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Here Take This Lovely Flower

by Frank Ticheli

Look at Score (excerpt)

Listen to Recording

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Overview:

Key signature: Concert Bb Major Length: 2 minutes 15 seconds

Time signature: 6/8 Style: Lullaby

Tempo: Dotted Quarter note = 56 Dynamic range: p - f

Grade level: 2 Scoring: 4 part Full Flex

Instrumentation:

Parts 1-4: Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Bb Trumpet, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Horn, Bassoon, Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba

Percussion: Vibraphone, Triangle, Suspended Cymbal

Special Considerations:

Here Take This Lovely Flower is a 4 part Full Flex version of the third movement of Frank Ticheli's Simple Gifts: Four Shaker Songs. Each instrument can play any of the parts, but Frank Ticheli does recommend that flutes and oboes tacet until measure 17 to achieve a warmer, darker sound. The same option is suggested for tenor saxophones and trumpets until measure 35. In the Bb treble clef part, sometimes the parts are written in octaves. At those times, clarinets should take the lower part and bass clarinet, tenor sax, and trumpet should play the upper part.

Frank Ticheli explains in the original program notes, "My work is built from four Shaker melodies - a sensuous nature song, a lively dance tune, a tender lullaby, and most famously, "Simple Gifts," the hymn that celebrates the Shaker's love of simplicity and humility. In setting these songs, I sought subtle ways to preserve their simple, straightforward beauty. Melodic freshness and interest were achieved primarily through variations of harmony, of texture, and especially, of orchestration."

Frank Ticheli goes on to state, "The third movement is based on a Shaker lullaby, 'Here Take This Lovely Flower,' found in Dorothy Berliner Commin's extraordinary collection, Lullabies of the World and in Daniel W. Patterson's monumental collection, The Shaker Spiritual. This song is an example of the phenomenon of the gift song, music received from spirits by Shaker mediums while in trance (see pp. 316 in Patterson, op cit., for a detailed account, and also Harold E. Cook's Shaker Music: A Manifestation of American Folk Culture, pp. 52). Although the Shakers practiced celibacy, there were many children in their communities, including the children of recent converts as well as orphans whom they took in. Like many Shaker songs, this lullaby embodies the Shakers' ideal of childlike simplicity."

Rehearsal Suggestions

Musical Expression:

Teach musicians about the Shakers and read them the lyrics from the song, which is the basis for the piece. Encourage them to reflect on what the lullaby represents.

When ensemble members know the story behind the piece, it is easier to understand the child-like simplicity they should communicate and embody.

In Artistic Nuance, Edward Lisk outlines the benefits of using free-form expression to help musicians unlock their own musical expression. He details the instructional sequence for teaching free-form expression and explains that this form of improvisation was born out of a desire to allow musicians to be free from any reference to notes, time signature, key signature, harmonic structure, or form. Without having to focus on these elements, players are able to connect their thoughts with a musical line, similar to telling a story.

Because players are likely be uncomfortable as they begin to create their own melodies without any notation, this concept should be introduced to musicians in an individual lesson or small group setting. During improvisation, it is important to encourage ensemble members that anything they play is correct. When you create a safe space for them to take risks, their natural musical intelligence can be seen. First, have musicians play a slow melody. Allow players to begin on any comfortable note and experiment with different pitches and rhythms. Remind ensemble members to play slowly and listen to how the notes begin to form a musical line. After a few sessions, musicians will become more confident developing musical lines. At that point, you can start to encourage them to explore different styles of playing, starting with a lullaby or ballad. After musicians have unlocked musical expression through their improvised lullabies, they will be able to communicate musical ideas when playing Here Take This Lovely Flower.

Tonality/Intonation:

Here Take This Lovely Flower is in the key of concert Bb major, which will be familiar for most musicians. The first step to being able to play chords during a piece in tune is to understand how to tune properly on a unison pitch. Edward Lisk is an expert on the science of sound and he provides a very detailed explanation of the hows and whys of the tuning process in many of his books, including The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader.

The most efficient way to tune is getting a pitch from either a drone or a tuba (or lowest instrument in the band). A drone is advantageous, if possible, especially for a young band because it provides a consistent pitch. Using the Yamaha Harmony Director HD 200 keyboard is also helpful for hearing chords in just intonation and tuning them accordingly.

Concert F is the best pitch for tuning almost all wind instruments because of the overtone series and where it lies on the instruments. The exception is Eb alto and baritone saxophones, but the benefits of F in all the other instruments outweigh this. After the winds have tuned to F, the drone or tuba should switch to Bb and all winds should join the Eb saxophones in tuning that note. Start by tuning principal players. After the principal euphonium is in tune with the tuba, they should continue to play and then the principal trombone player joins in. The process repeats through score order (ascending). After that, everyone else tunes by listening to their section leader. Only one person in each section (who has not yet tuned) should tune with the section leader at a time, especially when musicians are first learning how to tune, so each musician can clearly hear themselves and identify if there are beats in the sound. Musicians do not need to know if they are flat or sharp. They only need to listen for beats in the sound. If they are pinching the embouchure to slow down beats, they are flat and if they are relaxing the embouchure to slow down beats, they are sharp. Next, they can adjust their instrument by moving the slide/

mouthpiece/barrel in or out or adjusting the reed. After that, they need to identify if the beats got slower or faster. Faster beats means to go the opposite direction on the instrument and slower beats means to continue in the same direction until the beats have been eliminated. When musicians are perfectly in tune, their sound is indistinguishable from the sound of their section leader. They should keep playing as the rest of the section tunes. In addition to blending within the section, each section needs to balance within the ensemble. In general, this means musicians should listen down to the tuba or lowest instrument in the ensemble or the instrument playing the lowest part.

After musicians have completed the tuning process, they can play unison pitches around the Circle of 4ths from Edward Lisk's Alternative Rehearsal Techniques - Creative Director Series. As they get more comfortable with listening and playing in tune on unison pitches, add perfect fifths. Eventually, players can learn to play major chords around the Circle.

Pulse/Rhythm:

In order to play confidently in 6/8 time, especially when the rhythms are in canon with one another, a strong internal pulse is required. To develop ensemble pulse with my students, I introduce it as a game, based on Edward Lisk's internal pulse exercise (described in The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader). To lead the game, hold your hands out with the palms up and count aloud 1-8 (at a tempo of approximately 60 beats per minute). Next, the musicians should count with you. Everyone should be counting with a crisp tone of voice and be focused on listening to the space between the beats. It is necessary for players to keep their bodies from moving during this time. The emphasis is on internal pulse, not on external elements like foot tapping, head bobbing, etc. After the pulse has been established, turn your hands, so your palms are facing down. When your palms are down, you and the ensemble members should switch to silently counting. During silent counting, everyone should keep their lips sealed, so no one is mouthing the numbers to themselves. Remind musicians of the internalization process or "thinking in your brain". Initially, only indicate one or two beats of silence at a time. As the musicians improve their internal pulse, keep your palms down for more beats. It becomes a fun challenge for musicians to see how long they can count silently and still come in on the correct number and with their voices exactly together.

After the musicians have performed the pulse exercise correctly, they should transfer it to playing around the Circle of 4ths. Start by having them play in unison on concert F on the Circle of 4ths for pulse 5. Ensemble members should be counting to five (internally) while they are playing for four beats, releasing on beat five, and then breathing and entering with the new pitch on the next beat. After they have played concert F, they should play concert Bb, then concert Eb, etc. At first, you can conduct a "one" pattern and indicate the entrances and releases. When the ensemble is secure in the internal pulse, stop conducting and let the musicians continue to play pulse 5 around the Circle. It is important to stop the ensemble when precision in entrances and releases is lost. Remind musicians to breathe together and play together. Whenever the entrances or releases lose precision, name a new pulse (for example, pulse 4 or pulse 3) and begin on a different note in the Circle (concert Ab, for example). Eventually, the internal pulse of the ensemble and precision of entrances and releases will improve. As this occurs, indicate pulses between 3 and 7 (or longer). Rests should also be added. For example, pulse 5 rest 3 would be "play, two, three, four, release, two, three, breathe" and would be notated as a whole note followed by a whole rest.

Teach musicians how to count in 6/8 time. Explain to them that even though the feel of the piece will be in a slow 2, they need to count the eighth note subdivisions of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. In order to achieve rhythmic precision, teach musicians how to count the rhythms. After everyone can read, count, and clap each rhythm, have them think and play one rhythm at a time on a unison pitch (starting on concert F) around the Circle of 4ths.

Everyone should learn how to read and play all of the rhythms (whether they appear in their individual part or not).

To address rhythmic precision, divide the ensemble into two parts. Have one group

play one rhythm on a unison pitch, while the other group plays a second rhythm in unison, perhaps a perfect fifth away. After the rhythms have been played, the ensemble can rest for one measure and then play the rhythm again on the next pitch of the Circle of 4ths. Next, exchange parts so musicians are playing a different rhythm from the first time

they played. Repeat the process for the third and fourth rhythms. The advantage of a full flex arrangement is that musicians can experiment with playing different parts. After they have used the Circle of 4ths to play all four rhythms in isolation and as part of the whole, then they can play all of them within the context of the music before returning to their assigned part.

After musicians have had a chance to practice this process on less complex rhythms, (for example measures 1-4 in the piece, as seen above) then repeat the process on a more complicated part (for examples measures 17-21, when the melody goes into canon).

Dynamics:

Here Take This Lovely Flower has dynamics from piano to forte. To define dynamic levels, I use one hand to indicate a dynamic level piano through forte, where one is piano

and four is forte. Have musicians play around the Circle of 4ths and cue each note at a different dynamic level. Encourage everyone to only play as loudly or softly as they can play with good balance, blend, intonation, and tone quality.

The piece uses crescendos and decrescendos of various lengths. In his Creative Director Series books, Edward Lisk recommends that musicians count aloud the number of beats the crescendo or decrescendo lasts. If it is an eight beat crescendo from piano to forte, have them start counting aloud softly at "one" and increase volume slowly, so their voice is forte at "eight". If the crescendo is longer or shorter than eight beats, have them count to the exact length of the crescendo (for example one through nine for a nine beat crescendo or one through five for a five beat crescendo). The process is the same for decrescendos, except counting backwards (4, 3, 2, 1, for a four beat decrescendo) starting with the voice louder and quickly getting softer. Remind players they should never be whispering or shouting because that does not represent good tone quality on the

instrument. After they are able to do this with their voices, they should play their instrument, while thinking the same volume with the voice in their head. Decrescendos are usually more challenging to do evenly at first, so continue to draw attention to making sure the voice is correct and then apply it on the instrument. With time, players will be able to play crescendos and decrescendos of various lengths.

Sometimes musicians have to pace their dynamics differently from measure to measure, as seen in measures 5-8.

Because the decrescendo is longer than the preceding crescendo, musicians have to start by figuring out how many counts (at the eighth note subdivision) are in the decrescendo and then count backwards from that for the crescendo. Since the

decrescendo is thirteen beats and the crescendo is six beats, start the crescendo by counting from seven. The crescendo from mezzo piano to forte will be counted "7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13". 13 will be the downbeat of measure 6 and the loudest part of the phrase. Ensemble measures should count backwards from forte to piano "13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1". Count 1 will be the downbeat of measure 8.

Articulation/Style/Phrasing:

Because lullabies are smooth and soothing, this piece is almost entirely slurred. Encourage ensemble members to use steady air support and adjust the air speed, air direction, and voicing (shape of the oral cavity and tongue position) to produce an effortless line.

In measure 5, there are tenuto notes, which are to be played full value and add emphasis heading into the crescendo by leaning into the notes.

The only accent in Here Take This Lovely Flower is in measure 38.

If you match the poem to the melody of the piece, the phrase begins with "Here take this lovely flower Thy mother sent to thee". The accent falls on "thee". In a lullaby, this type of accent indicates a slight emphasis and separation. Encourage ensemble members to perform it gently.

There are many opportunities for musicians to perform tapered releases in this piece, such as measure 8.

During a tapered release, the sound should gradually decay into silence, rather than ending abruptly. Edward Lisk explains this concept in The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader. Musicians should practice these releases by counting for the length of the note with an implied last beat. In the example above, count "1, 2, 3 Fourrrrr". Allow beat five to be implied and decrease the volume of your voice to indicate the precise amount of desired decay. "Four" would be no decay and "Fourrrrrrr" would be a great deal of decay.

In a simple, lyrical piece like this, it is incredibly important for musicians to shape phrases, otherwise the music will seem dull and boring.

Show players the score and have them notice when the percussion section plays and how they contribute to the texture of the piece, such as in measures 25-34.

In general, the triangle provides a lightness to the sound. The mallet part is supporting the melody and the suspended cymbal is building intensity leading into the next phrase.

Edward Lisk's three natural laws of musical expression from The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader, also help with phrasing. If musicians know that short notes look for long notes, low notes search for high notes, and high notes search for low notes, then they can figure out where each phrase of music should have tension and repose.

The piece ends with a gradual ritardando, starting at measure 48 and harmonic tension and repose in measures 51-52.

In order to establish the pacing of the final phrase of the piece, have the musicians count the rhythms aloud and change the speed they are counting based on how much they want to slow down. After they have practiced it a few ways with their voices, they should try playing it on their instruments. If they are listening to each other and have established a unified ensemble pulse, they will be able to do this after having practiced it a few times.