Wind Band Composer Snapshot: Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Willliams(1872-1958) English 20th Cty Composer/Conductor
- composed symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores.
- collected of English folk music(over 800 songs) and used them in compositions.
- attended the Royal College of Music where he met Holst in 1895
- Served in WW I as stretcher carrier, named Director of Music, First Army.
- The bulk of his major works are his 9 symphonies, yet his contribution to the wind world is important.
- He is considered, along with Holst and Jacob, to be one of the British Band Masters

The first page of the Score

Major Wind Works:
English Folk Song Suite (1923) 10:30Min Grade V
- Full military Band Instrumentation
- 3 movements: March-Seventeen Come Sunday(title song, Pretty Caroline,and Dives and Lazarus), Intermezzo-My Bonny Boy(and Greenbushes), and March- Folk Songs from Somerset(blow away the Morning Dew, High Germany, The Tree So High, and John Barleycorn)
- Gordon Jacob arranged this suite for orchestra.
- Its world premiere was given at Kneller Hall on July 4, 1923 in London.
- Made known in the US by the 1957 Fennell Eastman WE recording.
- Most of the 9 melodies appear first in solo lines making it a great piece to showcase multiple players.

Sea Songs (1923) 4 min Grade III
- Originally part of the aforementioned suite as the second movement, there is some debate on this, but I believe it to be quite plausible..
- based on folk songs Princess Royal, Admiral Benbow and Portsmouth.
- written for the band of the Royal Military School of Music

Toccata Marziale (1924) Meaning “Martial(soldierly) Toccata” 5 min VI
- Full military band instrumentation.
- broke away from the concept of the military band original repertoire being mainly a vehicle for ceremonial purposes.
- extensive use of counterpoint and dynamic ranges(like Hammersmith, maybe an influence on Holst because of their relationship?)
- 158 measures based on one motive that is developed into 5 additional themes. Great study in balance of melody/counter melody.
- Fennell has a “Basic Band Repertory” essay on it(Instrumentalist 1976)

Ralph as a Young Man

Scherzo alla Marcia(1956) for Chamber Winds 4min Grade IV(MD)

- This an extracted movement(2^nd) from Symphony #8 The first uses full orchestra, second winds, third strings, fourth all.
- Instrumentation: fl, pic, ob I/II, 2 clar, 3 bsn, 2 horns, 2 tpts, 3 tbns
 
Other Works of Significance:
- Variations for Wind Band (1957) arr. Hunsberger(1988) originally for orchestra 14Min Grade VI
- Rhosymedre (1920) Trans. Beeler(1972) 4min Grade IV

Oh, and by the way...make sure you pronounce it Rafe, not Ralph. It'll help you sound like a learned band nerd!

While it is not an in-depth scholarly article I hope it is of use. If you have suggestions for composers/conductors you'd like to see, or information you think it relevant feel free to comment or send me an email,  k.freesen@gmail.com I'm always ready to talk about the art of wind band.

Music Education Blog Carnival- February 2011 Edition

Welcome to my first Music Education Blog Carnival

Following a month filled with activity in the field of music education. I got some great article submissions from teachers all over the world. Between hosting an honor band, filling in as the WSU Wind Symphony conductor, running my pep band, and presenting at IMEA I was engulfed in music this past month! I was glad to have @PisanoJM cheering me on and sending a lot of "Retweets" to help put this together.

Hopefully you'll find some new folks in here and maybe even a new blog to add to your RSS feed. I have also included their twitter usernames, get on twitter and join our conversation! Without further ado, please enjoy your Carnival!

Music Advocacy

Dr. Joseph Pisano(@PisanoJM), TI:ME 2011 Teacher of the Year, presents MMC Keynote: The New Relevance Of Music Educators posted at Music, Technology and Education: Mustech.net - Dr. Pisano's blog post includes his PowerPoint titled 21st Century Skills - The New Relevance of Music Educators from his recent presentation at the Michigan Music Conference."

David Ahrens(@MrAhrens) presents Music Life Lesson #5: Getting Along posted at Sound Education - Music teaches us more than how to play or sing. The life skills taught through music are invaluable. This is #5 in a series of posts by Mr. Ahrens about what else music teaches and his reflections on a #MusEdChat discussion on the topic.



Professional Development


Keith Ozsvath(@band_techie) presents Part I - IMEA Recap: Using Facebook for Professional Development posted at Teaching & Technology [in music]Keith and I presented a session on "24/7 Professional Development, Creating a PLN" at IMEA this past week. Here he has outlined the first part of our presentation, Parts 2 and 3 to follow!


Amy Cook presents When Does Technology Work for K12 Teachers? - posted at Information Technology DegreeThis article includes link to discussion about making technology "work" for teachers and dispelling myths about technology in a study done by Walden University.



Music Education


Yoon Soo Lim (@DoremiGirl) presents Visiting Artist Week: Learning from Other Teachers posted at sing imagination - What a great idea! This post explores what both students(and teacher) learned by bringing professional artists into school.

Nick Jaworski(@JaworskiMusic) presents Why is it that the music we prefer to listen to is so vastly different from the music we teach our students? | posted at Moving Forward With Music (Nick Jaworski) - "This article attempts to examine the discrepancy between the music that music education undergraduates listen to and the music that they are expected to teach when they get into the professional world. By trying to understand our future teachers' own tastes, maybe the profession can start to ask the necessary questions about what music should be taught within the classroom." - Nick Jaworski. Personally, I like the nerdy stuff I am "supposed" to teach...then again Celine Dion is ok too :)


Samuel Wright(@WrightStufMusic) presents Making Music Fun posted at Wright-Stuff Music - this is a collection of links for all things fun, musical, interactive and wizbang(his words, not mine) on the internet. It is technological, but also pedagogical and useful in performance. Great for early learning to junior high classes.


Elizabeth Heist(@Heistes) presents Dealing with Instrumentation in Ensembles posted at Music Education Highlights from an Undergrad - Miss Heist lists resources to help with instrumentation issues of school band programs. She is a student teacher, currently dealing with this issue in her co-op school's program.


Thomas J. West(@thomasjwest) presents Teaching Expressive Music Making - Beyond The Black Dots - Thomas J. West Music posted at Thomas J. West Music - Mr. West discusses music beyond the page. He says, "One of the most challenging things to do in teaching music is guiding students towards performing music expressively. Performing music is such an intricate and complex process, or is it? Basic music expression is really quite natural and fundamental to humans. As the guitar teacher at my school is fond of telling his students, "Music is about communication.""


Emily Farrell(@EmilyRFarrell) presents A Percussion Discussion posted at Waiting For a Story - A humorous and very honest look about the need to really teach percussion as a opposed to just letting them "Hit what they want. When they want. How they want."


Brandt Schneider(@BrandtSchnieder) presents Who is in your Top Ten? posted at Things To Come - "Is there agreement on what artists we should teach?" Probably not. Go weigh in on Mr. Schneider's post that was started by a NY times series.


@jmonteo presents Componiendo JUNTOS posted at Componiendo JUNTOS - "Composing together. A Spanish collaborative project to compose a song with all the schools who want to participate." Completely in Spanish.


Samuel Wright(@WrightStufMusic) presents Programmatic Learning ? Pictures @ an Exhibition posted at Wright-Stuff Music - This is a lesson you can take out of Mr. Wright's playbook. He says, "A small but useful AIR application to get students listening, comparing, score reading and analysing the music of Mussorgsky. Firstly as orchestrated by Ravel and then by Emerson Lake and Palmer."

I hope you enjoy your monthly ME Blog Carnival. From here I turn it over to the March Host, Miss Justine Dolorfino(@Justine_Robin). You can submit your blog article for her edition of Music Education Blog Carnival by using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Next up on my blog will be some reflection articles about this past few weeks! Stay warm out there if you're being affected by these big storms across the US!

The Virtual Podium is Hosting the Music Education Carnival this Month!

I'm proud to present the February 2011 edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival here at The Virtual Podium!

It's exciting to be hosting this months Music Education Blog Carnival on my blog. It's such a big deal I even rolled out a new header for everyone! We are now accepting submissions for the upcoming Music Education Blog Carnival. With so many professional development things happening the upcoming weeks, this is the perfect time to get involved and keep it going right into February.

Please click here to be automatically sent to our Music Education Carnival submission page.

Who came up with this great idea?
The Music Education Blog Carnival was created and is maintained by Dr. Joseph Pisano of
MusTech.net and Joel of SoYouWantToTeach.com in order to promote the great works being done
by Music Education Bloggers across the Internet and to provide useful Music Education related
information into the Internet “mainstream” quickly.

The Music Education Blog Carnival is published on the 1st of every month and is a recognized
member of the communities of blogs as indexed by BlogCarnival.com. All writings submitted to the
Music Education Blog Carnival are examined to ensure that they are valid, interesting, and related
to the topic of Music Education.

What is a Blog Carnival?
A Blog Carnival is way to extend and/or create a community of bloggers (and readers) that have
great things to say about a particular topic… in our case, Music Education. I know it's been help to this very blog.
A Blog Carnival functions as a mini-magazine or an online journal that is focused around a particular topic and is created by experts in the online community that submit their entries for inclusion. All entries are reviewed, each month, by the host to make sure that they are well-written, timely, topic-related, and of interest to the Blog Carnival’s readership.

Can I participate in this Carnival?
Anyone that has an online article or post, new or old, that has something positive to contribute to the topic of Music Education. Again, anyone may submit topic-related articles to the carnival; however, not all submissions may be included in the monthly edition.

How do I submit my article/blog post?
The online process is actually very easy. The Blog Carnival is being organized by http://blogcarnival.com and you can find the direct Music Education Submittal Page by following this link, http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_4443.html

When can I submit?
Anytime you're feeling it! Just head to the Music Education Submittal page!

I look forward to reading your submissions, share this with friends/colleagues, and feel to check out the rest of my blog.

Everyone Seems To Hate Scale Study...

As you may have noticed. I have moved out of my comfort zone in good, old Illinois. I'm here in the SW part of Ohio living the dream. I work/study at Wright State where I have a sweet assistantship. I work with one of the best HS marching bands in the country. Yep, I'm pretty thrilled.

So far my experiences primarily with the CJB and I have determined that even though I was once thought the kids in this band must be super heroes, they're just normal high school kids. How did I find this out, you ask? They don't know all their major scales. Not only do they not know them, but *gasp* they hate practicing them. I know I was amazed too. I also had a little pat myself on the back moment(my little band at El Paso, IL was going to town on some scale studies!!)

One of the directors and I set a check off goal for the brasses. Yes, the woodwinds checked off major scales in mid-July. They always seem to be ahead of the brasses, anyone know why? I have my theories, but I digress. The other director also discussed the fact that if a F# concert scale appeared in their show music, they'd memorize it. Yet, the scale sheet in their binders goes unlearned.

I'm glad their making a push for scales, because it's something I always pushed for with my ensembles. As I was browsing around on www.musicpln.org (which you should check out) I found a great blog post about Lisk and scales by Thomas J. West. Check it out by clicking...HERE! 

Now go practice your scales. I played my Circle of 4ths today, did you?

Are We Successful Teachers?

Last week's #MusEdChat on Twitter focused on what makes a music teacher successful. We discovered the answer is varied depending on the perspective of parents, students, administrators, and ourselves. I always love these chats and I can't wait for the next one. They always make me think a little deeper. It's not talk about philosophy instead of just pedagogy. Honestly, I think more deeply about pedagogy most of the time.

Anyway, we tweeted about all these different groups. We talked of how sometimes parents just want it to be fun for their kids. I spoke about the idea of teaching parents during the school concert. An Informance instead of a Performance if you will. Teachers all view their own success very differently, some more noble than others. I wish I was more noble actually...and then bringing up administrators always starts an uproar.

The most important group for me is the students. Sure, I want to myself and my peers to view me as successful. I want the administrators and parents to respect what I do. However, if they students don't see me as successful, what kind of leader or teacher am I? I'm not a clown to entertain them, but I am there to be a counselor, their musicality leader, an explorer, a knowledge giver as well as seeker, and many other things.

Since I let me former students find me on Facebook, I put up a post asking what makes a successful teacher? I was impressed that a few took the time to tell me. Even more impressed that one(who is a history ed major now) sent me a paper he wrote for class. So here are some response excerpts below. What do your kids think?


"I feel a music teacher should be judged on his musicianship and how he uses it to improve his students' musicianship. The teachers who go out of their way and use their time to help a student in need or a student who just wants to be the best is always a teacher I would choose. Also I feel that teacher should push his students to their greatest potential and not give up on any student because he, the teacher, doesn't feel the student has the capablilties to improve or expand. Lastly and most importantly: I feel a music teacher should have a great love for all musics and children or teens (whatever age group) he is working with and should accept any student, no matter their skill level, who comes to him with an intrest in music and accept that student with open arms."


"Have fun and being able to connect with the students and just lay back and have a blast playing!"


"Discipline is extremely important because you also earn respect from your students. And strong leadership skills will tell students that you are the one in charge-not them."


"I think its a combination of two things, character and wisdom. Students won't respect a teacher unless they see something there to respect, if you know your stuff and your able to portray that knowledge in an interesting way I think you've got it made. I know that if I have a professor that is more knowedgeable about music than I could ever hope to be and that professor can show that through his conducting, his assistance with different instruments, personal accounts, and on a one on one basis that is the best teacher I can get. And I would hope that, at least on a collegiate level, that respect would counter the need for discipline."


"talking and getting to know your students. that way you know and understand what drives them to work hard and improve."


"...seemingly in constant motion with one thing or another going. ..Very early on in my education, I was inspired by my teachers. I admired their work ethic and their ability to make me enjoy learning. That was quite an accomplishment with my case, for I was not too interested in learning at that time. "

I hope those first couple of classes of mine, the grads of 08-10 continue to think as well as post goofy videos on FB. :)

IMEA Conference Day 2 Clinic 4

Yes, I know I skipped 3. My computer went dead and the room was so full that I couldn't get to an outlet. On the upside it was on advocacy and Jes came with me. It was nice to sit with her since we go to completely different clinics the whole conference. Pretty nice handout, but I don't know how much of it applicable this juncture in my career.

"Composition 101" Clinician: Robin Giebelhausen, Libertyville (HMS)
 Robin is discussing how we can't be scared of composing. It's not Bach and Beethoven. Use the instruments they play! We can't scare students either, feedback...teach them positvely and give them easy conventions(ex end on do) I'm hoping I can use some of these things to possibly teach a Knox College for Kids class on Composition.

Use composition for sightreading. Use just 1 3 5. The kids might actually like sightreading because of it. I think makes more sense for choral settings. This seems to be very geared towards general music. I was hoping get some more concrete techniques. I don't like that we're not using notation. I'm not really able to step out of my comfort zone on compositions.

Symphony project sounds cool. Each student has to do 4 movements form, slow, dance-like, and one like the first(ex credit) it's all done in garage band loops and midi input. She mentioned Audacity too. I think this is going to be the ticket if I want to do that. Usuing a wikispace will probably be the way to go. I wonder if Knox has a computer lab that I could use? The technology she's using is very similar to what Brenda talked about yesterday. That's comforting to see what's out there is being used by more people.

She says to compose a long with them. That's what I'm talking about! Kids love seeing us try too!

Now I'm taking a break until my presentation at 5. I think I'll swing back to the hotel and relax. I feel bad about skipping out on a few sessions, but hopefully it'll get me in the right frame of mind to be engaging and dynamic to anyone who comes to my session.

School Resumes

Well we are back in session. I wish the new quarter would've started yesterday, but it's not for another week. Even though the kids are recharged(and kind of crazy) and the teachers rested(and slightly lethargic) we're in the last two weeks of a grading period. Odd.

On a personal note I had a great break. I don't think I said this before, but I got engaged just a few days before my last post. This means some of break was used on beginning to plan a wedding that is over a year away. I had no idea there was so much to do. We looked at venues, spent lots of time talking, got information from her parents(no word on mine yet), and had an engagement party.

The party was great we met a little Irish pub in normal with about 40 friends, mostly theater people I've met as a music director while my fiancee has been on stage. I even got to see some of my former students. It's weird to think that by the time I'm married all of my first high school band will have graduated high school. They're off doing all kinds of things and it was the highlight of my night to hear about it. One just left for Spain to study a semester abroad before coming home to be a nurse. Many of them have continued playing two as music majors, one as a minor, many in their unversity marching bands, and one is almost member of the Glassmen(good luck Kory). It just makes me so happy that they're keeping music in their lives on that level.

I did a lot of article reading over break. Your basic stuff I guess how to be a better director and more importantly how to be an educator. What can I teach my students about music through music while performing music? That's from one of my books, "Teaching Music Through Performance" and it's really great to work on that. I'm trying to get my students into reflecting on their performances, we wrote short essays after watching a tape of our concert and I'm thinking about doing that once a month with great ensembles playing the literature we're playing. I'd like to do a listening journal next year...if anyone has thoughts on that it'd be great.

I read about different methods of score study because I'm trying to find something that really works for me. I'm almost through my first score using a method I'm developing and I think it's helping me to understand the pieces with more depth. I'll outline my plan sometime on here incase it maybe benifical to someone. I wish I would've done this two years ago...but we have to keep improving or we die. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

How can I  become a better music educator, pursue my dreams of higher education, and not drive my fiancee crazy in 2010? Stay tuned.

Giving 94%

I listened to one of the greatest things today. This is an audio only clip of Dr. Stamp from IUP demonstrating the difficulty of music. One of the most powerful things I've heard. Let's face it, music educators are always trying to explain what we do. This does it perfectly.

Please enjoy and keep making music. By the way, I sent it to my principal. He sent me a very nice email back. That's a blessing isn't it? :)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw4vqll9cAM

94% will never be good enough.