Concert Band: "Appalachian Heart"

Hi. 

I've been a busy bee for the past 8 years since I last posted here on YC. I have a publisher now - Woo Hoo! - and I've had several works recorded, published, and marketed through them. This is a work that I plan to submit for publication in next year's release. My writing is geared specifically to middle and high school concert band programs in the United States. But enough about that.

"Appalachian Heart" is a work I wrote for my mother. She's an equestrian - someone who rides, raises, and cares for horses - who dedicated her whole life to raising hers and ensuring they found good homes. When I was a kid, I would wake up to the sound of horses galloping up from the valley to the barn next to my room. The work is basically a pastoral or chorale of this. Imagine a sunrise, hearing her call to the horses, hearing the stir of hooves hitting the ground as they galloped up to greet her, the calm serenity of them grazing in the field during the day, and their return to the barn in the evening as the sun sets. This is the essence of the work. 

I scored marching band bass drums to be performed in unison to illicit the effect of horses galloping from a distance, growing in volume and intensity as they get closer. Bear in mind that this is written for attainability and not necessarily meant to be terribly difficult or nuanced. Still, I think it achieves a nice effect, and I hope you enjoy the group that performs it - this is the California State University, Fresno, Wind Orchestra directed by Gary P. Gilroy from their concert last May. 

Cheers,

-A

I like this piece. The score is clean en effective.

What a lovely piece.

Enjoyed every moment of it.

My only note is that I expected more percussion,

maybe more kinds of percussion,

in a horse related piece.

I have a question.

From what I know, when an instrument doesn't play in a specific part,

especially in such a large ensemble, it shouldn't appear on the score. 

It sound like you're a professional composer and that you have a professional publisher.

Now I wonder...

Why do you keep the empty bars?

21 minutes ago, Rabbival507 said:

Why do you keep the empty bars?

 

Each publisher will have their own criteria to meet. It's not standard practice to omit bars that rest in a concert band score published to educators. If it were, I'd do what my publisher wanted me to do. Speaking of my publisher, I originally had more bass drum content and they suggested I reduce it down a bit more so it didn't get too redundant. We came to a meeting of the minds on how much was "just enough" to be effective. 

As for more percussion... thinking from a rehearsal standpoint, the percussionists can practice in a sectional while the band rehearses the chorale, and the whole ensemble can come together at the end to play. So I wanted all percussionists to be able to focus on the multiple marching bass drum part and lock it in.

I didn't think it was necessary to add more percussion effects because those would just need to be included at climactic moments as well when the bass drums are playing. I also feel like "less is more" here. There's this whole period of time where there's no kind of percussive effects at all, just winds, so the whole entrance of the bass drums isn't expected. When it happens without the audience expecting it (those drummers must be setting up for the next tune or something, this is just another slow chorale...), it's more special as an arrival point. At least that was my thinking as I was working it into the piece. 

26 minutes ago, AntiA said:

they suggested I reduce it down a bit more so it didn't get too redundant.

Well percussion isn't used that much in orchestras usually (as far as I know),

but here you came to describe horses. If not bass drum, maybe add another kind of drum?

31 minutes ago, AntiA said:

those would just need to be included at climactic moments

Unless you want to keep the rhythm and movement after the first entrance of the bass drum.

31 minutes ago, AntiA said:

the whole entrance of the bass drums isn't expected

I assume that the second time wouldn't be a big surprise as the first one,

you could add small percussion in between,

Beautiful piece with clean, simple voicing. And nice to have a good live recording 😍

How did you write to get such a good timbre from the brass?

Good brass timbre is a matter of knowing what range is predictably comfortable for brass players. I'd recommend doing more research on comfortable brass ranges if that's a point of curiosity for you. Otherwise, you'll have to be more specific about the question. I'm happy to answer, I just can't determine from the question what answer I might be able to give that would satisfy your curiosity.