The Clarinet BBoard

Re: PDQ Bach

Author: Bigno16  Date:   2004-10-16 04:50 As a member of the Brockton High School Concert Band, I am proud to say that I think we have done the best job possible with this piece. In the first movement, after the repeats, we have a rubber chicken thrown across the stage into the band from the percussion area as you hear the sound of the duck being shot (slapstick, I believe). At the exact moment, we also have one of the percussionists pop open a bag of feathers, simulating the "remains" of the bird floating down upon the band. In the second movement, right on the last note of the jumpy saxophone part, the trumpets do the wave from one end to the other. Since this is repeated 3 times, the first time they do it from say last trumpet to first trumpet, then first trumpet to last trumpet, then both ways splitting from the middle. Also in the second movement, when the woodwinds are playing on their mouthpieces with the tubas on the downbeat, the tubas (provided you have more than one) alternate standing up and kind of crouching (sitting down would be too difficult), so while one is up, one is down. And we even added that one tuba could purposely mess up a little bit at the end of that phrase and then the one who played correctly could turn towards him and honk the last note, as if angry with him. Same with the repeat there, except the other tuba plays correctly. And then the clarinet section stands up and gargles a Bb for the end of course. (We ommitted the third movement) For the fourth and final movement, we saved the best for last. For the four drumrolls, have a different drummer (if available) play each roll. The first roll should be played awfully. At the end of the roll (after the symbol crash), the band members "converse" with each other quickly, making facial expressions and hand gestures and selected people will hold up signs with numbers such as 0, 1, or 2; simulating judges of a contest. The next drummer does the same, a little better of a roll, but still pretty bad and uneven. The band members do the same, but this time hold up signs of around 2, 3, or 4. The next drummer will do the same, doing the very best, even perfect roll. He will then receive a score of around 7 or 8. However, the last drummer, which could even be the very first again, plays the last roll. He still plays it awfully, but with all the other percussionists are crowding around him, very closely, anxiously observing. When he finishes the roll with the symbol crash, he throws his arms up/back in a manner in which everyone behind and around him is knocked backwards or down and into each other, preferably knocking over equipment as well (hence the Crasho Grosso). We stacked up 2 old bass drums behind them, and we were also on risers too, so the drummers fell into the bass drums and off of the risers, out of sight. As everyone falls, the band members hold up 10s, which usually gets an even bigger reaction from the audience. After this, the drummers then resume into the rest of the fourth movement. ^^Also, our drummers really got into it (acting). They gave each other high fives and nods or head shakes after each had gone and when the best roller went, he even took off his concert jacket, getting a huge applause from the audience. Our conductor also added to this acting in between, saying things like "Can anyone actually do a roll?" and "You sure you can do it?" when the last guy went. When the trombones take the melody which sounds like it would be used at a homecoming or a type of school spirit thing (I can't really remember), some of the drummers come out dressed like cheerleaders (not extensively) and do their own little dance and choreography with their pom-poms. Ours even went so far as to grab our conductor and do a kick-line with him until the band moved onto the next section to which he pretended to angrily send them off the stage and resume his conducting. On the upbeat before the gypsy-like melody by the woodwinds, a saxophone player or about 5 of them come out on the front of the stage and play a very loud, low foghorn type "BA!!" <--that's the best I can describe it, sorry. lol As the clarinets play the gypsy-like melody the rest of the band moves their heads and upper bodies around in circles (simulataneously), as if being put under a trance. When the chime is hit, everyone stops dead center, with the body vertically up. But when the melody resumes, the band does the same thing except they do circles in the opposite direction. When the trumpets do the extremely random horse-call, we even had one of our band members put on a cowboy jacket, hat, and "ride", or galop rather, across the stage on one of those wooden stick horses (the ones with just the head). This got the best reaction from the audience, it was hysterical. Those are our methods of doing this piece. I wish you could see it. We're a silly, but extremely good bunch of kids. Hope you like the ideas.

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