Florida All-State Middle School Band - Faces of Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Pedagogy - Goals
Public school instrumental music programs have the same values as vocal ones. While most kids who signed up in elementary or middle school probably were thinking about marching band, beginning band books emphasized the skills needed for concert bands that played music in the western European classical tradition.

The two types of programs differed in their conceptions of ensemble work. Choir directors wanted their students to listen to the people in their sections and blend their voices. Band sections were much smaller and conductors expected students to read the music and stay together by following their directions. When they performed, choir members had memorized their music, while bands almost always had music stands.

Both types of music directors sent their groups to local festivals like the ones discussed in the posts for 5 August 2018 and 6 September 2018. Instrumental teachers also sent their best students to district competitions or to play in regional bands like those mentioned in the posts for 11 July 2018 and 1 August 2018.

The Florida Bandmasters Association began sponsoring festivals in the 1940s, and added a Marching Clinic and All-Star Marching Band in 1960. The marching section was discontinued in 1993, but the other program grew into a hierarchy of festivals as the state’s population grew. [1] Auditions were held in a number of locations for the state-wide performance groups. [2]

In 2014, the All-State Middle School Band included a challenging version of "Kumbaya" on its program. They also played two marches, two classical pieces, and a medley from West Side Story. [3]

John Zdechlik’s Faces of Kumbaya was similar to the piece performed by the Las Vegas Academy described in the post for 6 September 2018. Only the first phrase of the original tune was heard, and then only sporadically. In between, combinations of instruments played chords or arpeggios borrowed from twentieth-century avant-garde music. [4]

Zdechlik told an interviewer that a conductor and players needed to understand the "overall compositional structure of a given score" to develop "a sense of the music going someplace." He also noted that "the density of the scoring should not obscure the compositional intent of the instrumental groupings presented in the music. A clear hierarchy among melodic, countermelodic, and harmonic rhythmic roles should be maintained at all times." [5]

The composition was classed as a level 4 work by the composer [6] and level 5 by the South Carolina Band Directors Association. [7] Safe Music recommended level 4.5 "for students in the 6th year of playing, or reasonably advanced ensembles." [8] At most a middle school musician had been playing for four years.

The young musicians had the hardest problem with Zdechlik’s tempo. He suggested the piece took about nine minutes, but their recording lasted a little over ten. While Faces of Kumbaya had a number of changes in pacing, I couldn’t detect many of them in the video. That would not have bothered the composer. He told conductors "the tempo indications of his scores are approximations and flexibility with these tempos is very acceptable to him" so long as the melodies were "played expressively." [9]

Faces made sparing use of percussion. Until the final section, the bass drum was heard twice for a few measures while the snare drums did not set a cadence. They were silent for long passages, then activated to add texture in selected passages. The occasional beatings of the clash cymbals played the strongest role in anchoring the playing to the score.

Many of the percussion instruments specified in the arrangement could not be heard on the video. The French horns were dominant, along with a blended ensemble of clarinets.

Other bands that uploaded versions of Faces had similar problems in making it sound like a coherent piece rather than a string of wandering themes. The Florida middle-school musicians were as good as those from Thomas Kelly High School in Beaumont, Texas. [10] Sam Boss directed viewers of the performance by the University of Western Ontario’s Symphonic Band to the Florida version with the comment "absolutely wonderful." [11]

Performers
Score
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none

Instrumental Accompaniment: piccolo, flutes, oboe, various clarinets, various saxophones, French horns, cornets, bassoon, trombones, baritone horns, tuba, xylophone

Rhythm Accompaniment: timpani, snare, bass and tenor drums, crash and suspended cymbals, triangle, bells

Credits
Score
John P. Zdechlik

It was "commissioned in1978 by the Lutheran Collegiate Music Association, an organization of choir and band directors within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod." [12]

© MCMLXXVIII Kjos West

Notes on Lyrics
There were none

Notes on Music
Score
Opening Phrase: own

Time Signature: began in 4/4, with a middle section where it changed every measure or so; it ended with 6/8 turning into a final 3/4.

Tempo: varied from a maestoso of a quarter note = 72 beats per minute to an allegro with the quarter note = 144-148 beats per minute

Key Signature: oboes began and ended with no flats or sharps; in the middle they had four flats. He described it as "score in concert pitch." [13]

Length: nine minutes

Basic Structure: "After a short introduction a joyous section ensues [...]. The theme is fragmented in this section except for a broad legato statement [... The next] section is slow and in a more somber mood. The tune is played in the phrygian mode and is surrounded by two counterpuntal lines. The tension is eased [...and] the mode is changed to major and the tempo quickens. Section III is exuberant. The theme is presented is an asymetric setting and is passed back and forth between woodwinds, brass, and percussion. The climax is reached [...] and a transition leads to a broad chorale [...] The piece concludes with a short coda [...] [14]

Notes on Performance
Florida All-State
Occasion: concert during annual meeting of Florida Music Educators Association, January 2014

Location: Tampa Convention Center

Notes on Performers
Zdechlik began studying piano as a child in Minneapolis, then played alto horn and trumpet in high school. By then he was learning jazz from local musicians. He "credits the work of jazz pianist George Shearing as an important early reference of learning tonal harmony." [15] The son of a Czech-Polish immigrant earned his music degrees from the University of Minnesota. While he taught two years in a high school, he spent most of his professional life at Century College in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. [16]

The Florida All-State Middle School Band conductor was Gary Bottomley. He taught music in the Milwee [17] and Teague [18] middle schools in Seminole County, Florida.

Availability
Score
Sheet Music: John P. Zdechlik. Faces of Kumbaya. San Diego: Neil R. Kjos, 1978

Florida All-State
Album: Florida Music Educators Assocation. Music Education: Relevance Is Key. Mark Records. 6 May 2014.

YouTube: uploaded by NAXOS of America on 16 April 2014.

End Notes
1. "History of the Florida Bandmasters Association." Its website.
2. "All-State Information." Florida Bandmasters Association website.

3. "All-State Ensemble Literature." Florida Bandmasters Association website for 2014, All-State Middle School Band for 2014.

4. Mark Montemayor said Zdechlik "exercises harmonic freedom in his works often exploring several key centers within a fully tonal framework, and eschews indicating key signatures on his scores. Jazz chords are present throughout much of his music." ("John Zdechlik." In A Composer’s Insight. Edited by Timothy Salzman. Galesville, Maryland: Meredith Music Publications, volume 3, 2006. 291.)

5. Montemayor. 300.
6. John Zdechlik’s website.
7. "Music List: Concert Festivals. BandLink website.
8. "Band Difficulty Gradings." Safe Music website.
9. Montemayor. 300.

10. Kelly High School Concert Band 10-11. "Faces of Kum ba yah." Uploaded to YouTube by 773123456 on 10 April 2011.

11. Sam Boss. "Florida Middle School All State Band played this piece! Absolutely wonderful. (" Comment uploaded to YouTube, 2015, for the video Western University Symphonic Band. "Faces of Kum Ba Yah." Uploaded to YouTube by Ed KastelicMusic on 13 February 2014.

12. John P. Zdechlik. "Composer’s Notes."
13. Zdechlik, Score.
14. Zdechlik, Notes. References to measure numbers were removed.

15. Anthony Pursell. "Chorale and Shaker Dance by John Zdechlik." Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Edited by Richard Miles. Chicago: GIA, volume 1, 2010 edition. Cited by Wikipedia. "John Zdechlik."

16. Montemayor. 289-290.
17. "Gary Bottomley, Milwee Middle School." Rate My Teachers website.
18. "Gary Bottomley, Teague Middle School." Rate My Teachers website.