Concert Band Piece Didn't Sound Like Expected

Earlier this year, my high school band director let me have the band sight read a wind ensemble piece I wrote. I was very excited for this opportunity, but when we played it, sounded nothing like how I imagined. In the spring, the director is giving me another chance, and I want to get suggestions on how to make the piece better.

Here is a link to the mp3 output from Finale: http://lzr.cc/music/isle.mp3 . Follow the score while you listen to the song, because there's some stuff Finale screws up on especially in the percussion department.

Thanks,

Leeran

(This is the recording of the WE sight reading it. Only listen to this after hearing the other version, because I'm kind of embarresed about how bad it is, and I don't want you thinking this was how I wanted it to sound: lzr.cc/music/isle_recording.mp3.)

isle.pdf

Hate to break it to you or your band, but it is the performance that's the problem here. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with your piece. Whoever is your marimba player in the band needs to learn how to play without swinging the 8th note. That's probably what set it off. Also remember that this was a sight read. One of my major band pieces didn't sound at all good upon it's sight read, but after some practice, they "got it". So don't be discouraged! This is some great material here. Harness the ensemble, don't fight it.

One warning though. Finale will NOT sound like the real thing, no matter how much one tries. So do not use that as a standard; use the notation on the page as a guide for what's going on in your head.

BTW, a major notational thing, PLEASE!! do not spearate like intstruments. It makes it very hard on conductors making the print smaller and cluttering the score. Please keep Cls. 1,2 & 3,4 Alto Saxes etc. on the same staff.

****Unfortunately, I can't listen to the audio files here at work, but just from sight, I can tell you that the marimba part would be difficult to sight read (keeping in mind that I've played quite a lot of difficult mallet music).

BTW, a major notational thing, PLEASE!! do not spearate like intstruments. It makes it very hard on conductors making the print smaller and cluttering the score. Please keep Cls. 1,2 & 3,4 Alto Saxes etc. on the same staff.

Justin, that's nonsense. If the parts are dissimilar, there's no reason to have instruments sharing staves. No reason apart from laziness, or if the conductor in question would specifically ask for it. Personally I prefer separate staves for every instrument for clarity (not to mention ease of copy work).

As experience has shown in this forum and elsewhere, composers who use staves with more than one instrument tend to write completely uninteresting parts for one or both players. For instance, in your Symphony #1 in G Minor, I count only 51 bars (out of 583 bars in the first movement) where your doubled staff parts (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, and tuba) have a genuinely different part from their counterpart that shares the staff. That is, where the parts don't have the same rhythm (in octaves, thirds, sixths, etc.) or are just lightly changing a held note to match the harmony.

(tuba @ rehearsal number 3 for 4 bars, horns/trumpets/trombones 1/2 @ rehearsal number 4 for 2 bars, m94-95 for trombone 1/2, m98 trombones/tuba, tuba @ rehearsal number 6 for 2 bars, m103-104 tuba, m285-287 trombone 1/2, m291 trombone 1/2, m322-323 tuba, tuba @ rehearsal number 18 for 8 bars, m365 bassoon, m367 bassoon, m375 tuba, horns/trumpets/trombone 1/2 @ rehearsal number 21 for 2 bars, trumpets @ rehearsal number 22 for 4 bars, m408-409 for horns/trumpets/trombone 1/2, m498-504 clarinet, m565-571 horns/tuba/trombones)

Actually, I think the recording is pretty good for a sight reading session...

If it makes you feel any better, a piece of mine was sight read by a community college band, and they sent me a recording you can listen to here. Definitely not perfect at all, so don't think that it's your piece that's messed up.

The idea is not to get discouraged because of a high school sight reading session. I quite enjoyed your piece, and I think that, given a little more time in rehearsal, It would sound phenomenal played by your group. Will you band director allow you to perform the piece, or at least dedicate a bit of time to learning it? That's the best way to go.

Good luck!

-Corey

The idea is not to get discouraged because of a high school sight reading session.

Good advice... remember that not everyone sightreads well. I've known some phenomenal players who are just absolute dolts when it comes to sightreading.

You should view your sightreading experience as a chance to hear how your musicians will approach the piece, if there are any roadblocks to comprehension of the form, if there are sections that don't sound as you intended, etc. Use each "performance" of your work to learn what is working and what does not.

Yeah my band played a piece that is really hard by me named City Nights, and it didn't sound as good as I thought but we only sight read it, because of it;s difficulty.

These comments are very comforting. For some reason, I thought that the director would hand out the parts, and everything would just be perfect right away. I've got my hopes up for the spring when he said we'd try it again. Ignoring the obvious rhythm mistakes and lines that are ignored, are there any orchestration suggestions? This was my first try at a piece with a large ensemble, and I'm just beginning to dabble in orchestration.

Ugh. I know this isn't exactly commentary on the piece, but those percussionists were extremely mediocre. I mean the cymbal crashes were all so dead, like they clapped them together exactly centered and didn't pull them apart, and the snare roll sounded like someone hitting a snare over and over really fast instead of a nice roll, and the tambourinist didn't follow your accent pattern at all. I guess what I'm getting at is, the piece being less than you expected is not entirely your fault. Also hire someone to make your percussionists be able to make simple and common gestures sound good

For some reason, I thought that the director would hand out the parts, and everything would just be perfect right away.

*cackles madly*

The best-case scenario would be to give the music to the conductor first to study, and then later go over the piece with the conductor outside of rehearsal, and see what his/her concerns might be. After that, have the group sight-read and see what other issues crop up. At your age/experience level, I'd say that it's important for you to be there to hear the sight-reading, for educational purposes.