Literature for a Pandemic
(and Beyond)
Dusk by Steven Bryant
Overview:
Key signature: None (uses accidentals) Length: 6 minutes
Time signature: 2/4, 4/4, 3/4 Style: Expressive, Lyrical
Tempo: Quarter note = 44 Dynamic range: pp - fff
Grade level: 3.5 Scoring: 4 part Full Flex
Instrumentation:
Parts 1, 2, 3, 4:
C Treble Clef, Bb Treble Clef, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Horn, C Bass Clef, Tuba
Percussion (optional):
Piano, Timpani, Vibraphone, Bass Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Crash Cymbals
Guitar (optional)
Special Considerations:
​
Dusk was originally composed for band in 2004. Since then, Steven Bryant has arranged it for brass band, saxophone ensemble, orchestra, and now 4 part Full Flex, and 5 part Flex ensemble.
Part of the program note for the original band version of Dusk states, "This simple, chorale-like work captures the reflective calm of dusk, paradoxically illuminated by the fiery hues of sunset. I'm always struck by the dual nature of this experience, as if witnessing an event of epic proportions silently occurring in slow motion. Dusk is intended as a short, passionate evocation of this moment of dramatic stillness."
In regards to this full flex arrangement, Bryant writes (in part), "Feel free to assign solo moments and adjust orchestration as warranted. I hope you experiment freely in rehearsal and invite your players to make suggestions, switch parts, etc., to gain a deeper understanding of the impact instrumentation, octave placement, and density have on our experience of music. My goal with this adaptation is for the conductor and players to gain deeper insight into how music is put together, and how their intentional decisions are critical in all of their performances. It's about MUCH more than the notes! I wish you all the best."
​
Rehearsal Suggestions
​
Musical Expression:
​
The main goal of Dusk is musical expression. As band directors, many of us wait too long to incorporate emotional communication into the piece (if we get to it at all). Unfortunately, by the time the musicians have learned the notes, rhythms, articulations, dynamics, etc., it is too late to suddenly add in expression and expect it to work. Often, the musicians might not even know the story behind the piece they are playing. For this piece, start by showing them images of a beautiful sunset or asking them to imagine a perfect sunset. Then read what Steven Bryant had to say about sunsets and dusk in the
program notes. Musicians will be able to unlock musical expression much faster when they are thinking in terms of the beauty of the sound they produce, beyond the printed notes on the page. Music is not a paint by number exercise. Ask the musicians how the image on the right might sound different from the image on the left. Do not let them answer aloud, but instead have them play their answer for you.
Tonality/Intonation:
​
The prominent harmonic content in this piece is cluster chords. Before tuning cluster chords, musicians need to know how to listen and play in tune on a unison note. Edward Lisk is an expert on the science of sound and he provides a thorough explanation of the hows and whys of the tuning process in many of his books, including The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader.
It is best to set a pitch from either a drone or a tuba (or lowest instrument in the band). A drone is advantageous, if possible, because it provides a consistent pitch. Using the Yamaha Harmony Director HD 200 keyboard is also helpful for hearing chords (including cluster 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 should join them. The process repeats through score order (ascending). Next, 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, so each musician can clearly hear themselves and identify if there are beats in the sound. Musicians do not need to worry about if they are flat or sharp. They only need to listen for beats in the sound. Tell players if they are pinching their embouchure to slow down beats, they are flat and if they are relaxing their embouchure to slow down beats, they are sharp. After that,
they can adjust their instrument by moving the slide/mouthpiece/barrel in or out or adjusting the reed. Next, 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, minor chords, and seventh chords around the Circle.
Dusk requires musicians to get used to playing intervals of major and minor seconds.
Divide musicians into three groups. Have all three groups start playing a concert F and then have two of the groups move up one step. After that, have one of those two groups move up a half step. Hold those intervals and allow the musicians to feel comfortable with the dissonance. Continue this process around the Circle (concert Bb, Eb, etc.). Sometimes start with a minor second and then a major second or with two major seconds. Allow musicians to switch which group moves and which group holds on the first or second note of the cluster. Within the context of the piece, identify the perfect fifths or major or minor chords and eliminate the "cluster" note from them. Tune the fifths or chords and then add back in the note that creates the cluster chord and find where it fits best in tune. There will still be beats because of the dissonance, but it will be in tune when the beats are the slowest.
​
A strong sense of internal ensemble pulse is required to play Dusk expressively and at the desired tempo of quarter note = 44. In The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader, Edward Lisk describes how to develop an ensemble's sense of internal pulse. With my students, I refer to it as the internal pulse game, to instill the idea that becoming better musicians through concentration and focus is fun. 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 important that musicians keep their bodies entirely still 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, no one should be mouthing the numbers to themselves. Remind musicians of the internalization process or "thinking in your brain". At first, 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 3 or pulse 6) and begin on a different note in the Circle (concert C, for example). With practice, 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.
To prepare specifically for Dusk (after the above technique has been developed), adjust the tempo of the pulse exercise from 60 to 44 beats per minute. Continue to develop the musicians' ability to focus by extending the number of counts they must play from 7 to 9 to 11 to 13, etc. Emphasize keeping the space between the beats the same as they are counting to themselves. The space between each beat is substantially larger at quarter note = 44 compared to quarter note = 60. Remind the players to maintain good tone quality and intonation throughout the longer pulses at the largo tempo. Normally, the pulse exercise should be done on one breath per note, but given the slow tempo and longer duration of the notes, this is an excellent time to allow players to utilize staggered breathing and experiment with how to do this in a way that is seamless and does not disrupt the flow of the music.
The biggest challenge with performing the rhythms in this piece (for example, measures 46-47) is maintaining the largo tempo.
To address this, have musicians practice speaking the sixteenth note subdivisions and clapping the rhythms at 44 beats per minute. Once they are able to do it correctly on a consistent basis, instruct them to play it in the music. The tendency to rush is natural because of the amount of air involved to play sustained notes at a slow tempo. Encourage musicians to breathe whenever needed, so they can maintain good tone quality, and help them figure out ways to stagger their breathing as much as possible.
​
Dynamics:
​
Because the dynamics in Dusk range from pianissimo to fortississimo, it is important to allow musicians to practice playing at the various levels. I use one hand to indicate a dynamic level pianissimo through fortissimo, where zero is pp and five is ff. In this case, add one more level for fff. 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.
Dusk is unique in that it has almost exclusively crescendos. Some of them stretch out over nine and twelve beats. It has just one decrescendo (only in part two) and it lasts for just three beats. Edward Lisk explains in his Creative Director Series books that musicians should count aloud the number of beats the crescendo or decrescendo lasts. If it is a nine beat crescendo from piano to forte, have them start counting aloud softly at "one" and increase volume slowly, so their voice is forte at "nine". If the crescendo is longer or shorter than nine beats, have them count to the exact length of the crescendo (for example one through twelve for a twelve beat crescendo or one through five for a five beat crescendo). The process is the same for decrescendos, except counting backwards (3, 2, 1, for a three 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. Be patient with musicians as they practice how to pace a crescendo for nine or twelve beats. It will be challenging to maintain good tone quality while gradually increasing the volume and intensity of the phrase. Remind players that staggered breathing will be the key to accomplishing this.
There must be a steady increase in volume in measures 39-41, all the way through the downbeat of measure 42.
Steven Bryant specifies in his performance tips that measure 42 should be the loudest point in the piece. Because of this, it is incredibly important that there is no breath between measure 41 and measure 42. He also emphasizes that the largo tempo should be used throughout the piece and states that the climax of the piece should not rush. The natural tendency is to increase speed when playing loudly, especially at such a slow tempo, so every attention must be given to keeping a steady tempo and fighting against the urge to accelerando, especially between measures 36 and 42. The climax of the piece is another opportunity to remind players to only play as loudly as they can play with good balance, blend, intonation, and tone quality. The key will be to use enough air support and adjust air speed, air direction, and voicing (shape of oral cavity and tongue position) to achieve a full sound, especially in the upper register, without having pinching or biting in the embouchure.
​
Articulation/Style/Phrasing:
​
It is worth noting that the performance notes about this piece strongly discourage the use of vibrato and especially warn against the natural tendency of flute players to have vibrato in their sound. The majority of passages in Dusk are slurred, so great care must be given to perform them as smoothly as possible. In terms of technique, this requires constant air support and adjusting the air speed, air direction, and voicing to produce a seamless line. Encouraging musicians to visualize the sunset and how light slowly changes to darkness at dusk will unlock the artistic necessity behind the technique.
Famed cellist, Pablo Casals is quoted as saying, "We can never exhaust the multiplicity of nuances and subtleties which make the charm of music. We tend to be inhibited by the printed score with its scarcity of expressive markings." Steven Bryant did not mark any accelerandos or ritardandos into the piece, but he encourages the use of natural rubato. Knowing when it makes sense to push forward and pull back the tempo requires understanding the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of the piece. Generally speaking, Edward Lisk's three natural laws of musical expression from The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader, help with this. 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. Allow musicians to experiment with pushing forward and pulling back the tempo around the points of tension and repose in each phrase and they will learn how to use rubato to add a multiplicity of nuances to their performance.