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Growing a Quintet with the Carolina Brass

Judy Nelson | April 2010


Editor’s Note: Chamber music ensembles bring a wealth of opportunities for growth and improvement to students in a school music de­partment. If your band or orchestra program does not yet include chamber ensembles, the excellent suggestions offer­ed by members of the Carolina Brass will help you to plan for this type of experience for your students in the months ahead.



Timothy Hudson, Trumpet

    Timothy Hudson is the founder of Carolina Brass. He teaches at Gardner-Webb University and is a Yamaha Per­forming Artist and Clinician. He is a graduate of Indiana University, New Eng­land Con­servatory, and UNC Greens­boro. Com­poser Bill Holcombe and Musician’s Pub­lications anticipate publishing new compositions and arrangements commissioned by and dedicated to the Carolina Brass. 

    One of the best things a band director can do for the music program is to implement chamber music groups – small ensembles of strong players – as part of the school curriculum. These groups raise the level of playing and motivate top players to become more skillful, in turn raising the level of larger groups to play with greater confidence and leadership.
    Trumpet players who participate in a small group, such as a brass quintet, will greatly improve their endurance, which is such a major part of playing the instrument well. Because there is no place to hide in a chamber ensemble, students in small groups quickly learn to attend to the details and basic fundamentals of good music making, such as tone, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, and articulation. They learn how to listen to each other in a different way that can be applied to larger ensembles. For brass ensembles, I suggest adding percussion at every opportunity be­cause it adds new dimensions of sound and color while giving another student the op­portunity to play.
    When I give clinics to entire bands, one concept I stress is listening across the ensemble: each player has to hear what everyone else is doing to understand how his part fits into the whole. In a small groups, however, each player listens to the person next to him or across from him, not across the room.  Once chamber musicians get accustomed to this, they begin to apply it to larger groups as well.

Introducing Brass Ensembles

    As far as getting students excited about chamber ensembles, I recommend playing recordings of some of the top brass groups to introduce them to the sound and possibilities of this type of group. Some other good quintets are the Carolina Brass, Empire Brass, Canadian Brass, and Am­erican Brass. I also like the Center City Brass, Atlantic Brass, Ger­man Brass, Chest­nut Brass Com­pany, Chicago Brass, Bos­ton Brass, Dallas Brass, Rhythm & Brass, and the Meri­dian Arts Ensemble.
    The Carolina Brass recorded a sample CD, That’s A Plenty (Summit Records DCD 352), intentionally including many works that are play­able by young quintets to help directors develop their own groups.
    Some of the popular pieces that are great for new student brass quintets include A Night­ingale Sang In Berkeley Square by Manning Sher­win and Eric Ma­schwitz, ar­ranged by Jack Gale (Music Express); Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbe­havin’ arranged by Lee Morris (Gordon V. Thompson, Canada); “Carolina Brass Rag” from Pops Suite #4 by Arthur Frackenpohl (Kendor); Carolina In The Morning arranged by Frack­enpohl (soon to be published); and Rod­rigo Vill­anu­eva’s arrangement of Sousa’s El Capitan (Musician’s Pub­lications).
    From classical repertoire, I suggest groups play Gabrieli’s Canzona per Sonare #4 arranged by Graeme Page (Gordon V. Thompson). Robert King arranged and published many works for brass quintet, including Sonata from Die Bankelsangerlieder by Daniel Speer, Gabrieli’s Canzona per Sonare #2, Three Pieces and Six Pieces by Johann Pezel, Five Pieces by Holborne, and Rondeau by Mouret.
Bach’s Contrapunctus IX, arranged by John Glasel (Chamber Music Library), will be challenging for students, and his My Spirit Be Joyful arranged by Harry Herforth should have a great tuba player; it was published in a supplement to the Inter­national Trumpet Guild Journal. Other fine pieces for brass quintet are Marc-Antoine Charpen­tier’s Prelude to Te Deum arranged by William Picher (PP Music), Susato’s Renaissance Dances arranged by Iveson (J.W. Chester, Ltd., U.K.), Scherzo by John Cheetham (Western Int’l Music), Sch­erzo and Lied by Maurer (Mentor Music), and Purcell’s Vol­untary On Old 100th transcribed by John Corley (Robert King).
    For directors who have established ensembles, I suggest getting the group off to an enthusiastic start in the fall with a mixture of difficult and easy pieces, some that are challenging and some that are fun. While rags are  ent­ertaining for audiences, playing them should include extra time to study their history; and by the way, rags are often played much too fast. It’s not a race! Studying, listening and practicing are the important elements in developing an ability to play in all styles.

First Performance
    The sooner a new ensemble performs in public the better, because positive playing experiences help students to relax, become confident, and at the same time reduce anxiety. When anxiety levels rise, the body typically tightens up and tension sets in, which is destructive for all players and their music.
    The typical problems of inexperienced trumpet/brass players are the result of a lack of attention to the fundamentals. Long tones, scales, and slurs should be a part of every practice session.
Trumpet players in particular have a tendency to play in a crass manner, partly because of the nature of the instrument but mostly due to the approach of the player. Observing the interpretive marking of a composer is also important.
    Playing lyrical etudes, such as the Giuseppe Concone Lyrical Studies (Editions BIM and The Brass Press) will help to improve and develop a characteristic sound as well as improve pitch and overall musicality. I suggest students approach the in­strument in a singing style with good inflection and not as though they are going to battle. If you play all the right notes and rhythms but without inflection, then as far as I’m concerned you’ve missed every note.
    Brass players often tongue notes too hard. Instead, they should define each note and give it shape with the tongue, supported by a healthy column of air support. Always inhale to the fullest capacity and blow the air freely through the instrument, anticipating the correct release. Articulation is not an attack; it is a release.

Valuable Practice
    There is no substitute for practice. The only way to go forward in music is by practicing, working out difficulties in the practice room. During a concert people in the audience may think there is something magical about my playing, the playing of the members of Carolina Brass, or being a brass virtuoso; but it simply comes down to the common ground that each of us practices. If you don’t, then you’re not going forward, you are going backwards. Most band directors understand the commitment of spending countless hours in the practice room individually, then bringing that experience to rehearsals and performances.
    Students need to be reminded of the value of daily technical practice of scales, arpeggios, etudes, and pieces so directors can polish their interpretations during rehearsals. The great cellist Mstislav Rostro­povich once said, “If I miss one day of practicing I know it. If I miss two days of practicing, the whole world knows it.”

Dennis de Jong, Trumpet
    Dennis de Jong is the music program coordinator at Johnston Com­munity Col­lege. He earned a master of music degree from Du­quesne Uni­versity and a bachelor of music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
   

One of the great challenges of a brass instrument and one of the utmost difficulties on any instrument is producing a great sound. The sound is the first thing anyone hears about a performance. It is all about sound. When I am performing in a brass quintet, it’s about sound. When I play as a soloist, it’s about sound. As a choral director, it’s about sound. Above all, I strive to cultivate a great sound in music.
    What makes brass playing so difficult is that sound is one of the last things players develop, and it should be one of the first. Students usually begin by learning how to discern different pitches using the three valves of the instrument. Next they have to understand how to color the sound and make it musical by giving each note some resonance – overtones – that are pleasing to hear.
    A brass ensemble gives players a chance to resonate together as one large instrument without reeds or percussion. It gives students a chance to listen more acutely to the sound they are making and hear how it contributes overall to one instrument – the brass ensemble.
    Depending on the genre, a brass ensemble or a brass quintet can be akin to the idea of a pipe organ in terms of colors and the registration between lows and highs. Brass ensembles and brass quintets offer players the opportunity to cultivate a beautiful sound as a starting point for growing as musicians.

Music for Brass Quintet
    Good repertoire will get young trumpet players excited about brass quintets. My instructors remember Robert King as a kind of default publisher for brass literature, and since then many different publishers have added new works, including any number of independent music publishers.
    Brass quintet players have a wide array of music to choose from, including specific works of Gabrieli and the music of Bach, whose contrapuncti have been ar­ranged for brass quintet. There are a number of collections of Johann Pezel and other early composers that go to the heart of simple polyphony, working to develop each individual in the ensemble as a soloist.
    Then there is an entire set of more advanced Ro­mantic re­pertoire by Victor Ewald that is part of the standard quintet repertoire for upper-level high school and precollege quintets. More contemporary composers in­clude Eric Ewazen, whose instrumental colors are highly evocative, and  Morley Calvert has a nice arrangement titled Suite for the Monteregian Hills (Berandol Music).

Trumpet Range
    Directors should have the goal of challenging young players while un­der­standing the limits of any particular group. In terms of repertoire a comfortable range for sophomore trumpet players extends from low F# to G at the top of the staff, or maybe even an A or a Bb. By the junior or senior year in high school the top range should be at C above the staff. This means students should strive for warming up to reach double F in the upper register, extending down to the low pedal register as well. Success will vary greatly, depending on the location of the school and the kinds of experiences the students have had.
    When it comes to range too many young trumpet students like to talk about how high to the point that it reminds me of a competition with bragging rights. The notes somewhere between G and C are good at the top of the range, but most of the traditional repertoire doesn’t exploit the upper register to that extent. It’s all about the sound.
    Many high school trumpet students have difficulty making a consistent, good-quality sound; it comes back to being efficient on the instrument. During lessons I’ll ask students to imagine a sprinter who wants to run fast but is hindered because he makes extraneous movements, puts one foot in front of the other inconsistently, or wobbles his head back and forth, which would be silly for anyone to watch. For brass players those inconsistencies might not be as obvious but they hinder good playing in the same way.
    An inexperienced player may have an inconsistent sound, trouble playing in different registers, and difficulty varying articulations. Students need a variety of articulations to draw from, and they need to be able to color different articulations – make different colors out of their sound.
    It’s not a matter of having just one articulation or one sound; they should be able to manipulate the instrument in ways to better present the stylistic requirements of the repertoire in terms of matching articulations, matching a sense of rhythmic style, and being able to keep a sense of agility on the instrument, from low to high.
 
Bob Campbell, Horn
    Bob Campbell graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts. He is on the faculty at Wake Forest Uni­versity and is a member of the faculty woodwind quintet. He is a founding member of the Winston-Salem Bolton Project Wind Quintet.   

    In high school I thought articulation meant playing notes shorter or longer, and dynamics referred to playing louder or softer. Actually, there are thousands of gradations of each one. Young chamber musicians usually try to get their attacks together, but once they learn to release together, they will really make music; this is what we strive for in Carolina Brass. In general releasing together helps students to listen and to realize they have to play their part the best they can so that each one fits with the others.
    Playing in a quintet makes students better listeners because all of the parts are so evident. In a wind ensemble or an orchestra students can get away with “swimming” around in the middle of their parts, but they learn to listen small groups.

First-Time Ensembles
    Directors who are offering brass ensemble for the first time should find pieces in brass-friendly keys so students can think more about ensemble and less about fingerings. The first quintet pieces I played were the old Robert King publications that were always arranged in a friendly key, challenging, with lots of Bach and Gab­rieli. Sometimes they in­cluded fugues with each part playing different rhythms. I remember a disaster the first time we played a Bach contrapunctus in high school because students couldn’t follow their parts. When I was further along and new players tried out for a group, the quickest way to see if they could keep up with their part was to play a fugue.

Difficulties for Young Hornists
    Rehearsals can be frustrating if the hornist doesn’t start on the right partial and as a result can’t find the right notes. Becoming familiar with all the scales and arpeggios helps young players know where they are on the instrument. Some students don’t put enough air through the horn, while those who switch from trumpet often put too much air through it. Others are scared to put too much air through the horn.
    To get the horn playing at the same level as everyone else a director may want to rethink the dynamics of each work and have the hornist play a little  louder for a forte. At the same time, everyone in the ensemble should listen to who has the tune and be certain it comes through, especially when it is in the horn.
    Seating a hornist can contribute to volume. In Carolina Brass I sit on the left side of the group, from the audience’s perspective, so the bell faces outward, helping the sound to project. Other brass quintets put the horn in the back with the tuba on the side, and the hornist plays into a reflective surface that is put behind him. Whether a director has the horn play with more volume, adjusts the seating, or both, the horn sound has to match the rest of the group. I’ve heard countless recordings where the horn sounds like it is off in another room.
    I play in both woodwind and brass quintets, and to hold my own in a brass quintet I have to step it up a bit by putting out more sound because the horn tends to get lost; in a woodwind quintet I usually overpower everyone and have to hold back. It’s the worst of both worlds. For orchestral playing I use both types of sound, depending on the music.
    A good rehearsal technique for any group is to leave out the main voice and have the musicians play with good balance in the accompanying voices; then the lead voice returns so that the sound is on top of the accompaniment. This gives each player a better sense of volume and balance within a passage.
    It’s harder to get a crisp start to a note on a horn than it is on a trumpet; the player has to put a little more into it. The horn is similar to a trombone and a tuba in that both are conical instruments, and the construction makes them somewhat harder to get a crisp front end on a note, but it can be done.
    There should be a lot of air at the beginning of every note, especially when the notes are fast. Young brass players tend to shut down the air for fast notes, and that’s when the air should flow.

David Wulfeck, Trombone
    David Wulfeck received music degrees from the University of Northern Colo­rado, the University of North Caro­lina at Greensboro, and had doctoral studies at In­diana University. He teaches at St. Au­gu­-stine’s College and Shaw University.   

Students learn to focus so much more in a small ensemble, like a brass quartet or quintet, than they do in a band or orchestra. The trombonist doesn’t have flute or clarinet parts to think about, so with only a few players it is easier for him to figure out what to do to play his part well.

Range, Good Keys
    The trombone part in much of the early high school literature doesn’t have an expanded range, so a player who is able to reach a Bb in the upper register should have no trouble with these parts. In standard brass quintet music the other parts are written more in the upper register, whereas the trombone is not.
     Low E will be the lowest regular note on trombone. The player will need to get up to a G above middle C, which is standard, but the music should not go down to the trigger register.
    Large skips, up or down, can cause problems for brass players, who have to be absolutely certain they can hear the note they are about to play, otherwise they may end up on the wrong partial.  Scalar-type passages tend to be easier for students to learn quickly. In terms of keys for brass, I suggest looking for music in flat keys for brass, perhaps up to four flats, as well as works in sharp keys. Directors tend to not like sharps as much, but band students need to know there are sharp keys early on.

Accompanimental Parts
    Trombone parts in a brass quintet tend to be more accompanimental than melodic. In my experience there is one piece in which the trombone plays throughout: Die Bankel­sanger­lieder (Alphonse Leduc/Robert King). Two trumpets play for a while, and then the horn and tuba jump in; the instruments go back and forth, but the trombone plays the entire work. It doesn’t have an extended range, but the music may be taxing for high school musicians.
    Typical playing problems of student trombonists include not moving the slide quickly enough to the right place with a relaxed right arm. Lyrical pieces especially can be troublesome for inexperienced players, who tend to move the slide too slowly. Getting it to the right place at the right time is important.
        Some students tend to play certain notes sharp or flat, depending on their skill, so a director should point out these tendencies and have the students adjust each position on the slide so the notes are in tune. Articulation on trombone requires the coordination of the tongue with the slide movement; the tonguing has to be exact or the sound becomes a big smear. A young trombonist who has never before played in an ensemble may naturally hold back as he tries to figure out what is going on before he jumps in.

Exciting Music for Students
    To get the school year off to an enthusiastic start some pieces a director might rehearse include the Robert King publication titled “Rondo.” Al­though music from King generally has parts for euphonium and not tuba, this work has a tuba part and it stays high. Robert Nagle’s arrangement “This Old Man March” (Mentor Music) is a fun standard. The trombone, which plays both the melody and harmony, begins the piece and has the first measure to himself. It has a loud ending and is fun to play with several double-tongued places.

Matt Ransom, Tuba
    Matt Ransom is on the faculty of Wake Forest University, and he is the artist-faculty instructor of tuba and euphonium at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He earned a bachelor of music degree and an arts diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts and has pursued graduate studies at Appala­chian State University.  

     The tuba is the foundation for pitch, rhythm, and tempo. In a brass quintet, players find it easier to hear every single voice in the ensemble than when they are in band or orchestra, and they have a much better idea of who is in tune, out of tune, and how to adjust. They also have a much better idea of what it is like to interact musically with other instruments in different styles.
    With fewer people it’s always obvious who you are playing with, and it’s a lot easier to hear when notes don’t line up as they should. We have to make adjustments quickly, either with our lips or with slides. In a large ensemble with three tubas, seven trom­bones, and two euphoniums, it’s important that everyone listens and adjusts.

Band Keys
    High school tubists typically play in band keys: C major, F, B flat, E flat, or A flat. Band directors should include more sharp keys to challenge students and to prepare them to play in all the keys they find in band, orchestra, or chamber groups. Musicians practice scales for a reason, and it’s not just for all-district and all-state auditions.
    As for the range for tuba, high school musicians should be able to play from F, four lines below the bass clef staff, up to B flat at the top of the bass clef staff. That being said, it is hard to be exact because high school players are so different. Some easily play in the upper register, while others are better in the lower register. When band directors are intimately acquainted with the strengths of their players, they can help target problem areas. Many professional players call the F to B flat range the cash register because much of the music we play lies within that register. 

The Melodic Tuba

    The great thing about a brass quintet is that there are only five people, so other than Dixieland arrangements, I  play the melody in some portion of a piece because there are  five of us to share it.
One thing I’ve noticed over many years of hearing auditions for schools  and listening to private students is that many low brass players should be challenged more. Flute players are accustomed to playing difficult musical passages in their band literature, but the difficulty level of tuba music is not as high. This is another reason why chamber music is so important to the development of young players.

Playing with a Broad Sound
    Many tuba students don’t understand the importance of playing with clarity. If they want to be heard clearly, they need to concentrate on playing with concise articulations and accurate rhythms. It is not just a matter of playing louder. Because of the nature of the tuba, the sound is very resonant; it’s like the carpet that you put under the band for everyone to sit on top.
    The duty of the tuba player is to lay down a solid foundation so the other musicians can build on top of it.  If you tune a chord, you do it from the bottom – the foundation – up. Brass sections in particular need to listen across the spectrum so the chords blend properly. I’m an advocate of playing Bach chorales in chamber groups because it is very ob­vious when the chords do not completely lock in. The goal should be correct balance and blend. When those two things happen, intonation becomes much less of an issue.

Starting Notes

    High school tuba players typically have difficulty getting the note started; they don’t realize that air is important in every facet of each note they are playing, from beginning to the end. When the tongue releases, air crosses the lips, which begins the buzz into the mouthpiece. If there is a breakdown in the process, you will not have a clean attack. A great sound is created by a great breath.
    Many students do not use enough tongue. The tuba sound is very wide and clear, making accurate articulation important. Players should always keep in mind what the audience is hearing, not just what they hear near the bell. As someone who plays in many different venues with different sized ensembles, I always pay attention to the acoustical problems I might find. Reverberant rooms need very clear articulation and even a slight separation between notes. Faster notes need a more staccato approach. Dry rooms are exactly the opposite; they require a little less punctuation and more continuity between notes.
    To help with accuracy and pitch in leaps and octaves on tuba, I’ll play the note an octave below a written pitch to make sure that I have the pitch in my mind. I’ll go to the piano and play the intervals. For troublesome intervals, such as a minor seventh above the staff, I’ll play the note on the piano and then buzz it on my mouthpiece with the piano; I’ll even sing it. I recommend a lot of singing. If you can hear and sing an interval, you can play it on your instrument.

Programming Suggestions

    If I were to select music for a high school brass quintet to rehearse at the beginning of the school year, I would include a fanfare-type piece that is  short, loud, and fun. Next, I would add something jazzy, such as a Joplin rag or the “St. Louis Blues,” which will keep students’ toes tapping. I would also find a classical standard like Die Bankelsangerlieder, as well as something new, written recently by a contemporary composer for brass quintet. The most important factor in choosing repertoire is that it is fun for the students so you can keep them interested in playing chamber music.

John R. Beck, Percussion

    John R. Beck is a faculty member at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Wake Forest University. He received music degrees from Oberlin College and the East­man School of Music. He is a former member of the United States Marine Band.    

Typical high school students take part in marching band for most of the fall or playing relatively easy traditional band literature indoors. There are exceptions, such as music that involves more instruments by Mas­lanka or by Husa; but most of the repertoire doesn’t require the listening skills that are so important to playing in small groups.
    More important than listening is the ability to play soft and to blend, two topics that never get discussed on the football field where it is always about playing louder. Even in jazz band, it’s about driving the band.
    For a brass quintet or a small chamber percussion ensemble, students have to refine their skills and learn to listen and play softly and to blend. A director may talk to the winds or the brass about blending, but not the percussion. You are forced to deal with those skills in a small chamber groups where balance is always about soft playing.

Percussion Parts
     There is little music available for brass quintet with printed percussion parts, so a drum set player improvises by watching the tuba part, which gives him a sense of time with the rhythm of the bass line; he can follow the lead trumpet part because it has important rhythmic figures he can double. By following both parts, he will have more flexibility in creating a drum part, always remembering not to over power the other musicians. Creating a percussion part requires musical maturity and guidance from a director because the student is actually orchestrating.
    Directors who are starting a brass quintet with percussion should look for a percussionist who has played in band, orchestra, or possibly a jazz band because he will bring more to the group. A small ensemble can be a good vehicle for someone who usually gets kicked to the back of the percussion section playing triangle and gong because it becomes an opportunity for him to shine and discover his abilities. Adult supervision is important for small ensembles because putting six students in a classroom and giving them music to play rarely works.

First Concert
    For holiday concerts, arrangements of carols tend to be easy and sound good quickly. If there is no percussion part, you can easily add a percussionist on sleigh bells or a bit of light drum set for a swing arrangement of “Jingle Bells.” A spring program would be a good long-term goal. The group could play in a solo-and-ensemble contest so they actually play for a judge. By that time of year they would have played together enough to feel confident.
    The percussionist could possibly have a xylophone or marimba solo spot. There are also shuffle arrangements, commercial arrangements that work well, and things like “Sing, Sing, Sing” where the drummer can stretch out a little and take some of the solos.

Motivation From Videos
    Students are certainly driven by video, so directors can tap into this tool. Many established ensembles post fun video clips (Canadian Brass, Rhythm and Brass, the American Brass Quintet, and the Dallas Brass) that will get rehearsals off to a solid start and show students the excitement of playing in an small ensemble. Videos give students something to relate to. My students are always looking for new music on U-Tube. The music may or may not be played well, but it is an easy hook for students who like to research that way.