Charles Edward Carter was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on July 10, 1926.  He spent his childhood in Worthington, Ohio, and spent his college career at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester,  New York.  He later went onto Ohio State University where he specialized in low brass and arranged music for the Ohio State University Marching Band, and Florida State University where he did some arrangement work for their band and taught theory and composition.  He has written numerous marching band arrangements as well as over thirty works for concert band.  His most well known pieces include:  Chorale and Variations, Dance and Intermezzo, Sonata for Winds, and Symphonic Overture. 

A good warm up for this piece would be to have the ensemble play their Eb concert scale using the following rhythm.  Eb is one of the three main tonal centers of the piece, the others being Bb major and C minor.  If further warm up was desired, the same rhythm could be used with either the Bb major or the C minor scales, or using the Eb concert scale in a different rhythmic pattern.  I recommend playing the Eb concert scale in whole notes concentrating on tone and breath support and then proceeding to the rhythmic pattern below.  The rhythmic pattern is taken from the first two measures of the opening main motive.  The upbeat attack is tricky and this warm up will give students a better feel for the pause that they must make before entering.
 

Eb Concert Scale in Opening Motive Rhythmic Pattern
 

Allegro Con Moto:  cheerful, lively

Crescendo (cresc.):  growing, becoming louder

Ritardando (rit.):  becoming slower

Rallantando (rall.):  becoming slower

A Tempo:  Return to the previous tempo

Allargando (allarg.):  Slowing of tempo, usually with increasing volume; most frequently occurs toward the end of a piece.

Rhythm precision is a very crucial aspect to this piece.  Counting is essential.  The main motive and sixteenth note runs that follow start on the upbeat of one.  For the first theme, I would suggest providing all of the students with a copy of the example printed below and then having everyone count it together as a class while clapping it.  This will help those who actually have the melody to be able to accurately count and play the rhythm, and those who do not have the melody will not only learn the rhythm and improve their counting, but will know what to listen for and balance against.

Opening Main Motive in Flute, Piccolo, Oboe, Clarinet, Cornet mm. 1-8
 

 

Sixteenth Note Runs in Alto Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone,
and Baritone mm. 8-9
 

Triplets occur quite frequently throughout the middle section of the piece.  Most of the time they appear on the second beat of the measure and the first eighth note is tied with the first quarter note of the measure.  To teach triplets, I would recommend using the syllables Trip-el-let as a counting device.
 

Triplet figures in the Clarinets and Alto Saxophone mm. 60-64
 

Theme A in Flute, Piccolo, Oboe, Clarinet, Cornet  mm. 1-8

Theme B mm. 16-37
 

Theme C in the Clarinet mm.  52-63
 

The overall form of the piece is as follows:

Section A mm. 1-49

mm. 1   Theme A  Full Band
mm. 9   Theme A  Full Band
mm. 17 Theme B Thin texture, instruments alternating 2 measure phrases
mm. 39 Theme A  Full Band

Transition mm. 50-51  Full Band rit, rall.  Baritone Solo
 
 

Section B mm. 52-78

mm. 52 Theme C  Flute, Clarinet, Oboe melody, sax, tuba, baritone acc.
mm. 64 Theme C  Flute, Oboe, Cornet melody to Full Band melody and acc.

Development of A mm. 79-99  High WW to low WW to Full Band

Transition mm. 100-115 (four stage sequence with crescendo allargando)

Section A mm. 116-163

mm. 116  Theme A  Full Band
mm. 124  Theme A  Full Band
mm. 132  Theme B  Thin texture, instruments alternating 2 measure phrases
mm. 156  Theme A  Full Band

Coda mm. 164-end.  Full Band

I think that a great idea for programming this piece would be to schedule it on a concert with all the other pieces being overtures as well.  Perhaps the overtures could be from different countries or genres and the students could present some of the information that they learned during their projects to the audience.  This would give the students some incentive to do well on their projects (since they may be presenting to mom and dad), as well as providing the audience with some background information and just in general knowledge of music.  It also provides a good opportunity for parents to see exactly what their students have been up to in school, and the relevance of the class curriculum and assignments.

Vocabulary

Allegro Con Moto:  cheerful, lively

Crescendo (cresc.):  growing, becoming louder

Ritardando (rit.):  becoming slower

Rallantando (rall.):  becoming slower

A Tempo:  Return to the previous tempo

Allargando (allarg.):  Slowing of tempo, usually with increasing volume; most frequently occurs toward the end of a piece.

Rhythm Counting Example
 

Charles Edward Carter was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on July 10, 1926.  He spent his childhood in Worthington, Ohio, and spent his college career at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester,  New York.  He later went onto Ohio State University where he specialized in low brass and arranged music for the Ohio State University Marching Band, and Florida State University where he did some arrangement work for their band and taught theory and composition.  He has written numerous marching band arrangements as well as over thirty works for concert band.  His most well known pieces include:  Chorale and Variations, Dance and Intermezzo, Sonata for Winds, and Symphonic Overture.

Matching: Match the correct definition to each term.  You may use definitions more than once.
 
 

Counting:  Write in the correct counting below the notes.
 

1.  The composer of Overture for Winds is__________________________________.
 

2.  He attended or worked with these three universities:  ________________________,
     ________________________________, ________________________________.
 

3.  The title of one of his most famous compositions is: ___________________________.
     (hint: any of the titles listed on the sheet will do)