Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On this episode, we are going to be discussing
Fanfare for the Fearless by Brian Balmages. Cheers
to starting the conversation. What a great title,
right? It really is. Speaking of fearless. So
we are just what a great little segue segue that
way. Thank you We just got home from seeing the
devil wears Prada too. So cute. It was so adorable
Such a fun little band BFF state. It was great.
Okay, so we haven't talked about it. Did you
have a favorite outfit from the show? I Loved
her blue dress. Okay, the blue. Oh the blue dress
was beautiful. I love Miranda Miranda talk about
fearless. She's crazy for sure She wore this
incredible, I have to look up the designer, the
jacket, this long like trench jacket that was
bejeweled. And oh my God, it was absolutely stunning.
So much fun. Yeah. Anyway, a life that we will
never live with our fashion of band shirt and
jeans. But that's okay. I have a slew of those.
Yeah, it's fun, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, back
to this piece. We think this is so precious.
for a fall concert, which is why we wanted to
publish it now as you're trying to. maybe possibly
get rid of some budget money for the year, or
if you have a little bit left over over the summer
and you're looking to spend out your PO on some
new literature, this would be a great one to
choose for a fall program for any middle school
group. I also think this would be great for something
like a region band concert opener or a band camp
or something like that. Yeah, I mean, lots of
lots of opportunities for this simple enough.
It's in the key of concert E flat. less than
two minutes long, like a fanfare should be. It
does have split clarinet parts and split trumpet
parts, six percussion parts, six or seven percussion
parts. But like, as we've kind of looked at it,
we both actually, we kind of have a slight difference
of opinion. I think that timpani is very important
in its role in a fanfare. But the timpani part
is mirrored by the snare part throughout. So
there's not any timpani solos. If you don't have
enough players, you could do without timpani,
but I do feel like it's a fanfare instrument.
So the discussion was, would you cut timpani
or would you cut chimes? And I feel like chimes
are very fanfare. I think that the chimes add
to the fanfare quality. Listen, the timpani is
covered in the snare part. If it had a timpani
solo, I would feel differently about it. But
so anyway, but it is up to your discretion. It
is up to your discretion. But if you have seven,
then you're good. Yes. Okay. So obviously it's
marked heroically. It's 120 on the metronome.
The style should be very lifted, much like a
march. The low voice line is mostly not the melody,
but it does have like little accented parts that
you can teach the kiddos to bring out to just
make it be extra special. And it usually is mirrored
by some of the percussion parts. So the beginning
starts out with trumpet melody, specifically
trumpet one. melody and trumpet two and clarinet
have harmony and the French horn also has like
a little harmony line with them. It's just like
quarter notes one two three four one actually
Katie mentioned she was exactly like she was
like this sounds familiar. It gives Cascadia
celebration vibes. Yeah, a little bad a little
it's in four four throughout. So definitely not
like some little melodic. Yeah, yes. And it's
got great. ways for you to teach phrasing. At
the end of those two measures, you would push
through one and two, three, four, one, two, three,
and four, and one. And the two, three, and four
is in the timpani and snare part. And so they
push direction through so that if your kids were
young enough, they had to breathe there, they
could, but that would be a good spot to teach
them to push through a phrase and sneak a breath
somewhere else. needs to be really firmly articulated
lifted style there's only there's no staccatos
or anything like that but there are accented
notes written in so I think as long as you're
just addressing firmness of fronts of articulation
and making sure that there's agreement across
the ensemble on that strength then the style
will come through there's like a little sax flute
oboe interjection and measure four two and three
four one while the melody is holding that whole
note so again it's written well to kind of cover
up if your kiddos need to breathe after four
measures. Then the little melody part starts
up again in the trumpet and then low brass this
time has two and three or sorry three and four
one. They have like the little interjection that
the flute had before. And there's a cute little
counter melody written in the flute oboe and
alto line here. So this would be something to
kind of bring out because you've heard that melodic
statement from the trumpets already in the first
eight measures. So now let's focus on hearing
something different in this little counter melody.
Yep. The lows still kind of have the same thing,
and again with it being in the key of E -flat,
A -flats are all that you really have to worry
about in the trombone part, which is good. And
then we're getting into the next little part.
We're pushing into measure 15, and they're ending
the melody one and two, three, four and one,
three, four, one, and the trumpet too has the
three, four, one going into measure 17. alone
so you really want to make sure you have at least
a few children on that trumpet. Yeah the only
moving quarter notes there. Then when we get
to measure 17 we kind of change ideas and styles
all together. It goes to more of a woodwind feature.
We have these hairpin dynamics written in. It's
definitely smoother. There's slurs. There's tenuto
markings. Yes more legato style and flowy in
this. Rest two three four one two three four.
We're passing this little melodic idea between
saxes. and clarinets and flutes. There is support
in the horn line and cues written in some of
the low brass. You can just kind of decide if
your low reeds are strong enough to support that.
And then a really cool little bell part that
accompanies... It's just keeping the pulse. Yeah,
just some eighth note stuff, but definitely different,
unique. It is not doubling what's happening in
the melody, so it is important. Yep. There are
little again interjections in the timpani and
snare drum every once in a while four and one
at the end of the little phrases Again saxophone
takes over after flute and oboe have had the
first little main melody with clarinet It's just
a really pretty little woodwind moment and brass
finally do enter in at measure 21 Again, just
with supporting chords underneath the woodwind
feature and then we crescendo up going into 25
where we have another kind of new moment we're
passing back and forth another idea rest two
three four one two three four one yeah so it
starts off in horn and clarinet then goes to
alto and tenor sax goes back to horn and clarinet
and trumpet the next time and then finally ends
up with the flute and the oboe having it so it's
like a cool little pass around moment where everybody
gets to be important you do have some split divided
chords in the trombone part at 25 in fifths and
then in fourths so just watching the tuning in
that area is gonna be important there's a little
wind chimes this is where the chimes actually
do have like kind of a supporting pulse line
some would say more important even than the timpani
apparently yes but the timpani is about to play
one and right along with the snare drum it sure
is that's true but you know it's just a different
timbre percussionist no it is absolutely yeah
um so they're building it back up uh this time
the little three four one going into the moment
is in trombone tuba berry sax bass clarinet um
then we're going back from the flowy style at
29 to more staccato style and you it kind of
brass starts really soft and Christian, you can
feel that we're going back to the original melodic
idea, this thing in the low brass, low reeds,
one, and three, and one, and. Three, and one,
and it's just kind of building and building and
you're going back to that firmer style. And again,
we went to this soft thing and now we're building
back up and it's gonna end up being a recap of
exactly what we had at the beginning. Nice transition
in here. Yep, horn, trumpet too are still being
kind of featured in with saxophone and flute,
no bow. So just a nice little like. mellow sounding
grouping of instruments here. And the trumpet
two part in this section as we get ready to get
back into the recap, the trumpet two part is
actually doubling the horn and trumpet one is
doing something completely different. So kind
of an interesting doubling right there, but it's
in a very comfortable range for trumpet and horn
actually. Then there's a timpani. Crescendo along
with doubling doubling the snare Going back into
the main melodic feature at 34. So we're back
to the trumpets having the melody trumpet one
specifically It's literally a recap from the
beginning all the way till 42 42 We have that
same melodic figure in flute and oboe that counter
melody with the counter melody with sax and bells
And then we're kind of finishing out with a little
new idea at 48 Trumpet goes one two three four
and then flute and clarinet and sax have one
two three four And then we get into the one little
low brass melody So there is some different stuff
happening with this recap here at measure 42,
that counter melody, KD reference. There is some
new stuff happening in the percussion symbol
family there that you can kind of bring out to
help make the color of this section a little
different than what we heard back at measure
nine. Yep. Um, after these little mini scales
at 50, we have the one moment of low brass and
low read glory. So they have the three measure
moment. Yep. One, two, three, four, one, and
two, three, and four, one. And then everybody's
pushing through with a up. Look at that timpani
moment. Not the same as snare drum. No, she's
right. Different snare drum. Well, obviously
it has different pitches. The snare drum is playing
one, two, and three, four, and the timpani plays
one, two, and three, four, and one, four, and
so it was slightly. It does make it fanfare -ish.
And then the last three measures are just. You
know, accent at quarter, quarter, rest, quarter,
rest, whole note, timpani and snare drum, whole
quarter note. So, and I would make that a full
value. Absolutely. Much like a March. Yes. So
very cute. Um, very accessible. Very playable.
Yes. The ranges are not extreme. Students will
like it because it sounds really fun. It sounds
like a fanfare. It sounds like a concert opener.
Yeah. You know, just exciting and you could do
whatever you want with it. to make it be extra
special like Laura mentioned with different symbol
choices and things like that. And enough to keep
each of the players engaged in the learning process
because nobody has just a completely boring simplified
part. This is a great, to me, introduction back
into accented style for students that have had
a whole summer off that need a review of what
does it mean to play accented? What does it mean
to play March style? So, yeah. Alright, well
we hope you guys will consider programming fanfare
for the fearless in the future and thank you
for joining us on this episode of Banned BFFs!