Over the last 10 days, I took a much-need road trip to visit family, watch an old friend get married, and marvel at the earth.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F948b8465-2b17-4186-9785-99f2b31887c9_828x1488.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbd983c14-90ab-4ca5-9c8d-f380e319f579_4032x3024.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa1559b54-99d2-475f-9aac-0072b8261b26_4032x3024.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1c5706e8-c3fe-4aea-9287-5670142ba151_1536x2048.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e820ce2-626d-4dd5-a4f5-37b61b52fa75_4032x3024.jpeg)
It also functioned as a much-needed break from work and from music—though for me, there’s never a total break from music. While rolling down lonely byways and forest roads in Oregon and California, ideas for re-arranging a recent piece began to sprout and grow in the back of my head. I finally got in front of the computer today to begin writing them down and I’m pretty happy with what putting the musical subconscious in the back seat for 2,100 miles is spitting out.
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the process of reworking a movement from an old piece and giving it new life as something that can stand alone.
Now I’m reworking THAT reworking into something for wind band. I’m tentatively titling it Romp, which speaks to the robust playful quality of the music. Let’s go section by section to see how this draft is coming along.
Beginning
In the original (written for saxophone ensemble), interest and tension is created from the start by stacking the germinal melodic notes gradually up into a pyramid:
There is a ceremonial fanfareishness to this music that sits naturally with the character and capabilities of trumpets and trombones. Here is the version rescored for wind band:
I also chose to emphasize the ringing and annunciatory quality of the music with chimes and (as the music winds down) a tam-tam stroke allowed to ring that links us to the main section of the piece—a bit cheesy, but that’s what first drafts are about.
The Scherzo
The main scherzo material of this movement is highly energetic, taking the four note pyramid motif and setting it into motion with eighth-notes and lopsided subdivisions. Here’s that original material from the saxophone ensemble version:
With the wind band also comes the percussion section, enabling more possibilities to create drive and interest in the music. Hi hat, bass drum, and rim clicks all play a part in enhancing the playfulness in the band version of Romp.
To give the music more variety and progression than the original, I gave the initial statement of the idea primarily to the woodwinds and the restatement primarily to the brasses (helping to tie this section of music back to the brass-focused beginning). The steady eighth-notes on hi hat will also make it easier to keep the music together in large ensemble rehearsals and performances, which require players to enter independently of one another and rhythmically subdivide precisely.
A digression
Music of a more pastoral character steals in to keep the mood from getting too intense. In the original saxophone ensemble version, the music has a gentle pulsing quality—listen below:
In the wind band version, I am really liking the rhythmic vitality leant by the hi hat and rim clicks; I also found that without those percussion instruments in this disgressionary section, the music seemed to sag and sounded too discontinuous with what had come before.
Bringing in the xylophone to support the upper woodwinds as the bottom voices drop out of the sound picture keeps the music’s intensity elevated while creating a refreshingly bright and clear texture as the music builds back toward a restatement of the scherzo music.
The trio
When I wrote the music for this trio section in the original saxophone ensemble version, I actually had non/less-directional brass instruments (horns, euphonium, tuba) in mind; this made for a pretty easy scoring decision I think is pretty effective.
Here’s the saxophone ensemble version:
And here’s the wind band version:
The scoring in the first half comes across as noble and dignified like I was aiming for, but the immediately following section brings in the more-directional brass and becomes more active and contrapuntal and needs some more careful handling and thinking; it’s likely I need to simplify (or eliminate!) the accompanimental material in the upper woodwinds which will have a hard time being heard and otherwise muddies a texture that is quite active already—a work in progress!
The end
The ending similarly needs a careful hand to create a high degree of energy and activity without muddiness or without the textures growing tiresome.
The saxophone ensemble version:
The wind band version:
I’ve almost certainly mis-assigned the heavy brass in the middle bars of this section:
This creates at least two problems I need to solve:
Given the number of brass instruments playing running 8th notes, it’s possible the melody will have to fight hard to be heard, though the entire upper woodwind section is belting it out (probably creating some intonation struggles depending on who is playing) supported by the first trumpet.
Though I’ve tried to interleave the brass parts Marc Mellits-style to make things easier to play (see trumpets 2 & 3 and trombones 2 & 3), it’s likely some of the leaps aren’t reasonable at this speed.
Any advice on clarifying the textures here while still making this a climactic section is welcome! And I still haven’t thought about the role percussion could play in this section, so there are many possibilities…!
I’ll leave you with a continuous playback of the chunk of music I’m pretty happy with, which is rollicking and Romping pretty much like I want it:
Happy listening and writing!