notes, one and two and three and four, like the
whole way through this and it can get too loud.
It can be too loud or it can be one and two and
three and four and one and two and three, you
know, where they're at one hand stronger than
the other. So make this a pulse that you really
kind of feel and less hear. They don't need to
be super super strong on this. There's a bass
drum and some other little percussive things
happening in here too. But just make this eight
measure phrase the most beautiful thing the woodwinds
get to do and the whole piece and then it's then
it's back to what we did before. Yep and push
through you know all the where they might want
to breathe would be between slurs. Between slurs.
But don't let them do it. Make sure you write
it so they're all breathing. together at the
end of the dotted half note in measure 21 before
the new phrase. When they do take that breath
that's where the counter melody and the oboe
tenor sax and horn kind of fills that part in.
So don't let horns breathe on that bar line between
21 and 22 or on any bar lines. But this horn
part is a little bit more you're gonna have to
isolate it just because it jumps around a little
bit more and it's got a little bit of like a
harmonic cool part to it. It may not be as easy
for their ears to hear, so work on 18 to 26 quite
a bit just to make it sound easy. Then this,
there are some repeated notes under slurs in
the upper woodwind, so you will just need to
make sure I would pre -mark it on their parts
that they're gonna lightly articulate that, but
just remind them, especially if they're young
players, they may not be aware of that. Then
at 25, we're leading back, or now into 26, just
the same thing, so there's the trill in the upper.
Upper voices again. Now the lows though get to
have a little scale going downward, getting louder.
Then they have the melody again. We still have
the interjections. 34 is kind of like the melody,
but they're missing some of the notes. So it
goes one, three, one. Three, four, one. There's
lots of cool, like, this is kind of like a feature
between percussion and brass. So percussion,
when they're not playing, has like a little tom
conversational piece, a vibra slap, a little
timpani getting louder and softer. It's cool
because it is very much so like a conversation
between lows and percussion. Again, that's not
written a lot of times. Pretty cool. Then back
to the lows, then back to the percussion, back
to the lows, back to the percussion. Woodwinds
are doing zero things. unless they're a low read
here. Now in this section, Kabasa is keeping
time for you. It's doing eight notes throughout.
It's so... When my band played it. It's not an
easy instrument. It is, it is not. You've got
to experiment and find, you know, exactly the
way to make it sound as even as possible. Then
on timpani here, what timpani is doing is rolling.
So the timpani is giving that thunder effect,
right? The roll crescendo and then a decrescendo
roll. Now remind them, this actually is, I think
for a younger ensemble is kind of hard. Those
rolls need to be single stroke. If they've never
played timpani before, their default is going
to be to bounce. They don't do it, they need
to be single stroke. And at this tempo, at 144,
I think you can get away with doing 16th notes,
but they just need to be small. So, like, the
kids should not be... Like, we don't want to
hear that. Keep the mallet close to the head.
But make sure that they know that they are single
strokes, and I would, you know, practice it on
a practice pad so their hands can get really
even doing two measures of full 16th notes at
that dynamic range to make it sound really even
on the timpani. It's so exposed, that's why you've
got to make sure that's right. Oh, it definitely
is. Then, so they come in and then the second
time percussion has their little moment of interaction,
the mallet part comes in and they have like this
almost like - Counter melody. Yeah. One. four
and one two three four one then it's back to
the lows then mallets have a new counter melody
one two and three four one two three four one
back to the lows then we have the same thing
we had before forte piano trill everybody's having
a forte piano this time we're back to 50 with
the low brass melody this time it's the same
low brass melody with the trumpet melody from
the beginning but now the flute oboe clarinet
have what the trumpets have so it's just more
of like a full band It's a bigger moment piece
part not piece but part of it Same breathing
considerations. We've already talked about at
58. We have a new another new section It's the
trill and the upper people lows have their little
melody, but now this is like a building Yes,
we're building off up to the end for sure adding
different people at different times Yep, so it's
lows lows lows lows trumpets saxon horn horn
and then one two in three four two and three
three and four, one, and then the whole band
has a forte piano and we're holding for eight
counts. That's gotta be regimented, how loud
everybody's gonna get. I would keep it piano
for the first measure. Well, and not everybody
should do the same thing. There's a trill in
the upper people, I would say you stay piano
the whole time. Also, I'd probably tell the trumpets
just to maybe chill because it's up on an upper
B. Maybe the lows can be the ones that lead the
crescendo to the very end. and percussion the
mallet part is the theme here with timpani they
have eighth notes one and two and three and four
and one one and a two and a three and a four
and a one and two and three and a four and whatever
one one and two and three and two one and two
three four one two and three okay so it's led
by percussion at the very very end um and that's
it the whole band ends with like choking the
crash cymbals and It's got a good little bang
at the end. Yeah, everybody is, it's, you know,
um, unison rhythm at the end in the last two
measures for the wins. Yep. Um, lots of fun.
It's a really good piece. It's super cool. And
it's nice because there's not a ton of like little
stylistic things to, to work on. It's mainly
just like house top accents, slurs, regular accents.
Balance and phrasing, balance and phrasing, balance
and phrasing. Right. And then, you know, and
this is I don't know, I just, I think this is
a piece that your kids will walk out of your
band hall humming, you know, singing the little
tune. And you will too. Alright, well thank you.
We hope you will consider programming Dark Star
in the future and thank you for joining us on
this episode of Band BFFs!