Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard

Transcription

1 Jason Freeman Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard or percussion quartet

2 About the music Leroy Anderson ( ) went to Harvard, where he studied composition with Walter Piston Ater being repeatedly turned down or a ellowship to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, he began to pursue a doctoral degree in German and Scandinavian languages at Harvard while also directing the Harvard band, but he soon dropped these pursuits to become a translator or the army during World War II Meanwhile, in 193 he arranged a medley o Harvard songs or the Boston Pops, and in 1938 Fiedler s Pops played and recorded an original composition o his, Jazz Pizzicato Anderson went on to write dozens o short novelty pieces or the Boston Pops, many o which are masterpieces o the genre Sleigh Ride, one o the most popular, has been recorded by hundreds o musicians, ranging rom Ella Fitzgerald to TLC to Charlotte Church to Kenny G I ve played Sleigh Ride many times over the years, but one perormance was particularly memorable the Yale Precision Marching Band s haltime show in November 199, at the annual Yale-Harvard ootball game Our shows involved neither marching nor precision; we would chaotically run rom one ormation to the next, spelling out words on the ield and playing short musical excerpts as the announcer read a witty script which connected our antics to current events or school rivalries But that day, we suspected that the stadium s public address system might not work, so we took preemptive action and created a show in which nothing made much sense even with the announcer s script The climax o this surreal show involved a ity-oot long cardboard shark coming onto the ield while we played yes Leroy Anderson s Sleigh Ride The traditional trumpet horse-neigh at the end o the piece was replaced by a duck call Perhaps the music actually was a subtle stab at Harvard we all hate playing Sleigh Ride; Sleigh Ride was written by Leroy Anderson; Leroy Anderson went to Harvard; thereore Harvard sucks Or even subtler Leroy Anderson went to Harvard; Leroy Anderson s estate chose to donate all o his papers and manuscripts to the Yale Music Library rather than to Harvard; thereore Harvard sucks But whatever the reasoning, i indeed there was any, it was surely beyond the grasp o the drunken ans, or, indeed, o many o the drunken band members Yet the show was somehow the most memorable the band had done in years, and it remains one o the ew I still remember Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard was written or the So Percussion Group

3 Stage Layout (back) ç å Ò Î (ront) Instrument Notes Player 1 sleighbells, temple blocks (shared with player 2), xylophone (shared with player ), and crotales Player 2 temple blocks (shared with player 1), cowbells, triangles, and sleighbells Player 3 slapstick, woodblocks, glockenspiel, suspended cymbals (shared with player ), and windchimes Player slapstick, xylophone (shared with player 1), vibraphone, and suspended cymbals (shared with player 3) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - ii

4 Ò Temple Cowbells Sleighbells (2) The two instruments should be as similar to each other as possible Player 1 should use the same instrument throughout Slapsitck (2) Player 3 should use an instrument with a handle so that it may be played with one hand; player may use a larger instrument without a handle i desired The two instruments should be slightly dierent in size, loudness, and timbre Blocks (2) Use mallets (or possibly sticks) which produce a sound which is more resonant than that o the wood blocks The temple blocks should be mounted on a stand In choosing both instruments and mallets, strive or as horse-like a sound as possible (as in the horse hooves in Sleigh Ride) Both players should use identical mallets Wood Blocks (3) Use hard mallets which produce a dry sound with a sharp attack The woodblocks should be mounted on a stand The lowest pitched o the three instruments should be as close in timbre to player 3 s slapstick as possible () Use airly large instruments to produce low and resonant tones The instruments should be mounted on a stand Up to letter L, they should be played with sticks ( )that produce a sharp metallic attack Ater letter L, they should be played with yarn mallets ( )which produce a soter and more diuse attack = play on top = play on lip Xylophone Use mallets which produce as dry a sound as possible (Sounds one octave higher than written) Glockenspiel çcrotales (8) Up to letter P, use brass mallets ( )with a sharp, piercing attack and quick decay Ater P, use hard rubber mallets ( ) with a gentler attack Always be sure that the clarity o individual notes does not get lost in a general wash o sound (Sounds two octaves higher than written) # # Use brass beaters throughout Suspend lower our pitches reely; place upper our pitches on elt or oam so they do not resonate as much Create moderate vibrato throughout by waving hands in ront o instruments (Sounds two octaves higher than written) Vibraphone Choose mallets which produce a clear but not harsh attack Motor is on a moderate speed throughout = bowed Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - iii

5 å Î Triangles (3) Play with standard metal beaters Suspended Cymbals (2) Play with mallets which produce a airly diuse attack and long decay The two cymbals should be dierent in size, but not so much so that their dynamics and decay times signiicantly dier Metallic Wind Chimes Activate them with a metal beater Glissandi should last no more than a ew seconds, and should get aster as the tempo speeds up at letter W = gliss up l = gliss down Time, Repetition, and Duration Usually when a composer notates gestures that repeat, he or she also gives some indication o either the number o repetitions or the amount o time or which the gesture should last There are no indications o either sort in this piece The only timing inormation I speciy is this the duration o the entire piece should be no shorter than ten minutes and no longer than thirty minutes Because so many repetitive gestures in the piece involve gradual processes and transitions, I eel that these processes, along with the intuition o the quartet, should dictate the pace at which the music evolves Experiment as you rehearse the piece and do what eels most natural In the second hal o the piece, much o the pacing is determined by the amount o time it takes notes to decay to a certain dynamic or to niente While the decay times do considerably limit your latitude in determining the proportions o these sections, remember that your interpretive decisions regarding dynamics, accents, mallets, etc do inluence the decay time o these notes, and thereore the pacing as well The notation is not proportional With the exception o letter T (see clariication below), events should happen in let-to-right order even when barlines do not explicitly connect events in one sta to those in another But the rate o motion through the score will necessarily vary rom page to page, or even within a single page, as you discover what durations and repetitions make most musical sense to you Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - iv

6 Guide to notation Horizontal Bar Repeat measure with no p change in tempo Horizontal Bar ater non-repeated measure Continue gesture with no changes In this example, the tremolo continues but there are no urther accents ater the initial hit Horizontal Arrow Repeat measure with gradual change in tempo as indicated Goal Measure Indicates goal o gradual tempo change, usually accompanied by new tempo marking Goal measures are oten themselves the beginning o new repeated gestures aap aap w/ player x v Midpoint Dynamic Indicates a moment during a decrescendo at which an event should occur In this example, the player should begin the second measure once the chord rom the irst measure has decayed rom ortissimo to orte Decrescendo to niente All sound must completely die out beore moving on as ast as possible aap in sync with another player Both players have the same number o noteheads and rests in their repeated gestures Gradual Accents These appear in some repeated sections in conjunction with a horizontal bar or arrow Gradually add or remove accents as indicated to make a smooth transition rom the repeated gesture to the goal measure To determine where to add or remove accents, look at the dierences in accentuation between the repeated gesture and the goal measure Vibrato For vibes, turn motor on to a moderate speed For crotales, wave hands to produce moderate vibrato eect Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - v

7 Â Indeterminate rest (in the context o an unmetered measure) At the end o the measure, wait or all other players to inish beore moving on aap rest (in the context o an unmetered measure) A rest equal in duration to an aap note () These rests only appear when an aap gesture is played in sync with another player Fermatas are only used when all players are silent These are moments o high dramatic tension and should be drawn out as long as possible Remain completely still! aap meter Metrical sign or sections in which aap gestures between multiple players must be coordinated In this example, there are our notes () or rests ( ) per measure ametrical No regular beat or meter damp / dead stroke When this symbol appears above an attack, play a dead stroke When it appears anywhere else, damp all notes which are still sounding Feathered Beams In unmetered sections, these indicate a gradual and somewhat irregular accelerando or ritardando over a very long period o time In this ritardando example, the beam extension o the right end indicates that this eathered beam continues on the next sta system Depending on the pacing you choose, you may want to add additional notes to or remove notes rom a eathered beam gesture Nested Repeats A repeated gesture is itsel repeated In this example, the second measure is repeated, but the entire gesture rom the beginning o the excerpt to the last repeat sign is itsel repeated In all metric modulations, a grace note ( ) represents a single note within a tremolo, while a notehead () represents a single note within an aap igure Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - vi

8 About Barlines When a barline appears in only a single sta, or when barlines appear simultaneously in multiple staves but are not connected to each other, the player(s) need not coordinate their arrival at that barline with other players When a barline is connected between two or more staves, the players must arrive at the barline at the same time When a barline is connected between two or more non-adjacent staves but breaks when it passes through an intervening sta, that intervening sta remains independent rom the connected staves When barlines are connected at the end o a sta system, the corresponding players must begin the next system at the same time A barline in the middle o a horizontal bar or horizontal arrow indicates the beginning o a repetition o the gesture Dotted vertical lines indicate simultaneous events in dierent staves which are not practical to connect with standard barlines When beginning but not ending repeat barlines connect two or more staves, those players should begin the irst repetition o the gesture together, but they are independent o each other ater that When both beginning and ending repeat barlines connect two or more staves, those players remain together throughout the repetition o their gestures General Notes With the sole exception o rehearsal letters, markings on a single sta never apply to other staves Meters continue to apply to the sta on which they appear until there is an explicit change to another meter Accidentals are valid or the duration o the measure, but only in the sta and octave in which they irst appear Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - vii

9 Observe dynamic markings in a manner which makes sense within the overall texture No instrument should ever be played so loudly as to completely hide other instruments in the ensemble or so sotly as to be completely hidden Always let notes vibrate and decay naturally, unless explicitly instructed to damp or play a dead stroke (There is an exception to this rule in the crotales between P and T see the clariication below) Clariications Ater C, slapstick (player ) The parenthetical note merely indicates that one hit within the ritardando should line up with player 1 s penultimate note (as shown by the dotted lines) J, cowbells, wood blocks, and xylophone These three players should play together here as indicated But note that the wood block s downbeats are not going to coincide with the other players much o the time because its measures are o a dierent length You should end the repetition, though, at such a moment that all three players do reach a downbeat at the same time This also applies to the vibraphone and glockenspiel between letters R and T P through T, crotales The notes within each measure are spaced proportionally From the third measure ater P through to the second measure ater S, pitches which are not present in a chord should be damped The notes which are present in each chord should be allowed to continue to decay I a note in a chord has already been damped earlier in the measure, it should be reattacked at a dynamic matching the other sounding notes T, all players Note that barlines never connect staves here, which means that even when gestures in dierent staves are horizontally aligned they need not happen simultaneously Each player should be completely independent, timing their gestures as dictated by the decay time o their instruments This is the one section in the piece where events may not always happen in let-to-right order; in other words, one player may reach a gesture beore another player reaches a gesture which starts urther let on the system One measure ater T, triangle The lowest note is not reattacked on the downbeat o this measure; only attack the upper two notes (with accents) The same is true or the third measure o V Accelerandos From U to V, all players To make successive repetitions aster, gradually stop waiting or gestures to decay to niente or to midpoint dynamics This is also true or the wind chimes at letter W Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - viii

10 Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard Jason Freeman Ò PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET = = p accel Cb accel Ò U A p rit and towards swing swung = gradually lengthen irst and third Æ 8 U ( ) copyright (c) 23 by Jason Freeman

11 Ò PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET B (ord) ( p ) gradually shorten Æ 8 Cd 8 Í gradually add accent (aap) (aap) 8 rit = 18 ( = 21) = rit ( ) Ò Cd8 ( p ) gradually shorten Æ = 8 = 18 ( = 12) gradually remove accent gradually remove accent rit ( ) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 2

12 C Ò ( p ) p accel = Cb p 32 p rit = rit accel = accel = Ò Cb accel = [to ] gradually add accent to downbeat (rit) ( p ) PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET aap ( ) (aap) aap ( ) rit ( ) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 3

13 D D D (aap) w/ one mallet ( ) Cb (ord) accel = (rit) ( ) U D gradually add accent accel = gradually add accent accel = 1 U gradually remove accent accel PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET = gradually remove accent accel = U aap p gradually add accent rit U accel Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score -

14 H H H D D D H H H D D aap (w players 2 + 3) 1 gradually remove accent gradually add accent aap (w players 1 + 3) gradually add accent aap (w players 1 + 2) rit (accel) ( ) W» aap E aap (w players 2 + 3) gradually remove accent PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET aap (w players 1 + 3) aap (w players 1 + 2) [to ] ( ) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 5

15 D D PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET F (aap w/ player 2) gradually remove accent accel aap (independent) gradually add accent (aap w/ player 1) accel aap (independent) gradually remove accent rit gradually add accent (aap) (aap) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score -

16 PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET G rit gradually add accent»e (aap) 3 w p accel = H rit = (aap) rit 3 F 3 3 accel Á = Cb w ( p ) w accel = Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 7

17 I PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET rit = (rit) p rit = Cb P gradually remove accent accel = Fh w ( p ) w accel Á = J [to ] ( p ) Fh ( = 1) p = rit ( p ) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 8

18 K b b b p b b b () ( p ) () 32 ( p ) 32 gradually add accent rit Á = PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET () () ( p ) b b [to ] [to ] () b b b b b Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 9

19 L () b b b p b b b () () F accel = 5 () b ( p ) b b PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET () () ( F ) accel = ˇ ( p ) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 1

20 M PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET () b [to ç] () ( ) ( F ) b b b b () b ( p ) b b N b b ç N () rit = ˇ p rit () b rit l = 32 b b () b accel = N P # b b # N N b N # N N # Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 11

21 ç rit l = () 32 b b accel Á = j b b b () N N ( P ) # # rit = 32 # N ç O PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET 5 P rit = () n F accel = 5 # b 5 # () 32 N F b p 32 b b rit = b b Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 12

22 ç F () 5 b b 5 b 32 b Ï b () b b b 32 # ç P v (sempre) # n PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET # # n n aap rit [to ] [to ] Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 13

23 ç # n n (rit) ( ) = rit accel = ç # n # n (rit) ( ) PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET ( ) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 1

24 ç Q # # n n sub rit v (sempre) rit ç # # n å PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET [to å] (rit) = ˇ (rit) = # Ed * Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 15

25 ç PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET R # n # n å () p () Ed # P * # # * Fd ç # n # n å () ( p ) rit l = Fd # # # ( P ) () Ed * # Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 1 = rit * Cd 3

26 ç S n # # n å 5 P rit PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET = rit = ç Cd # 53 # F rit aap # rit 3 = * 5 # rit = Cd # n # rit = * = n å 32 ( P ) ( F ) * Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 17

27 ç T # aap # rit rit = # n # aap = = 18 Cd n å ( ) n ( ) ( ) n n [to ] ç PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET # (sempre) rit rit # aap ( F ) = Cd n # aap ( P ) = Cd n å n n n n # # (ord) Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 18

28 ç # aap # rit ( p ) = # n # aap # rit ( P ) = # Cd n å ç PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET (ord) # # # aap # rit ( F ) = Cd # n # aap # rit = n # Cd (back to T ) å (ord) # Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 19

29 ç å (ord) # (ord) # PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET ç U inish current repetition, then continue å inish current repetition, then continue ( ) n Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 2

30 ç PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET # rit = n accel å accel n n accel = accel ç (accel) = Cb # å (accel) Cb = = accel n n Cb (accel) = Cb Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 21

31 ç PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET V # ( F ) rit = n # ( F ) rit = n å ( ) n ( ) n Î n n n n n n [to ] n ç # [to Ò] n å ( ) ( ) n ( ) n Î n n n n Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 22

32 Ò å PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET n [to Ò] Î n n F n n P n n Ò W Ò Î = accel n ( ) accel = p n [to ] Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 23

33 Ò X = accel PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET Cb accel = Ò Î aap ( ) n Ò Ò = = accel Cb accel Î Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 2

34 Ò PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET = accel = accel Cb Ò Î Ò Ò = = accel accel Cb Î Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 25

35 Ò PERUSAL ONLY PURCHASE AT HTTP//WWWJASONFREEMANNET = = accel accel Cb Ò Î U 1/2/3 Leroy Anderson Went to Harvard - Score - 2