Rhythmic Festival

Concert Band (Gr. 2.5)

Much of the music I tend to write leans towards more advanced groups, which is odd to me, given how I am a teacher. That is to say, I spend so much time around middle schoolers, as well as looking at and listening to repertoire for that age level, that I really should write for younger groups more often. As such, this is not a programmatic and "high art" piece of music, but rather, one that students would enjoy playing and has specific pedagogical goals behind it.

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My primary goal with this was to teach rhythmic syncopation across the middle of the bar (the & of 2), but there were lots of other things I tried to take into account when writing this: All parts have easy ranges. Clarinet 2 doesn't go above the break, and clarinet 1 only goes above it after having time to prepare. Every section gets the melody at some point, and there are a lot of percussion parts to fit the many percussionists that most middle school bands have. The timpani part can be played on 2 drums, if needed, and there are no important parts in any of the rarer instruments (oboe, bassoon, horn, etc) that are not doubled in another part. Repetition and layering should minimize the rehearsal time needed, and I tried to keep the harmonies contemporary (7ths, #11ths, etc.) whilst still being easily understood and playable.

I'm a big fan of the music of Claude T. Smith, and his use of percussion and harmonic language was a big inspiration for this. I was listening to his "Festival Variations" a lot when I was writing this, so that's where the "festival" part of the title comes from.

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