Sug­ges­tions for improv­ing ensemble work by Timothy Reynish

The band is of course a supreme vehicle for enter­tain­ment, edu­ca­tion and cere­mo­nial, but it also has a poten­tial for car­ry­ing a mes­sage as emo­tional as the sym­phony orches­tra. Below are a few pom­pous notes and gen­er­al­it­ies on what I con­sider to be ele­ments of play­ing in band, as well as in orches­tra, choir, opera or cham­ber music.

The solu­tions are the same

Much of the excite­ment in music comes from con­trast, ten­sion and release. In the 18th and 19th cen­tur­ies, the ten­sions between a dynamic fig­ur­a­tion and a lyric melody, between dis­cord and res­ol­u­tion, between soft and loud, were more clearly delin­eated than today. We have BIG prob­lems in the wind ensemble, with its often bril­liant vir­tu­oso writ­ing and often too thick and heavy orches­tra­tion, BUT THE SOLUTIONS ARE THE SAME FOR BAND AS THOSE FOR THE ORCHESTRA.

We need to try to emu­late our orches­tral col­leagues of the clas­sical and romantic peri­ods and cre­ate clar­ity of tex­ture, eleg­ance of phras­ing, bal­ance of son­or­it­ies. A reminder of some of the musical tech­nical mat­ters that are so import­ant in the sym­phony orches­tra might help us in our fma1 search for per­fec­tion. NB These are gen­er­al­isa­tions and need to be used with dis­cre­tion, depend­ing on the context.

Remem­ber that we have prob­lems which on the whole the orches­tra does not have:

1. Our dynam­ics must dif­fer depend­ing on our func­tion — on the foot­ball pitch or in the big band they will be strong, even strident, in the con­cert hall they need far more soph­ist­ic­a­tion — hopefully.
2. The internal bal­ance in each sec­tion is far easier to achieve in the orches­tra, with its pairs or trios of instru­ments. The tutti play­ers must listen to the solo play­ers, and to the rest of the orches­tra, and watch out for their melodic and har­monic job.
3. Without a cloud of strings envel­op­ing us, we need to be par­tic­u­larly care­ful of tone, blend and bal­ance, and this will help with intonation.
4. With so many play­ers, we need to listen — not just hear– — the rest of the group — very dif­fi­cult in most acoustics.

Phras­ing

At any point in a musical phrase, you are mov­ing towards a peak, or des­cend­ing — and the sens­it­ive accom­pani­ment will be fol­low­ing these con­tours. Usu­ally end with eleg­ance, a diminu­endo and a fem­in­ine end­ing, or a big heroic final build up.

Artic­u­la­tion

The Ger­man tra­di­tion is to make the smal­lest note in the meas­ure the most import­ant, sing through 8ths, 16th and 32nds, lead through an up-beat over the barline.

Clar­ity

Clar­ity of dic­tion is most import­ant to the wind ensemble, intro­du­cing breath­ing through com­mas and colons into the phras­ing, giv­ing clar­ity to repeated notes, mak­ing sure that rhythms are artic­u­lated but not over­stressed. Remem­ber Dr Revelli’s dictum quoted by Jim Croft about notes not quite touch­ing unless, of course, legato.

Bal­ance

Bal­ance will help the artic­u­la­tion and diction:

1. All long notes and all repeated notes MUST be gen­er­ally con­sidered accom­pag­nato — at least one dynamic below the main them­atic and motivic material.
2. All Haupts­tim­men, (main tune), must be sung, all sub­si­di­ary melod­ies sung more than the accom­pag­nato but less than the main tune.
3. Pro­ject the lower registers, blend the upper registers.
4. Make sure that lower parts bal­ance with upper, 2nd/3rd wood­wind, tenor and bari sax, 2nd/3rd/4th horns, lower trum­pets and trombones.

Cham­ber Concept

Always remem­ber that the wind ensemble is basic­ally a very large cham­ber ensemble — there are times when, say, the trum­pets and per­cus­sion will dom­in­ate, but most of the time per­cus­sion and brass are there to sup­port the wind, and then dom­in­ate once or twice at the really big cli­maxes, maybe only a hand­ful of times in a concert.

Dynam­ics

Apart from forte being a light dynamic, we need gen­er­ally to take the dynam­ics from who­ever has the lead — so our forte might be that of the flute, and our pian­is­simo will also be that of the flute! Clearly we need also to grade the upper dynam­ics and the flute will have to bal­ance the heavy brass — if the com­poser scores wisely. Most com­posers write a dynamic right down the score, the same piano used for flute or trom­bone, oboe or side drum, cla­ri­net or tuba — we have to adjust: Is our note solo, is it accom­pag­nato, is it the root or 3rd, is it high, is it low, should it dom­in­ate the tex­ture or be sub­or­din­ate, is chro­matic? If in doubt, keep it light.

Dynamic Con­trasts

Use the ensemble for explor­ing your con­trol of really quiet dynam­ics as well as really loud. Start cres­cendo quietly and leave it late. Start diminu­endo early and make it quickly. Approach subito for ff with a slight diminu­endo. Approach subito p or pp with a cres­cendo — con­trast, con­trast, con­trast — but achieve it by light­en­ing textures.

Archi­tec­ture

The archi­tec­ture of a move­ments and a work is of the greatest import­ance — remem­ber that the first forte and for­tis­simo will be the light­est, remem­ber to keep the ten­sion and excite­ment — the answer is con­trol — con­trol — con­trol, and end on an upsurge of ten­sion and intensity.

Tes­situra

Think where you are on the instru­ment. It is easier for most to sing out in the high register, where we do not actu­ally need to work hard, we may need to pro­ject the low register more, that tenor/alto register can be hard to pro­ject in the ensemble. Usu­ally, we need a warm rich base and bass to the pyr­amid; 2nd, 3rd and 4th play­ers, make sure that you give due weight to the har­mon­ies, per­haps even play a little louder than the top of the chord.

Tun­ing and tone

If you are mak­ing a good sound and are well-balanced, many tun­ing prob­lems dis­ap­pear. Make sure that the lower octave is strongest, don’t play loudly in the top octave. Anti­cip­ate prob­lems on your instru­ment, but keep flex­ible to other play­ers and their prob­lems. They may not have your flex­ib­il­ity on a par­tic­u­lar note.

Rhythm

Do not con­fuse this with beat — the tyranny of the met­ro­nome and the foot­beat­ing has noth­ing to do with springy for­ward phras­ing and an excel­lent flex­ible ensemble — LISTEN & WATCH, not neces­sar­ily the con­ductor, but each other.

Prin­cipals

Encour­age them to be involved in dis­cuss­ing with their sec­tion dynam­ics, bal­ance, ensemble, artic­u­la­tion, style, and to lead physically.