Recently, at the Texas Music Educators Association convention, I had an interesting conversation with a director.  She said that she wished there was more beginning band repertoire that taught 6/8, and that most of what she had found was too hard.  I put this conversation in the back of my brain and let it cook for a while. It occurred to me that the reason most young musicians struggle with 6/8 is that most pieces introduce ALL iterations of 6/8 rhythms (or a least, quite a few) immediately with no middle step.  Therefore, I decided to write a piece that would use no more than 5 iterations of 6/8 time but still be a fun concert work. The result was Starfire Fanfare.

Starfire Fanfare is intended to evoke the feel and sound of cinematic scores for space opera films and games, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, and others.  The 6/8 time gives the music a feeling of adventure and boldness that is particular to that meter.  The orchestration of the work was designed to simultaneously double lines to increase the confidence of young musicians, but to still have color-specific moments to sound more mature than the typical developing band work.

Starfire Fanfare is the first in a series of works that will comprise a larger piece entitled “The Galactic Empire,” all for Grade 1 ensembles, depicting my own “space opera” for young band.

I hope you and your performers enjoy your trip into the world of 6/8 and into the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

Peace, Love, and Music

Educational goals of the work:

-Rhythmic stability and vocabulary in 6/8 time.  This piece comes with a COPYABLE rhythm vocabulary sheet to help assist in your musicians’ development.

-Articulation differences between:  Tenuto, Accents, Staccatos, slurs

-Repeats: Navigating 1st and 2nd endings.