T Minus 6 Hours And Counting

OK, so Diana Krall has nothing to do with my Stravinsky project, but isn't it a whole lot better than another picture of old Igor? I mean, c'mon. Beautiful face, sultry voice, swingin' piano player. What more could you ask for? And if I tag her I'm sure to get a lot more hits on the blog.

But, let's get to The Rite of Spring, shall we? Today is the day. Countless hours of listening. Many more hours of writing. Printing, photocopying, blogging, facebook updates, reading sessions, master classes, rehearsals, interviews, mailings, flyers, etc. What a production. And that's only my part of it. The people at Mobtown Modern have been hard at work as well. And it all boils down to two shows tonight. 7:30 and 9:30. About two and a half hours total time performing. I have this awful feeling that it will be like Christmas when we were young, greedy kids. All this hype and anticipation. Then when the day comes we tear open all the packages like a bunch of sharks in a feeding frenzy and in ten minutes we are saying, "Is that it?". After all, the performance time is just a little blip on the screen compared to all the prep time.

But hopefully this will live on. With a little luck there will be other performances by this band and hopefully by others as well. I have some inquiry about the availability of charts and I do plan to sell copies. And hopefully a CD will come out as well. And then there is the potential to market this to dance companies or choreographers to see if someone might want to produce a modern version of the ballet. Perhaps I can get some guest conducting gigs with some college bands. Anyone out there want to make an offer?

But let's talk a little more about tonight. The venue is as much a night club as it is a concert hall. So the audience will be more laid back than if they were all sitting in theater seats. And the set up of the band will be cramped. Generally this makes for some physical discomfort, but I think big bands play together better when they are squeezed like that. The space holds about 225 people. I hope it gets filled for both shows. I've also heard that a critic from The Baltimore Sun will be there. I really wish that I did not know that. I don't need those things in the back of my mind. I don't plan on telling the band about that. I want them to be loose and just play.

It is my plan to have a few more entries in this blog after the performance. Certainly I want to write on how the night went. I also want to follow up on anything else happening about this project that I feel is relevant. I hope those of you who have been following this blog have enjoyed it. If you would like to keep up with my activities please feel free to "friend" my on Facebook. I'm probably the only Darryl Brenzel on there. If not, then I'm the one with the sax. Just simply send the word "Stravinsky" with the request so I know you aren't some weirdo or salesperson or whatever.

And now, on with the show!

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!!

So, here in Maryland we usually get a little snow a few times each winter. Every other year or so we might get a snowfall that's at least a bit significant, say, 7-12 inches. About every 5-7 years we get a good one. Maybe 20-30 inches. Well, this winter we have received the mother load. There have been several snowfalls in the 4-6 inch range. In addition we had 20 inches in December, 30 inches just this past weekend and today, only the following Tuesday, we have snow coming down with potential accumulation of another 20+ inches!! Aaaaggghhh!!!! Will spring ever get here?

Well, spring is on the calender and will arrive whether it seems like spring or not. And perhaps this snow will all be gone by then. But perhaps not. But I have arrived at "Spring Rounds", the fouth part of the first half of Rite of Spring, Adoration of the Earth. And it will warm you right up.

I think perhaps this is my favorite section of Stravinsky's work. It is possibly the only section where one might say it is beautiful in the traditional sense of that word as it applies to music. It reminds me a lot of tango music. Not the old stuff from the 30's or 40's that you might hear played at a ballroom dance, but more like the tango nuevo style along the lines of Astor Piazzolla. It has a very haunting, mysterioso feel to it and is probably the part that most easily lends itself to a modern jazz treatment. There was a lot of figures that sounded totally "correct" exactly as they were when a rhythm section groove was put under it. As a matter of fact, I would say this piece has the best natural groove of all the parts of Rite of Spring.

For the intro I gave the trill from the flutes to two clarinets. The Eb and Bb clarinet line, which is the melody here in the intro, is covered by a flute, two flugels and guitar. The original line is nearly all quarter notes with a few half notes. I keep the sequence of pitches intact but change rhythms to add some syncopation. I also wrote it in 4/4 instead of all the 5/4, 7/4, 6/4, 5/4, etc. that Stravinsky used for who knows what reason. The melody doesn't necessarily imply those subdivisions. When the groove starts I have the drums establishing the time and feel by using mallets on the toms. This creates a very seductive, tango-ish atmosphere. The two part, off-beat figure in the bass clarinets and low strings is perfect "as is" for this vibe and I give it to the bones, who are in bucket mutes, and the guitar. The on-beat, two note part in violin II is covered by two clarinets and two flugel horns. There is is a little "break" figure that appears twice. This is covered by flute and soprano sax. The note sequence is again intact with a slight rhythm change. Two of the descending eighth notes become grace notes and more of an effect within the melody than an actual part of it. A scoop is added to the top note as well giving it a more mournful feel and is in keeping with the jazz style.

The on-beat and off-beat figures continue as the "theme" is introduced. It is played verbatim by flugels and clarinets. The bones eventually relinquish their off beat part to the piano and guitar. The bones now fatten the melody being played by flugels and clarinets. A piccolo part is also played in it's exact form by flute and soprano. This combination is high in pitch but has more warmth than is usually found in that register in a jazz band. At what would be bar 25 in the orchestra score I break from the form a bit. Here I give the piano chord changes to comp and give the bones some chordal/rhythmic figures not found in the score, but ones that would be common to big band writing. The "break" figure appears two more times. This time I re-inforced it with a bass clarinet. The last time leads into a full band chord held out for two measures followed by two measures of the rhythm section vamping on Eb min11 as a release.

At this point the soprano sax begins an improvised solo. As it progresses I introduce background figures of my own creation. A lot of them are "warm" clusters mixing brass and reeds. There are also falls and rips into notes for greater emotion. These are countered by some low, two part lines played by tenor sax, bari sax and trombones 3 & 4. I have to admit that a lot of what I was trying to do here was to capture the type of sonic ambience that Maria Schneider so readily creates in her music. Eight bars before the end of the solo is the biggest figure where all the horns come together for some hard, stacatto hits ending with a big fall. There is just abit of a release here and the different horn sections then trade around a quarter note triplet idea while the soprano wraps up it's solo.

At this point I'm back to covering the basic idea of what happens with the orchestra. The theme returns but is developed a bit by Stravinsky with added beats. I again keep things in 4/4 and keep the groove going. I cover the same ideas. This time I make the theme ever so slightly syncopated in places instead of playing it exact. This helps to create a bit more tension and excitement. The orchestra arrangement gets quite loud here and I follow those dynamics. At this point the piccolo trumpet, C trumpets, french horns and trombones come in with parallel #9 chords that are nearly deafening. I don't have the manpower to cover so many things so I give this to the trombones and ask them to do their best. I never thought I would write something where I'm asking players to blast, but here it is.

All this leads up to a big fermatta. Following this is a faster section with embellishment type flourishes in the high woodwinds as well as a figure in the strings using an effect that I'm sure has some high-brow name that I'm unaware of. They would be sawing back and forth hard as the line goes up and down with two 16th notes on each pitch. There are also some punches here as well. I cover the basic idea of the flourishes but play them at half the speed make them a "melody" that can be more easily followed by the ear. This is played by alto sax, two tenors and bari as well as guitar and the piano, which plays it in two octaves. This is much stronger than the flutes and clarinets from the orchestra version. All the hits are done by the brass. The drums are given a snare part that is sort of like a telegraph/evening news figure and provides a lot of tension and forward motion. The bass drum accents all the hits. The soprano rejoins the band eventually as well. It is covering piccolo trills.

After the last hit in the orchestra part a trill holds through and the intro figure is played again. Here I have the soprano play an improvised cadenza instead of the trill. This buys times for some trumpets to go to flugels as well as the other trumpets and all the bones to put in mutes. Now I score the intro figure with a different twist. The first is actually the result of a mistake. I thought I was looking at the flute part but was actually looking at the alto flute part so I ended up writing this whole ending section in the wrong key. Second, I harmonized it with tight voicings and a lot of parallel motion. I also come to fermattas in three places in the line and give the soprano a short, improvised fill at each. The key may be wrong, but it worked out well to get me back to an Eb min11 chord on the last note. This is again a fermatta with the bass playing arco and the piano doing a tremolo on two low Eb's in octaves. Now the soprano freely play a written fill based on the main theme and bring the tune to a close.

So, it may be Feb 9th, but I've just made my "Spring Rounds". It was warm and sensuous and at times a bit heated. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go shovel snow.

Repent, the end is near.

I'm getting close. Oh, so close. I can see it. I can smell it. I can almost taste it. It's really a good feeling. A week ago I finished part 12. That's 12 out of 14. Only two to go.

So why am I not just a little bit more excited? Perhaps it's because there is still so much more work after the music is written. There are 17 musicians that have to be assembled. Rehearsals have to be scheduled around all their schedules. Music has to be worked out. There are master classes I'll be preparing for at some local universities. Publicity to be done. A podcast to do. All kinds of things to take care of. Plus there is just quite a bit of time still until the actual performance.

But I think the real reason why I'm not quite so excited is that there is a bit of anxiety as to how this whole thing will come off. I've spent a lot of hours working on this. A lot. Will it really be any good? We all know that Stravinsky's work is considered a masterpiece. Am I doing this work justice? Stravinsky wrote something new and different. Will my arrangement sound like anything new? Or will it just sound like a bunch of big band charts? By the way, I'm so trying to avoid writing "charts". Not only on this project but in general with my writing for jazz orchestra. Charts are what writers have done for most of the history of big bands. They take a tune, someone else's or one of there own. Then they write an arrangement. They assign melodies and create counter lines. Perhaps introduce new harmony. Compress or elongate phrases. Insert solo sections. Write backgrounds, interludes, intros and endings. And after all is said and done the guys in the band will say "nice chart". But it is still an arrangement, not a composition for jazz orchestra. A tune that is arranged for big band almost always sounds like a tune that's arranged for big band. They virtually never have the feeling or the sense of a journey that can be created by putting paper to pen for the whole band before writing a "tune".

It is this desire or goal in my "original" writing that makes me anxious about this whole project. I would hate for it to sound like charts. No charts! If people hear this and it reminds them of Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, or, God forbid, Bob Mintzer, I will have failed immensely. So much of what those bands did though the second half of the twentieth century was to emphasize the showy part of big bands. High, fast, loud, slick. In general I hate that part of big band music. Sure there is physical excitement. And there is certainly a place for that. But I'm far more concerned about the subtleties. The musicality. And most importantly, the emotional content. Deep emotional content. Beauty, grace, joy, anger, wonder. The things of life. Physical excitement generates a more immediate and vocal response from the audience. They will appear to have enjoyed it more than a crowd hearing a more challenging and emotional program. But when the crowd has had a deeper emotional experience it will be a more lasting experience. Emotional content will have them listening intently over and over again, finding new things in the music. Physical excitement brings them back when they are looking for a cheap thrill but rarely rewards this listener with anything more.

So, I'm closing in on finishing the actual writing. After that it's out there for the world to judge. Will I have written music or will it be just a bunch of charts. The end is near. My time to repent is running out. But I think I will follow this road to it's final destination. We shall see if leads me to glory or perdition.

Post Script: Some rehearsal recordings have been posted at www.mobtownmodern.com. Go have a listen and tell me what you think.

What do you wanna do with your life!?

There was a time, way back in the day, when MTV (Music Television) actually played music videos instead of constant re-runs of "The Real World", "Parental Control" or "MTV Cribs". Who cares about these pathetic people? Anyway, one of the classic videos was by a hair band named Twisted Sister. At the beginning of the video a boy of about 13 years of age is in his bedroom with his father spewing angry verbage at him, saliva flying everywhere. After mentioning something about carrying an M-16 in Vietnam the dad concludes his diatribe with the question "what do you wanna do with your life!?"

As I was in the early stages of this project I did a lot of listening to "Rite of Spring" and lots of following along with the score. Each part was quite different in melodic material, harmony, tempo, instrumentation and length. This would beg the question as to what I wanted to do with this part. Some parts are quite difficult to figure out what to do with in arranging it for a jazz band. Others a little more obviuos. Part two, "Dances Of The Young Girls" was painfully obvious. And the answer was the same as the one given by that 13 year old boy in the Twisted Sister video. "I wanna rock!!!!!"

Yeah, that's right, I wanna bang my head. The basses in the orchestra are sawing away, all powerful downstrokes, on these open fifths, the notes E and B, sounding much like an overdriven electric guitar slung down to the knees of some long haired, pimply face teenage boy rocking out in his parents basement. Well guess what? A jazz band has an electric guitar. And drums!! The French Horn punches get coverd by most of the horns like a second guitar punching in some crunchy power chords. A dancy little stacatto line by the English Horn is played by three saxes, playing it with more punch and some rhythmic variation making it more syncopated. The basic chord over the open fifths is an Eb 7(#9). Nice dissonance. The over that the bassons arpegiate a C major triad and an E minor triad. This is covered by tenor 2 and bari, again with a little rhythmic variation. The oboes play an almost fanfare type line. How much fanfare can an oboe produce. Enter 2 trumpets double by screaming guitar.

Now an eighth note part in the cellos in covered by trombone 3 & 4 and a triplet part in the violas is covered by trombone 1 & 2. The parts are typical string parts in that they play without break and the rhythm remains static. I not only syncopate the rhythm but I also turn it into a hemiola. Both parts play a three against four figure. The bass is covering the actual Stravinsky bass part and is also playing three against four. However, it doesn't really have anything to do with what the bones are doing. On top of that trumpets 1 and 2 cover an arpegiated line in the piccolos and A and Bb clarinets. The saxes are continuing the english horn part and this all stacks up into some serious rock and roll cacophony.

Now trumpets 1 & 2 play a high descending line and the whole band comes together for two punches and we are back to the intro vamp for four bars. And now ladies and gentlemen, the guitar solo. A screaming solo on Eb 7(#9)/E. Backgrounds used are figures from the piece. A bassoon line again for the saxes. And again the rhythm is changed. Little bleaps and blops in the piccolos are given to the trumpets and become more forceful. The solo climaxes with two fermattas on #9 chords. Then it's off into double time swing. A descending line is handed off through the sections as it descends further. The same english horn line from before appears and now the syncopation is changed slightly to make it a swing figure. The same strange bassoon arpegios are there two played by the tenors with a new alteration to include a change in placement using anticipation.

At this point in the score the first real melody of this part appears in the french horns. I give it at first to the trumpets. A swing version, but a singable melody. Finally. A few little odds and ends appear and the melody gets repeated. Here I give this line to the saxes 1-3. I do it in cannon form. The three parts stack well. Here another melody emerges in the C trumpets in two part harmony. This melody will appear again in part four. I score it for trumpets. Imagine that. Meanwhile, the bones are again playing a three over four type figure.

These melodies suddenly stop and the violas begin a tricky chromatic sixteenth note line. I'm in double time so the 16ths become 8ths. The line is too long without fro horns to play without a break so it gets handed back and forth between couplings of alto and tenor sax. Now the first "melody" gets screamed over a dominant pedal and we send the trombone off on a solo excursion. Typical background figures, sometimes relating to the piece, accent the last solo chorus. After this solo the band is in overdrive to the end. Couplings of saxes play a melody echoing back and forth. The bones play an E min 7 (b5) and D7 back and forth in swinging punches. These were french horn chords. The bari, piano and guitar cover a viola line, two different groups of four descending notes, which becomes very swinging. I just have to put in small breaks so the bari player can breathe. The oboes have a chromatic 16th note line that goes up and down over four beats, covering an interval of a minor sixth. This gets played and repeated by the trumpets. Trumpet 1 takes it up an octave every other time. The bass is playing a written line of quarter notes and the drums are swinging hard with a back beat at this point. The band is at a full romp.

This romping feel reminded me of a recording by The Either/Orchestra of a Henry Threadgill composition called "The Hard Blues". On their version they come to a tight, hard ending. It cuts quick and short. However, it's a false ending. They come back in with no prep and end it again. Then once more. Perhaps a tip of the hat to Basie's "April In Paris" without the "One more once". I decide this is a good idea for this chart and have three false endings with varying lengths of silence before the music returns. The fouth time is a charm. (The real ending)

So, Twisted Sister just might dig this part. And if I ever do a video of Rite of Spring for MTV perhaps I'll spoof their video and have a little talking head of Igor pop up and shout, "I wanna rock!" But I'm not about to wear spandex.

Christmas Vacation

So, it has been 12 days since I've written in this blog. During that time I have received twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a leaping.......FIVE GOLDEN RINGS. (Had to get to that part) Well, you get the picture. It's Christmas time, in fact, it is Christmas day, and I've been a bit busy. As usual, the gigging picks up a bit during the holidays with all the corporate parties and church gigs, including non-paying gigs at my own church. And then there's the holiday shopping and gatherings. And we got a wonderful snowfall last weekend. 18 inches to be exact. So I've spent a good deal of time with a shovel in my hand.



I wonder if Stravinsky ever had to shovel snow? In fact, I wonder many things about him, especially during the time that he was working on Rite Of Spring. Did he do any gigs? Did he have other writing projects that he was working on? What sort of family commitments did he have, if any? Was he teaching any private students? (I've been far too lazy and/or busy to reseach anything about Stravinsky's life.) Did he take a Christmas break? Did he even celebrate Christmas at all? Especially while writing such a "pagan" piece of music. Perhaps I'll do a little reading about his life after finishing the project. Anyway, these are all things that I have been dealing with as I continue this project. I teach saxophone students at Towson University. I teach woodwinds at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore. I teach at home. I gig. I have family commitments. I've been doing other writing. That's why I thought the two charts a month goal was pretty lofty. It gives me lots of time to miss my deadline and still be done in time. I'm very close to my schedule as I just finished and printed part 11 three days ago and part 12 I think will go quickly.



But back to Igor. What demands did he have on his time. Did he take time off from his writing. Did he find inspiration when he did other things. I have have had many of my best ideas come to mind while far away from the house and anything musical. Often while driving the car or even more often, while walking my dog in the woods is when I have got some of my best ideas and inspiration. For both original compositions and arrangements of other people's music. The recent snowstorm gave me lots of time to think while I was shoveling, though I can't say I really got any ideas this time. And the holidays have taken away available time to write. But in the end, I think this will be good. A little layoff from the writing often yields some fresh ideas. It seems to be the same with playing. It feels good again.



So, the holiday season is here and it has slowed me a bit. No big deal. I have lots of time between Christmas and my New Years Eve gig to get some Stravinsky and other writing in. As long as my wife doesn't have me scheduled otherwise. (She works for the school system so she's home, too!) And before you know it school is back in and the college semester starts and the students come and......... At least January is a slow gig month.

Reading of part 5-10

So, this past Tuesday I brought six more completed arrangements in to Ft Meade to be read by The Jazz Ambassadors. They were kind enough to give me an entire two hour rehearsal to run the music. It was especially kind since they have rehearsals and a performance this weekend at The Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center Honors that they needed to prepare for. They get to play with Dave Brubeck as he is one of the honorees. Not bad. However a little bird told me the chart that was provided for them on Take Five is not that good and that certain past or present Jazz Ambassador arrangers would have done better. (Just a little fodder there for the tabloids.)

The band played quite well as the music is rather difficult. Not necessarily from the standpoint of the player needing to be a virtuoso, but instead because it is difficult from a conceptual standpoint as well as the blend and balance needed to pull off the orchestration. I have an affection for writing across the band as it is. That is, not writing so much tutti material for one section but instead having one idea played together by members of different sections while another idea, or two or three is being played by other instrument combinations. Most "traditional" big band music is not written this way. Generally, saxes are all playing the same figure, whether unison or harmony. The same goes for the trumpets and the trombones. Sometimes the different sections play different parts, other times they have a tutti figure for all the horns. This type of writing makes it easy for the player to hear and play together with those that are playing the same figure. As I mentioned, I have a tendency to do things a bit different. And The Rite of Spring is written such that it is even easier for me to decide to go that direction. This means that, for instance, the second alto might be playing a melodic line with the guitar and two muted trumpets. Now the second alto, instead of listening to his lead player next to him, has to "find" the other players that are playing with him and blend and interpret the line with them. And so it goes for several other sets of instruments.

The Jazz Ambassadors have been playing my music long enough to know to expect that from me. However, these figures are a bit different. There is a different harmonic orientation as well as some different sorts of melodic material. Often there are notes or lines that make you uncertain if you played them right. Or, if you know you played them right, you wonder if they are written right. This is why one player commented on my Facebook page that the music is cool but also hard as @%@&*%!. I take that as a compliment.

So, besides being hard there were the usual few editing errors on my part. Two trumpet parts had a wrong note. That was a unison that was cut and pasted from one part to another. The same thing happened with a figure in the piano and guitar parts on another tune. And there was a small enharmonic inconsistency in the sax parts in one chart. That was the tune that drove me crazy trying to get the sharps and flats spelled out in the most readable manner. (Key signatures, or the lack thereof, are a whole other story with this piece!) And now I'm down to just four more charts. I've yet to get started on part 11 which puts me ever so slightly behind in my scheduled goal of a January 31 completion date. But that date also allows for finishing quite later and still being on time.

So, as I had mentioned in my first blog, I intend to write a bit about the nuts and bolts of what I have done with each part of Rite of Spring. And since I had a face to face request for that the other day, next time I will talk about the first part/chart. I don't know if I'll get through it in one sitting or if it will stretch to another writing. We shall see. It's kind of like writing the music, I just get going and who knows where it will come out in the end.

The Law of Intertia

That's me in the picture. I'm the one with the "bottle". That's outside a theater in downtown Parkersburg, WV. We had time to kill before a Sunday matinee performance. As musicians tend to do, we entertained ourselves.

Now, I'm no scientist, but if my memory serves me correctly, the law of inertia goes something like this: A body at rests wants to stay at rest, and a body in motion wants to continue in the same direction unless acted upon by an outside force. Now, that's physics. In other words that's a law for physical things. But we all know that the same principle really applies to more abstract things such as the emotional or physical energy to get something done. It's sort of like going to the gym, getting started is half the battle.

For the past 10 days I was a body at rest. I intended to take a weekend off. That's a good thing. I can devote time and energy to other things like my wife and the yard. Those leaves they are a fallin'. No problem. But then something crept in. Just one more day. Then another. Then it's Wednesday. I'm gone from 8 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. teaching at Towson University and then Archbishop Curley High School. I'll get back to it Thursday....nope. And so it went through a second weekend until today.

Finally, back to it. I take a listen to the playback on Finale and everything sounds cool so far. The problem is, it ended with the saxes playing a figure that spills over to the next phrase, but I had no idea where I was going with it. A few more plays and no recollection. So, now I not only have to interpret all this Stravinsky and translate is to a jazz piece but I have to translate my own writing as well and produce some sort of logical continuation of what I have just done. It becomes something like different people writing a story by one person writing one paragraph and passing the manuscript to the next person who then writes the following paragraph. I was really quite stuck for a while. I did manage to finally figure out what to do and how to keep moving.

I have now basically finished my tenth chart on this project. "Mystic Circles of the Young Girls" is now ready for lots of proof reading and tweaking (enharmonics, consistent dynamics, etc.) and then eventually part extraction and printing. But better yet, inertia is now for me, not against me. I have once again become a body in motion. I will continue to move in the same direction unless some outside force should start to work against me. I've got the ball rolling again and will be able to keep working with much less effort.

Perhaps this calls for a nap