Leading Tones Music Springs Into Action!

Leading Tones Composers Meet Virtually to Discuss Flex-Score Music

Since the founding of Leading Tones Music in 2017, our mission has been to develop high quality inclusive and innovative repertoire for bands and orchestras. From mixed-level miniature concertos and chamber music to flexible-orchestration (“flex score”) ensemble music, our goal is to be synonymous with creative programming solutions!

It is important now more than ever before to consider innovative repertoire for your bands and orchestras. In the pre-vaccine era of the COVID-19 pandemic, music educators may be faced with restrictions on class sizes, unpredictable schedule changes, and limitations on viable performance options. While the how, when, what, and where factors of a “traditional” ensemble class may be in a state of flux, the Leading Tones Music team strongly believes that the why behind making music remains constant! We want to help ensembles of all ages program artistic and accessible music to connect with their communities, foster musical growth, and bring people together.
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This spring, our composers participated in over twelve hours of outreach projects for music students and educators. They were hosted in a series of Zoom meetings to discuss their own “why” factors behind composing and performing music. We spoke with students and music educators across the state of Minnesota about the music profession, approaches to composition, music education, how to commission new music, and more! Special thanks to the Minnesota Band Directors Association, Christoph Dundas (Austin High School), and our participating Leading Tones composers:

Daniel Gordon, Dominic Dousa, Peter Meechan, Janne Ikonen, Jukka Viitasaari, 
Stephen Mitton, Carl Holmquist, Spencer Brand, Daniel Kallman, Christina Rusnak,
Hanna-Mari Lehtonen, Ashlee T. Busch, and Erin Lilliefors

This summer, our composers are working hard to create content that can be played by any combination of instruments and by musicians of varying ability levels. Dominic Dousa’s
Walk along the Brook is a great example of our up-and-coming line of flex-score/mixed-level music. Both the advanced and beginner parts can be played together or separately without impacting the integrity of the music! Ashlee T. Busch’s Imagist Unenclosed also incorporates percussion parts to this format. Thanks to the hard work, creativity, and thoughtful craftsmanship of our composers, more flex-score/mixed-level pieces will be uploaded to the website throughout the summer. 

Our latest Call for Scores will welcome new compositional voices to our team as we continue our mission to provide creative programming solutions for bands and orchestras. Stay tuned for more creative programming solutions for your ensembles in the weeks and months ahead!
 
Creative and Artistic Flex-Score Solutions for YOU!

Perhaps you’ve heard about “flex-score” music. Well, we want to debunk a few myths about it and let you know about a few new pieces that are on our website!

• MYTH: “My ensemble has no need for flex-score music.”
  • In the pre-vaccine era of the COVID-19 pandemic, music educators may be faced with restrictions on class sizes, unpredictable schedule changes, and limitations on viable performance options. With these ever-changing variables, it is important to find music that can be played by any random combination of instruments and by students of varying ability levels!
• MYTH: “Flex-Score music is really just for beginner ensembles.”
  • While a good majority of this repertoire is for beginner/intermediate ensembles, our composers are working hard this summer to create new content for ALL ability levels. 
• MYTH: “All flex-score music content is basically the same from one publisher to the other.”
  • Other publishing companies and self-published composers have flex-score content that will greatly benefit ensembles, especially next academic year. However, we are the only publishing company that is developing a combination of mixed-ability-level AND flex-score music. Here’s a scenario: Imagine a 9th grade band class that is restricted to only five players at a time. In walks three flute players (two of them are much more comfortable playing 2nd part), two tenor saxophonists (one of whom just switched from clarinet last year). Flex-score music allows each of those musicians to have a part to play independently, but over half of the musicians in that class are playing a part that’s well beyond their current skill level. With mixed-level/flex score music, musicians of ALL levels are empowered to play independently because their part is at an ideal ability level. That is one BIG example of how Leading Tones Music works to innovate!

New flex-score and flex-score/mixed-level content will be uploaded to our website in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, check out the music of:

• Erin Lilliefors. As a music educator/composer, she has been writing fantastic pedagogical and artistic flex-score music for many years. Her latest compositions, Violet Dawn and Sun Dancer Fanfare incorporate improvisation, found percussion options, and excellent music theory concepts for young band. 
• Matthew Silverberg. His flex-score arrangement of Silver Filled Dreams is absolutely stunning and is most suitable for upper-level high school and university ensembles. 
• Robert Dale Pore, the newest member of the Leading Tones team! His piece, Cloudscape, with Birds, cleverly incorporates improvisation for young band students.

Stay tuned for more creative programming solutions on the Leading Tones Music website!

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