teaching MODERN TECHNIQUES
| teaching RHYTHM | teaching LYRICISM | teaching HUMOR |
| teaching MODERN TECHNIQUES | teaching MODERN STYLES |
EASY
1861 (Newman)
Contemporary and improvisatory techniques, including aleatoric boxes, improvisatory gestures, and humming, juxtapose and accompany choral-hymn textures.
Cloudburst (Whitacre)
Teach contemporary playing techniques to create evocative textures and paint a lyrical and theatrical picture: including improvisatory notation and choral singing.
Interruption Overture (Bryant)
Small amounts of aleatory in the context of a catchy tune; requires the ensemble to change focus quickly between melodic playing and dissonant, "out-of-time" moments; humorous, surprising shifts of melody, key and time signatures.
INTERMEDIATE
Godzilla Eats Las Vegas! (Whitacre)
The popular piece, the infamous monster. Godzilla stomps through the city (represented by a parodic horror movie tune) and encounters many diverse styles of popular music. Allows students to theatrically play with fun, campy humor.
Uncle Sid (Newman)
Aleatoric and improvisatory notation, extended techniques, and playing with humor.
ADVANCED
Monkey (Bryant)
Exposed orchestration at a fast tempo - each player must be confident and secure (no hiding). "Metric modulation" - quarter-note triplet becomes the new quarter note.