Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we'll be discussing Above
and Beyond by James Swearingen. Cheers to starting
the conversation. This is a relatively simple,
short little fanfare. It's about two minutes
long, concert E -flat 4 -4. It has a split clarinet
and split trumpet parts. Pretty minimal percussion,
five percussion. You can totally make it work
with five percussion if you have more than that.
I think especially the mallet part, you could
split the chimes and bells up. There's definitely
some, if you've got a larger percussion section,
there's enough to keep the kids interested. rhythmically
pretty straight ahead. It's really a pretty stock
fanfare. Yeah, we were saying this would be a
great piece to do possibly with like a non varsity
middle school band at a fall concert or a spring
concert. You could even possibly do it with like
a sub non varsity group in the spring because
like the low brass part doesn't go above a C
above the staff horn part goes to a C in the
staff and only one the trumpet goes into C in
the staff so it's not right yeah range is not
extreme certainly rhythms are not extreme but
it it's a piece that I think sounds harder than
yeah and of course it's well written as a swear
engine piece so pretty cool it's marked bold
and powerful BPM 112 starts out with just timpani
and snare kind of driving it forward one and
a two and a three and a four and a one and then
everybody comes in the first melody is in trumpet
horn alto, clarinet, some of the mid -voices.
One, two, and three, four, one, two, three. Don't
breathe here. One, and then flute. joins in one,
two, and three, four, one, two, and three, and
like the horn and alto part as a little counter
melody moment. Then we keep going. I like the
way the percussion is written here because the
percussion, while it's not, the snare isn't playing
the whole time, it's kind of back and forth with
the melody. It helps to kind of cross that bar
line where kids are gonna want to take a breath,
you know, covering up because the snare is playing
four into one. You know, they've got nothing
else going on but four into one, helping that
four lead to one, but do your best to train your
kids not to breathe there. Yep, six, basically
the full group playing one, two, and three, four,
one, two, and three, and then everybody comes
down soft at eight, piano dynamic, and we have
easy little accented rhythm here, one, and a
three, and a one, and a three, one. Yep, so that's,
sorry, I was counting it in like cut time, but.
Lots of cool accents as a full group, so matching
the style here would be something easy to practice
with a group. Then we have another percussion
feature at 10. Timpani has a little dotted quarter
rhythm, snare is continuing on, and we're getting
softer into 12. At 12, the melody is in the clarinet,
alto, and horn. The low brass and tenor voices
are starting the statement by one, but then we
get a two and three, four, one, two, and three.
And it's marked heroic. Yes, it's in a range.
The horn part is definitely a little bit higher
than the alto or clarinet, and it does get up
to a D here. Oh, a D, sorry, we didn't see that.
Yeah, it does get up to a D. But if your horns
sound good rhythmically, And this is, man. Even
if you just have one player that can play this,
this is, it's all slurred. This would be great.
And horns need to be featured here if you have
a good horn section. I like that horn and clarinet
color. That's one of my favorite color combinations
is horn and clarinet. So I would like the horns
and clarinets to dominate this over the altos.
Yep. And the clarinet is written in a lower range,
which is nice. And clarinets are doubling each
other here. First and clarinet have the same
part here. So they're all on the melody. One
of the things in the way that it's written rest
to end. three four one two and half note rest.
Touch the rest. That's right making sure that
they get sound all the way to silence and the
low brass. And again it's written where they're
keeping going like Laura mentioned the percussion
helps with the four and a one now the lows have
four and one and so they're continuing on so
if your kids for some reason can't go all the
way to the rest. They're kind of covering that.
I think that's written really smart. Yeah, of
course. Trumpets are getting to chill right here.
So this is just everybody else, which is nice.
Percussion are kind of doing what we were before,
where they play a measure, they're out of measure.
They're responding to the melody. So it's like
a conversation between that melody in those upper
voices and then the snare drum there. At 18,
the full group comes in again, 2D piano, and
we have kind of that build up again, but this
time instead of everybody having one, two, and
three, four, and the lows do, the very lows,
but then the rest of the band has half notes
going up in like a little scalar motion and accents.
And crescendoing, building all the way to 20.
At 20, we have that same featured voice, but
now the horns are down a little bit more at a
normal. range with sax and clarinet 2. in the
counter melody. The melody is taken over by flute,
oboe, and first clarinet. Still trumpets don't
have the melody with them. Two and three, four,
one, two and three, still slurry, and then everybody
else one and... And this is where trumpets come
in, but now they're playing the role of like
the low brass, the tubas, the bass part. It's
kind of the accompaniment, yep. So the the melodic
part is still in the upper woodwinds, counter
melody still in the second clarinet, alto, and
horn, trumpets coming in with the accompaniment.
part this continues on until measure 26 then
the trumpets have the melody along with the with
the flute and the oboe part here. And we didn't
talk about it back at Measure 12 when we got
into this heroic section, sleigh bells adds in.
We've been talking about like sleigh bells just
like this. We're seeing this a lot in fanfare
type things where you have this color of the
sleigh bells. It's effective. Yeah, it works
really well. But very cool sleigh bell part that
does have some accents on it. You want to make
sure that we hear those accents coming through
to help keep the energy and momentum moving forward.
Yep. And then as this part kind of ends up at
28. We have a pickup note that's marked tenuto
in flute clarinet and saxophone and that takes
over the melody and then we kind of lose all
of the brass here except for tuba so this is
marked very smooth now it's kind of like a little
just a woodwind feature that's right it's got
some little triangle cutesiness a little bit
of timpani but it's not super important again
it's with tuba. That's right. And then trumpet
comes in with horn and alto kind of the mid voices
join in with the melody at 32 Chimes comes in
here. We don't have a lot of like pulse obviously
from like snare or anything So your woodwinds
will need to watch really well to make sure we
move together And then we're building everything
back up again to 36 and right here at 32 This
is the first time the trumpets come in with the
melody. Yeah, so we've been featuring horn, we've
been featuring flute and alto, all these other
instruments, but right here at 32, this is the
first time trumpets come in. So this may be if
you have a trumpet section that you need to program
a piece that's gonna give them a little bit of
a face break. Or you don't have any trumpets
at all. That's right, maybe your trumpet section
is a little bit weaker. This is scored well to
help that with your trumpets. Yep, 36 is marked
again, bold and powerful, and it's back to the
melody being in clarinets. trumpet and horn one
two and three four one two three don't breathe
one two and three four flute and oboe join in
with the first trumpet on that melody and then
back to horn and clarinet and sax having the
little counter melody response one two and three
with some snare drum coming back in to help with
pulse again this is very much like what we had
at the beginning exactly so copy paste keeping
going flutes have a cutesy little part at 41
then at 42 we all again have a piano soft one
two and three four and just like we did at the
beginning going back to a hit at 44 with snare
drum having the the cool part leading us up again
to 46 now right here at 42 it drops down to piano
immediately by everybody this is very much like
what we had earlier in the piece and I know sometimes
for younger bands those terrace dynamic changes
like that are not always super easy, that would
be something I would practice in your daily drill.
You know, so I would take either just some concert
F exercises or Remingtons or something like that
and have them practicing going immediately from
forte to piano. It does go immediately piano,
but then it crescendos after that. Again, I just
think those immediate dynamic changes sometimes
are a little bit harder for younger bands, so
don't sleep on that and incorporate something
into your fundamental exercise. that you can
use to work on that. 46 is marked heroic again
and now we again are featuring the horn part
again written in a more easy range with sax and
clarinet too. Nice little counter melody to the
flute melody. Yep and the little flute and bells
part is again doubled in oboe and first clarinet
so this is just like before again the sleigh
bells come back as well and then we have our
little ending at measure 52 we start again a
terrace dynamic down everybody on pianissimo
this time the snare has one two e and a three
four and a one two and a three so you're building
it up timpani has one two and three chimes are
going crazy here at a scale going upward with
the low brass and then we hit measure 54 and
y 'all I think 54 to the end it's the last six
measures of the piece I think it's by far the
most challenging and while we always as we go
through pieces. Katie and I always start at the
beginning. That does not mean when you were teaching
a piece to your band that you necessarily need
to do that. I would probably start this one here
at the end. Yeah. Like in the last two measures
it's almost unison rhythm from everybody and
the last two measures it has a triplet but this
little section it is not hard but it's the most
challenging part. Different tuning, accidentals,
yeah. So it goes high people have one, four and
one. and it's got a concert A natural written
in and then four and one lows have rest two and
three a natural rest two and two and three four
one and then timpani gets featured with snare
but more timpani in the second or the fourth
to last and third to last measures as everybody's
crescendoing and then as Laura mentioned the
full group has a triplet one triple it two four
and one so yeah Yeah, that rhythm's the toughest
one in the whole piece. Yeah, for sure, and of
course you have that entrance. But the whole
band has it, which is nice. That's right, that's
right. And then just that entrance on the upbeat
in the low brass in measure 55. Yeah, and on
the triplet, they're not changing pitches. That's
right. It's the same note, so it's a concert
E flat. Da da da da da da da da. Yep, so they
don't have to move their fingers, they just have
to articulate a triplet at that tempo. And that
would be, just speaking of adding things to your
fundamental exercise, That's what I would do
on my like on my or Yeah, or rest rest rest Don't
don't don't don't don't don't rest rest rest
Whatever I mean or just call and response have
woodwinds play it and the brass play That's right.
You play it on your instrument and then the wood
the winds play it back at you Whatever you want
to do, but that way everybody's getting the style
to line up and the rhythm as well. That's right
This is such a fun piece. Oh, this would be so
fun to program at any point in the year with
your group. So we hope you will consider playing
Above and Beyond in the future. And thank you
for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.