LEND YOUR VOICE

We welcome and encourage members to submit articles for inclusion in future editions of the NBA Journal. Peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles are accepted. Please note the following deadlines for submission:

Winter Edition (February)

Spring Edition (May)

Summer Edition (August)

Fall Edition (November)

Please submit your article in Word document format to NBA Journal Editor Matthew Talbert at talbertm@ohio.edu

For guidance on how to submit a peer-reviewed article, please see page 85. Articles are published at the discretion of the editor and may appear in a later journal edition.

Greetings! By the time we all receive the NBA Winter Journal, we will be in the thick of preparation for important performances by our organizations. Whether it be secondary schools preparing for festival or music performance assessment, community bands and their winter concerts, collegiate ensembles and recruiting events, or military bands touring across the nation and performing for eager audiences, the months of February through May are filled with wonderful opportunities to create musical memories for performers and audiences.

Questions often arise regarding program design (literature selected for a performance and the order in which pieces are performed) that will be both educationally sound for the performers while meaningful for our audiences, and how we prepare our ensembles to successfully communicate the composers’ intent to audiences in our performances. The thoughts below are not exhaustive and barely scratch the surface, however these basic thoughts are in the back of my mind when programming and preparing performances for my ensembles:

I. PROGRAMING APPROPRIATE LITERATURE

A. Know the level of the ensemble and the selected work.

1. What are the weaknesses and strengths in the ensemble?

2. Does the music challenge the performers without demoralizing them?

3. Does the ensemble have appropriate instrumentation for the work?

4. What are the exposed parts/ solos in the work?

5. What range is required in each part?

6. What are the technical demands of the work?

B. Establish a literature plan based on the goals for the ensemble (see goals below)

1. Choose literature that will be “stepping stones” towards more advanced literature.

• Melody

• Harmony

• Rhythm

• Meter

• Tempo

• Texture

• Orchestration

2. Program a variety of music for our ensembles.

• Genres (forms)

• Musical Periods (styles)

• Regions (geographical)

• Occasions (historical)

• Diverse composers

• Remember the saying… something old (standard warhorses), something new (commissions), something borrowed (worthy transcriptions), something