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I hope that with the soundfiles, you will do more listening and following along in your music rather than playing. (The more you listen and learn what the piece sounds like, the better you will play it and the easier you'll be able to jump back in when you get lost! - Note, not "if" you get lost!) We want you to get in the habit of learning it by looking at the music, not learning by ear. Just listening is not always accurate and you can end up with some pretty obnoixous mistakes that are hard to unlearn. ALSO, too much playing along with the soundfiles can get you stuck so that you can only play the piece at the recorded tempo instead of whatever tempo the conductor gives you!

IF YOU NEED MUSIC, it is locaed in the Dropbox folder for your instrument; you should have saved that link. PARTS ARE NOT ON THE WEBPAGE AND MUSIC WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE AT REHEARSAL

To download our Practice Soundfiles, get them from our Practice Soundfile Dropbox.

LINKS TO INFORMATION

Updated December 22, 2024

FALL STRINGS and BAND TOGETHER

FALL STRINGS

FALL BAND

USING SOUNDFILES EFFECTIVELY

(let me know if soundfiles don't work OR of omissions in info OR errors)

Always "reload" the webpage to be sure you have the up-to-date info.

STRINGS & BAND TOGETHER--WINTER/SPRING

Peter and the Wolf
(there is no soundfile - listen to the original!

PETER AND THE WOLF (with Narration) Sergei Prokofiev

Directed by Linda. 
She says:

A classic piece you have probably all heard, that tells the story of a little boy, Peter, who wanders into the meadow where he doesn’t belong and encounters a wolf.  Characters in the story include:

• Peter
• A bird
• A Duck
• A cat
• Grandfather
• The wolf
• Some hunters

The different characters are represented by different instruments and the piece ends with a grand triumphal march that involves everyone (except that the duck is left quacking inside the wolf's stomach). Each instrument has some interesting challenges of its own and a narrator tells the story in between sections.

STRING ENSEMBLE - WINTER/SPRING

LISTEN A LOT to these soundfiles and any other recordings you can find.
The more you listen, the better you will understand the flow of the music and the faster you will learn to play the piece! That said, please do not try to learn the music by listening - it is never accurate enough.

Oliver & Kett have chosen 3 terrific classics for you. Here is information for each of these pieces, links to recordings of the originals, and hints to help you play them better.

MOZART VARIATIONS, W.A. Mozart, arr. Ruth Siegler from Clarinet Quintet
in A major , K. 581."

Directed by Kett

He says:
This is an arrangement from the fourth movement of Mozart’s clarinet quintet in A
major, K.581. It’s a fun and friendly piece to learn. If you learned a couple numbers
from Sevcik op.3 before, this is a good time for you to execute them here, we
will perfect the "collé" bow stroke. In additional to bow techniques, we will dig
deeper in ensemble playing and active listening.

Here a performance of the original version of the
piece, I hope you’ll enjoy it.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1JcDU-QSSyI&si=iYHN3pRCFbsbXyda

Here is the demo recording of our arrangement with score and soundfile.

ARIOSO, G.F. Handel, arr. Douglas E. Wagner

Directed by Oliver

He says:
This little arioso by Handel is just lovely. It has such an elegant sincerity, it draws
me in immediately. The quarter notes throughout the piece are the heartbeat, so
the stroke needs to be tapered and sensitive. Cellos, just make note you take on
the melody at 18, it's all gorgeous. Also, the recording here is from over 100 years
ago... so the quality is somewhat/very grainy. However, the warmth in the sound is
wonderful. Burmester (the soloist) is very free and moves the tempo around a great
deal. We'll do some. I promise it won't be too much.

Here is a soundfile of the original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6s8_ToBa8

Here is the demo recording of our arrangement:

THE MOLDAU, Bedrich Smetana, arr. Todd Parrish

Directed by Oliver

He says:
Oh, I love love, love this piece. I feel like I've said this about other pieces before,
but I do mean it! Smetana's music always fills my heart, and I just feel like I'm
bursting at the seams! The Moldau is one of the six symphonic poems in Smetana's
Ma Vlast. The piece is about Smetana's home, Bohemia, and the Moldau evokes its'
namesake, the longest river in Bohemia. You can certainly feel the flow of the river,
measured in sheer number of notes! We won't take it fast! Yet. Maybe.

A recording of the original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKsHwqaIr4

Here is the demo recording of our arrangement

BAND - WINTER/SPRING

LISTEN A LOT to these soundfiles and any other recordings you can find.
The more you listen, the better you will understand the flow of the music and the faster you will learn to play the piece! That said, please do not try to learn the music by listening - it is never accurate enough.

John & Diane have chosen 3 fun pieces for you (Linda is doing "Peter").

DARKLANDS MARCH, Randall D. Standridge. Minor mode.  Everyone has some part of a great melody.

Directed by Diane
She says:

Mr. Standridge wrote several works based on his own short stories, “The Darklands”, about a kingdom of night, darkness and magic.  This is a great march and has some interesting twists!  Generally, we think of marches as being up beat and happy and in a major key, but this one is in a minor mode/key.  To me, if feels like it tells the story of someone riding off on a horse on a very important errand.  There moments of fast, intense movement and moments that feel more relaxed – like the horse is in a comfortable groove and all is calm.

One of the reasons I chose this work (other than the fact that I really enjoy it!) is that it has a lot of dotted eighth/sixteenth note patterns.  Remember those pesky patterns that we so often play like a triplet!  This piece will NOT tolerate the relaxed triplet feel; you must give it the intensity of a 16th note that is very quick pick-up to the next beat!!  Urgent!  Intense!

Put in some brackets to mark the repeats so you don’t miss them and notice, some of you have instructions that say “2nd time only”.  Any markings like that refer only to that particular repeated section.  New instructions come in the next repeated section. 

Watch the dynamics and the articulations (staccato, legato, slur, accent…)

Trills start on the written note and go up to the next note in the scale. So, an A trill goes to a Bb (because there is a Bb in the key signature); an F# trill goes to a G; B natural goes to C. Start by NOT playing the trills to be sure you have the correct rhythms, then later add the trills.

As you listen to the soundfile, make up your own story about what is happening – pretend this is part of a soundtrack for a movie and imagine what is happening on the screen.  (This is a very useful skill for learning to play with the correct style.)

Whoever is playing snare drum is going to have to start early and practice this one a lot!  It has tricky rhythms that frequently change around and I want them played accurately!!  No improvisation, please!  ;-)

Here is the demo recording, score and soundfile of this piece:

A HOLST HYMN (I Vow to Thee, My Country) Gustav Holst, arr. R.W. Smith
Set to the tune called “Thaxted” (originally named Jupiter), from the longer orchestral work by Mr. Holst, The Planets

Directed by Diane
She says:

Mr. Smith arranged this old British hymn, I Vow to Thee, My Country. The words are a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice which Mr. Holst set to music, using a melody he wrote for his large orchestral piece, The Planets.  

The Planets, as you might guess, has seven movements – one for each planet, not including Earth, but including Neptune, as the work was written in 1914-16. This melody, Thaxted, has been used for many hymns and other songs, has been sung or played at funerals, coronations, weddings and even as part of some rock tunes!  Mr. Holst called the melody, Thaxted, after the village, Thaxted, in England where he grew up. 

In general, you as a group, play the lyrical pieces quite beautifully.  In this one, there are a few tricky rhythms. For example, you are rarely thrilled about a dotted quarter followed by 3 eighth notes starting on the +(and) of 2!!  That ALWAYS gives us grief!  Another rhythm occurs at measure 25 in the flute, oboe and alto sax.  Similar, but a bit different than the dotted rhythm.

Throughout the piece, various sections pass the playing to other sections.  You should know who is playing just before you come in and be listening to match their style and dynamics.  Notice on the recording – how smoothly the brass pick up the melody from the woodwinds.

Everyone should go ahead and play the solos; we may decide later to have some of them be solos, but likely everyone will play.  DO NOT play the cues.

Here is the demo recording of this piece

AN IRISH RHAPSODY by Clare Grundman
A setting of six Irish folk songs including: The Moreen (also known as The Minstrel Boy); I Know Where I'm Going; Shepherd's Lamb Reel; Cockels and Mussels; The Rakes of Mallow and Kathleen O’More.

Directed by John
He says:

As we experienced in the fall, Clare Grundman’s mastery of orchestration (what instrument plays what part) and transition is so evident in his many medley arrangements, and An Irish Rhapsody may just be the pinnacle.  Given our exploits into Celtic music during this 2024-25 year at SVNHM, it seemed highly appropriate to take on this arrangement of six Irish melodies – some more famous than others.  Through this exploration, we know that one does not have to be Irish by birth or ancestry to appreciate these melodies.  Clare Grundman was from Ohio, for pete’s sake!

We begin with a very familiar melody that Grundman calls “The Moreen” but most of us know it better by a different name: “The Minstrel Boy”.

The minstrel boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you'll find him
His father's sword he hath girded on
And his wild harp slung behind him

You might ask why so many Irish songs are about going off to war.  For instance, we have “Oh Danny Boy” which Grainger made famous to bandmasters with Irish Tune from County Derry or some know it as Londonderry Air.  Or the song “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” about a soldier concerned that his paramour will find the arms of another while he’s gone.  But we could also ask why so many Irish songs are about love gone wrong like the second piece chosen by Grundman for this rhapsody.

“I Know Where I’m Going” speaks of the sorrow of an impending marriage where the bride-to-be laments not being with the one she loves:

I know where I'm going,
And I know who's going with me,
I know who I love,
But the dear knows who I'll marry.
I have stockings of silk,
Shoes of bright green leather,
Combs to buckle my hair,
And a ring for every finger.
Feather beds are soft
And painted rooms are bonny
But I would trade them all
For my handsome, winsome Johnny
Some say he's black
But I say he's bonny,
Fairest of them all
Is my handsome, winsome Johnny

Interesting as a silly diversion might be this film by the same title if you’ve got 90 minutes to spare.  It’s an old 1940s era film with a plot that somewhat parallels the sentiments of the song’s lyrics and the tune plays a role as incidental music throughout.  (Please overlook the fact that this is truly a Scottish, rather than Irish story.  Still Celtic!)

“The Shepherd’s Lamb Reel” is the third melody and is the first in the collection intended to accompany a dance.  Some references mistakenly refer to this tune as a jig but as we Celtic Explorers know full well it lacks the triple subdivision of 6/8 time.  The telltale “rashers & sausages” or “carrots & cabbages” rhythm is missing from this melody.  It is far easier to hear “double-decker” in the quadruple subdivision of the reel.  Some may find it interesting that this melody is also called “The Skibbereen Polka #3” or “The Shepherd’s Lamb Polka” as most people do not think of the polka as being Celtic at all.  Au contraire!  (or should I write, “A mhalairt ar fad!”). There are Celtic polkas and Celtic mazurkas, too!  The people of this area will dance to anything!

This reel is very lightly articulated and filled with the cascading linking material from Grundman’s vast imagination as it builds and builds, only to calm down into the fourth melody, “Cockels and Mussels”.

This fourth melody, also known as “Molly Malone” always reminded me of Mary Poppins.  Researching the actual lyrics, however, Molly seems to be quite different, hauntingly less happy than Mary.  Still the character of the melody brings me towards Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke more so than some Wes Craven character.

In Dublin's fair city
Where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow
Through the streets, broad and narrow
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh"

She died of a fever
And sure, no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
Now her ghost wheels, her barrow
Through the streets, broad and narrow
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh"

This is followed by “The Rakes of Mallow”, a lively tune about exactly what you’d think.  I have offered up only verse three as possibly the least offensive:

When at home with dada dying,
Still for Mallow waters crying,
But when there, good claret plying,
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
Living short, but merry lives,
Going where the Devil drives,
Keeping Misses, but no Wives,
Live the Rakes of Mallow.

The rakes are chased away by a recapitulation of the opening and we are presented all too briefly with the last of the six melodies, a love song, “Kathleen O’More”, in which, of course, Kathleen dies of the chilled night air after having finished her chores.  Although her raven black hair no longer flows in the breeze, the melody soars in Grundman’s arrangement and is ushered out with restatements of many of the tunes that came before.  This sort of “wrapping up” of the piece ties it all together in the Grundman tradition, with a special kind of bow on top, a four-leaf clover, perhaps.

Here is the demo recording of this piece; there is no no visual score

HINTS FOR EFFECTIVE USE OF SOUNDFILES IN YOUR PRACTICE

There are several really good reasons for listening to the soundfiles of music you are playing:

1. *To get a sense of how the music sounds, its style, its phrasing, its harmonies (Most important reason!)
2. Following your music while listening to the soundfile (not playing) helps you learn how your part fits with the whole and helps you learn to keep your place. If you can't keep your place while listening and following in the music, you will struggle to keep your place when you are playing!
3. Playing along with the music gives you more opportunities to "practice with the group" than you can get just in rehearsals. You will not be able to determine when to play the very first beat, so come in on the next measure.
4. If it goes by too quickly, see the next bullet
5. Purchase the software, Amazing Slow Downer (from http://ronimusic.com/) and you can practice with the soundfile slowed down to where you can play along. (Soundfiles must be on the same device where the Slow Downer resides; you can not use YouTube, AppleMusic or soundfiles that are streamed from the web). For those of you cautious about what you download, this software site is safe according to Norton)
6. You can also slow down YouTube by clicking the gear and adjusting the percentage. You don't have the minute control of the speed, but it is better than nothing!

If you are new to working with soundfiles, DO NOT try to play along right away. Your first task is to listen several times while just following along in your own music (not playing), perhaps even using your finger to keep your place in the music. See if you can stay with the music, whether or not you can hear your own part (sometimes it doesn't sound like your instrument because you are playing the same thing as some other instrument and your part adds to the overall, but isn't itself distinguishable). Watch for things like holds or sudden loud spots or a change from legato to staccato to see if you can hear those as you listen. Until you can reliably follow along & keep your place in your music while listening and looking at your part, you will never be able to successfully play along. Be sure to do the listening first or it is just frustrating! Once you get good at that, try listening and speaking your rhythms. Once you can do that, then try playing with it, although you may find that it is too fast for you to keep up. (See bullet #5 above)

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Sudbury Valley New Horizons Music, Inc.