Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we're going to be discussing Arch of Triumph by Johnny Vinson. Cheers to
starting the conversation. This is a great march. This is a French style march, so it
is meant to be more stately in nature. It's in 2-4 throughout. It's about two minutes
long, but it goes through two key changes. So it starts in the key of E-flat, modulates
to B-flat, and then ends in the key of F. It is a great piece for teaching a French style
march, but you do have to have a pretty strong band to play this. There is lots of articulation,
lots of articulation in this. Split clarinet parts, split alto, split trumpet, and the trombone
and euphonium parts are not doubled. Traditional march percussion in this.
So it starts off in the key of E-flat, like Laura said, and in 2-4 it's at 100 on the
metronome the whole time. So very stately, we start out with just trumpets, 1 and a 2
and 1, and a 2 and 1, and a 2 and 1. And when they have their long note on 1, lows come
in with 1 and 2 and 1. So the horns and the trombones add in on measure 2, and then the
upper woodwinds and the autos add in on measure 3. So as we're doing this little fanfare opening,
we're adding more voicing, it's getting thicker, and everybody's got to articulate right together.
That we're not changing notes, but just doing de-de-de-de-de-de. At the same time, could
be a bit of a challenge if your group is not ready for it.
And the way that Katie just sang that, like I'm really big with our ensembles on vocalizing
things. So I think exactly like that, vocalizing the articulation. Everybody say de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de.
Make them say it before they play it. Put it just on a concert F so you align the rhythm
and the articulation and then gradually go to the notes.
Then at measure 5, it's the same thing. Trumpets do it again. More people add in. More people
add in. It's just up a step higher than it was before. Then at 9, the flute, oboe, clarinet,
and trumpet all have the melody. And then horn, actually horn and oboe and trombone
have the harmony as well as clarinet 2 and 3.
So we have this little stately melody that goes on for a while. 1 and a 2 and 1 and 2.
1, a 2 and 1 and 2. 1, a 2 and 1 and 2. 1. So you really have to have a group that can
articulate clearly. Everything is marked staccato except for the beat 2s. Have a tenuto on them
and then lead into the next measure.
And that's a big thing, right? Because younger groups are going to want to clip that. They're
going to go 1 and 2 and 1 and 2. 1, a 2 and and it has to be. I mean he's intentionally
marked them tenuto. So working that and working that entire musical phrase together to make
them feel where they're going to take a breath. And they can't take a breath until the rest
at the end. It ends up feeling like a six measure phrase, but it's in 2, 4. It's easy
for them to have enough air to last that long.
Right. Lows underneath have 1, long, short, long, short. So their rhythm is not too terribly
difficult except for again the trombone which is its own separate. It's almost like functioning
like a horn. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And then we have a new idea at 17.
So right here at 17, then the melody is in the upper woodwinds and the trumpet 1, 2,
a 1, 2, 1 and 2. Everything is marked staccato. Almost everything is marked staccato in this
section. So I think with the accompaniment, all of the accompaniment, one of the things
I like about this is that you don't have any weird upbeat stuff going on. So all of the
motor people are playing on the downbeat, but they have to be playing not where they're
closing their throats off, keeping everything nice and resonant. Ta, ta, ta, ta. We talk
about making sure that our notes end with an A-H sound. Like nothing should end with
a hard consonant sound. It ends with a vowel sound like an A-H. Ah, ah, ah, so they're
not closing their throat off. Otherwise, it sounds really immature. Yeah. So the melody
keeps going with those same people. They have an eighth note, sixteenth rest, sixteenth
note rhythm. One, two, a one. So you have to make sure that you really work to align
that so that everybody lines up. That's a lot. And then they continue to have the dotted
eight, sixteenth rhythms. We have our first actual moving sixteenth notes. One, a two,
a, and a one. And it's a scale, but it's articulated. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Yeah. So when
you first learn it, leave the slur out and just tongue it. And then later on, you can
add that slur back in once they actually get it. And what students are going to want to
do because you have a, the notes, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, they change. I found that
a lot of students wanted to repeat the same note on the sixteenth notes. Ta, ta, ta, ta,
ta, ta. So just make it like we spent time on just that going G, F, E flat, G, F, E
flat, G, F, E flat. So making sure that they get really comfortable with that. And then
just, you know, tongue and fingers making sure that they're moving together. Yep. So they
finish out with a long note and the lows get like a little bit of a response or the mid-voices,
one, two, and a one. So kind of like a little fanfare. Very stately. Yep. Then at 25, the
same melody comes back again. We still have the same accompaniment. They have these cute
little grace notes in there too, which are great. Leave the grace notes out at the beginning.
You know, I tell the kids that the grace notes are like ornaments on a Christmas tree. You
have to put the tree up first before you put the ornaments on. So build your tree and then
we can decorate it later. Yep. Then the whole band has a big beat two going into 33 with
an accent. Just like normal like a march. And now we've changed key to concert B flat. And
again, we're going to get softer, but we're doing one, two, one, two. Then the melody
picks back up again. Same people. One, a two, a one, and two, and one, and so I won and
two, a two, and one, and a two. So it gets a bit more rhythmic here. And it goes into
like a little minor mode right here. So it, you know, the tonality changes. The melody
is different rhythm and sounds a little different, but the accompaniment is still just nice little
quarter note or not quarter note. It's written as eighth note followed by eighth rest. Right.
But you know, it's just nice downbeat accompaniment. So again, you're continuing that same idea,
same concept without clipping the notes short, but making sure that all of your melody people
are really comfortable moving together and articulating clearly. Yeah. So this part's
a little bit trickier rhythmically too. It goes there's some ties in here. One, a two,
and one, and a two, and two, and they should, they should cut off the first note in 40 and
take a breath there so that it lines up together and they come back in on and of one and two,
and one, a two, and one. So it's, it's a little bit more in depth. Gotta have a pretty good
ensemble like we've already mentioned. And then like looking at all of the parts here,
you know, the clarinet part is there's three clarinet parts, two alto parts, two trumpet
parts, all of the clarinet parts are playing different notes here. So it does like, you
know, as you're working that in sectionals, I would work the rhythm on a concert F first
and then have them put it on their notes, your second clarinets are crossing the break.
Of course, your first clarinets are your second clarinets are crossing the break. So just
making sure that the technique of all of that is really clean and that it sounds chordal
like it should with the with these split parts that can be a little trickier.
At 42, this is like at the end of their melody going into 43, the lows get a cute little
response one, a two and one. So that just aligning that that's the first time they've
had to like move a little quicker. And then 43, it's the same little melody part.
Yeah, the same part again. Now, you'll notice that there are places where Johnny Vinson
writes a dotted eight sixteenth and then there are places where he writes an eighth note,
a sixteenth rest and a sixteenth note. So like we've made a really big deal, we're currently
playing this with our non varsity band, we've made a big deal out of the difference between
those two things. He made it a point to write them differently. So we need to make it a
point to perform them differently. For your vibrato instruments like altos and oboes and
flutes, we're making sure when it's written as a dotted eight sixteenth that we're putting
a little vibrato wiggle to make sure we don't clip it too short. There should be space between
the dotted eight sixteenth, but when they put one vibrato wiggle da da da da da da da
that helps keep it from sounding like da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da
just add one little vibrato wiggle and that will give it the the resonance in the fuller
body sound that you want it to have and being intentional about making it different from
the other rhythm. So this kind of continues on and then we get a new section going into
fifty one where the upper people get the melody still but it's just a different rhythm now.
Lows are still playing pretty much the same thing except instead of just one two one two
now we're one two one two a one like Laura just mentioned making it be a little bit different.
In this section one of the things that I have found we're like leading right before fifty
one and then this happens again at fifty one we have these moments where we go hi low low
low hi low low low it's real easy for the kids to smack that high note da da da da da
and we don't want the high note to jump out. Same thing when we're at fifty one this melody
that we have one and one a two and one tie and a two and one a two and a two and one
a two that part right there they're going to want to one a two and a two and one a two
so just really making sure that it fits in the musical phrase and it's again in this
part written as a dotted eight sixteenth not with the sixteenth rest so throw that little
vibrato wiggle on there to help it sound more mature. The percussion is also just continuing
to do downbeat type things snare will add in like a drag whenever the like sometimes
when the woodwinds had the grace notes but it's still very stately got little cymbal
crashes they're helping us keep the beat timpani playing on the downbeats as well. Same thing
where we've got at fifty nine the same little melody but now it changes just a tad at sixty
three where it goes one and a one and a one two key change here's our second yep so it's
getting a little bit more challenging just the further in that you get lows change to
half notes here and then regular quarter notes as we're transitioning to this key change
and then once we've hit key of concert F we go back to just the downbeats in the low brass
the same type of idea. Yep so this is more the melody that we had at the beginning one
two a one two one and two so it's major tonality and the same type of melody we had at the beginning
but now instead of in the key of E flat we're in the key of F. Right so everything up a
step you have the same stylistic considerations and the same technical considerations like
Katie talked about earlier the sixteenth notes moving the tongue and fingers at the same time.
Yeah and like clarinets are all doing like G A B C in sixteenths tada tada tada so just
making sure that you know your kiddos are getting that to lay pretty easily at seventy
five same thing they're continuing the melody on and then at eighty three the lows get to
have their important part and they get two one two and one two one two and one so it's
kind of like a typical like dogfight type section. Yes all the part Laura was just singing is
in seventy percent of the band. That's right. So you have to make sure that it's really
quiet and articulate and light and that you can hear all the different chord sounds. That's
exactly right. Yeah so and and we spend time on just that. Okay the accompaniment part I
don't want you to play your rhythm I only want you to play the note that you have and
sustain it so we balance with that chord tone and and they get it in their ear sometimes
when they see really rhythmic parts like this kids just automatically think tongue right
and they stop thinking about tone so we want to make sure that they hear the tonality of
what the chord tone is supposed to be then add in that articulation and if not all of
your kids because this happens in the horn it happens in tenor sax it happens in several
parts if they cannot all articulate the sixteenth notes cleanly they don't all need to play
right sixteenth notes right absolutely they could just play rest two and one and yeah
that's no problem and one and or just leave this part out and like make it be a cute little
mini band feature where only two on a part play or something like that yes it's it because
it can so many people in the ensemble have this part it can be overbearing and almost
sound you know psycho yeah just like a little just overwhelming yeah so the low brass continue
on their feature for quite a while then the whole group comes together at ninety four
one and two and one a two the entire group has that except for the bass line tuba bass
clarinet berry sax so everybody has to do one a two two one one two one and that's the
end of the piece so it ends kind of with like the low brass being featured which is pretty
cute this is such a great march it has a lot of good teaching opportunities but you definitely
want to make sure that your ensemble is a little more mature because of the technical
and articulation considerations that it requires but such a good little stately march for sure
yeah well we hope that you will consider programming arc of triumph in the future and thank you
for joining us on this episode of band BFS