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Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.

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On today's episode, we're going to be discussing Arch of Triumph by Johnny Vinson. Cheers to

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starting the conversation. This is a great march. This is a French style march, so it

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is meant to be more stately in nature. It's in 2-4 throughout. It's about two minutes

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long, but it goes through two key changes. So it starts in the key of E-flat, modulates

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to B-flat, and then ends in the key of F. It is a great piece for teaching a French style

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march, but you do have to have a pretty strong band to play this. There is lots of articulation,

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lots of articulation in this. Split clarinet parts, split alto, split trumpet, and the trombone

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and euphonium parts are not doubled. Traditional march percussion in this.

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So it starts off in the key of E-flat, like Laura said, and in 2-4 it's at 100 on the

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metronome the whole time. So very stately, we start out with just trumpets, 1 and a 2

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and 1, and a 2 and 1, and a 2 and 1. And when they have their long note on 1, lows come

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in with 1 and 2 and 1. So the horns and the trombones add in on measure 2, and then the

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upper woodwinds and the autos add in on measure 3. So as we're doing this little fanfare opening,

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we're adding more voicing, it's getting thicker, and everybody's got to articulate right together.

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That we're not changing notes, but just doing de-de-de-de-de-de. At the same time, could

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be a bit of a challenge if your group is not ready for it.

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And the way that Katie just sang that, like I'm really big with our ensembles on vocalizing

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things. So I think exactly like that, vocalizing the articulation. Everybody say de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de.

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Make them say it before they play it. Put it just on a concert F so you align the rhythm

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and the articulation and then gradually go to the notes.

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Then at measure 5, it's the same thing. Trumpets do it again. More people add in. More people

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add in. It's just up a step higher than it was before. Then at 9, the flute, oboe, clarinet,

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and trumpet all have the melody. And then horn, actually horn and oboe and trombone

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have the harmony as well as clarinet 2 and 3.

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So we have this little stately melody that goes on for a while. 1 and a 2 and 1 and 2.

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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

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articulate clearly. Everything is marked staccato except for the beat 2s. Have a tenuto on them

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and then lead into the next measure.

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And that's a big thing, right? Because younger groups are going to want to clip that. They're

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going to go 1 and 2 and 1 and 2. 1, a 2 and and it has to be. I mean he's intentionally

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marked them tenuto. So working that and working that entire musical phrase together to make

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them feel where they're going to take a breath. And they can't take a breath until the rest

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at the end. It ends up feeling like a six measure phrase, but it's in 2, 4. It's easy

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for them to have enough air to last that long.

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Right. Lows underneath have 1, long, short, long, short. So their rhythm is not too terribly

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difficult except for again the trombone which is its own separate. It's almost like functioning

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like a horn. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And then we have a new idea at 17.

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So right here at 17, then the melody is in the upper woodwinds and the trumpet 1, 2,

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a 1, 2, 1 and 2. Everything is marked staccato. Almost everything is marked staccato in this

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section. So I think with the accompaniment, all of the accompaniment, one of the things

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I like about this is that you don't have any weird upbeat stuff going on. So all of the

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motor people are playing on the downbeat, but they have to be playing not where they're

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closing their throats off, keeping everything nice and resonant. Ta, ta, ta, ta. We talk

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about making sure that our notes end with an A-H sound. Like nothing should end with

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a hard consonant sound. It ends with a vowel sound like an A-H. Ah, ah, ah, so they're

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not closing their throat off. Otherwise, it sounds really immature. Yeah. So the melody

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keeps going with those same people. They have an eighth note, sixteenth rest, sixteenth

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note rhythm. One, two, a one. So you have to make sure that you really work to align

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that so that everybody lines up. That's a lot. And then they continue to have the dotted

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eight, sixteenth rhythms. We have our first actual moving sixteenth notes. One, a two,

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a, and a one. And it's a scale, but it's articulated. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Yeah. So when

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you first learn it, leave the slur out and just tongue it. And then later on, you can

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add that slur back in once they actually get it. And what students are going to want to

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do because you have a, the notes, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, they change. I found that

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a lot of students wanted to repeat the same note on the sixteenth notes. Ta, ta, ta, ta,

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ta, ta. So just make it like we spent time on just that going G, F, E flat, G, F, E

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flat, G, F, E flat. So making sure that they get really comfortable with that. And then

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just, you know, tongue and fingers making sure that they're moving together. Yep. So they

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finish out with a long note and the lows get like a little bit of a response or the mid-voices,

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one, two, and a one. So kind of like a little fanfare. Very stately. Yep. Then at 25, the

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same melody comes back again. We still have the same accompaniment. They have these cute

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little grace notes in there too, which are great. Leave the grace notes out at the beginning.

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You know, I tell the kids that the grace notes are like ornaments on a Christmas tree. You

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have to put the tree up first before you put the ornaments on. So build your tree and then

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we can decorate it later. Yep. Then the whole band has a big beat two going into 33 with

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an accent. Just like normal like a march. And now we've changed key to concert B flat. And

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again, we're going to get softer, but we're doing one, two, one, two. Then the melody

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picks back up again. Same people. One, a two, a one, and two, and one, and so I won and

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two, a two, and one, and a two. So it gets a bit more rhythmic here. And it goes into

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like a little minor mode right here. So it, you know, the tonality changes. The melody

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is different rhythm and sounds a little different, but the accompaniment is still just nice little

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quarter note or not quarter note. It's written as eighth note followed by eighth rest. Right.

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But you know, it's just nice downbeat accompaniment. So again, you're continuing that same idea,

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same concept without clipping the notes short, but making sure that all of your melody people

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are really comfortable moving together and articulating clearly. Yeah. So this part's

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a little bit trickier rhythmically too. It goes there's some ties in here. One, a two,

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and one, and a two, and two, and they should, they should cut off the first note in 40 and

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take a breath there so that it lines up together and they come back in on and of one and two,

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and one, a two, and one. So it's, it's a little bit more in depth. Gotta have a pretty good

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ensemble like we've already mentioned. And then like looking at all of the parts here,

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you know, the clarinet part is there's three clarinet parts, two alto parts, two trumpet

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parts, all of the clarinet parts are playing different notes here. So it does like, you

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know, as you're working that in sectionals, I would work the rhythm on a concert F first

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and then have them put it on their notes, your second clarinets are crossing the break.

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Of course, your first clarinets are your second clarinets are crossing the break. So just

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making sure that the technique of all of that is really clean and that it sounds chordal

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like it should with the with these split parts that can be a little trickier.

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At 42, this is like at the end of their melody going into 43, the lows get a cute little

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response one, a two and one. So that just aligning that that's the first time they've

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had to like move a little quicker. And then 43, it's the same little melody part.

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Yeah, the same part again. Now, you'll notice that there are places where Johnny Vinson

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writes a dotted eight sixteenth and then there are places where he writes an eighth note,

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a sixteenth rest and a sixteenth note. So like we've made a really big deal, we're currently

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playing this with our non varsity band, we've made a big deal out of the difference between

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those two things. He made it a point to write them differently. So we need to make it a

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point to perform them differently. For your vibrato instruments like altos and oboes and

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flutes, we're making sure when it's written as a dotted eight sixteenth that we're putting

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a little vibrato wiggle to make sure we don't clip it too short. There should be space between

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the dotted eight sixteenth, but when they put one vibrato wiggle da da da da da da da

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that helps keep it from sounding like da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

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just add one little vibrato wiggle and that will give it the the resonance in the fuller

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body sound that you want it to have and being intentional about making it different from

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the other rhythm. So this kind of continues on and then we get a new section going into

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fifty one where the upper people get the melody still but it's just a different rhythm now.

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Lows are still playing pretty much the same thing except instead of just one two one two

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now we're one two one two a one like Laura just mentioned making it be a little bit different.

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In this section one of the things that I have found we're like leading right before fifty

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one and then this happens again at fifty one we have these moments where we go hi low low

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low hi low low low it's real easy for the kids to smack that high note da da da da da

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and we don't want the high note to jump out. Same thing when we're at fifty one this melody

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that we have one and one a two and one tie and a two and one a two and a two and one

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a two that part right there they're going to want to one a two and a two and one a two

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so just really making sure that it fits in the musical phrase and it's again in this

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part written as a dotted eight sixteenth not with the sixteenth rest so throw that little

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vibrato wiggle on there to help it sound more mature. The percussion is also just continuing

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to do downbeat type things snare will add in like a drag whenever the like sometimes

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when the woodwinds had the grace notes but it's still very stately got little cymbal

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crashes they're helping us keep the beat timpani playing on the downbeats as well. Same thing

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where we've got at fifty nine the same little melody but now it changes just a tad at sixty

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three where it goes one and a one and a one two key change here's our second yep so it's

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getting a little bit more challenging just the further in that you get lows change to

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half notes here and then regular quarter notes as we're transitioning to this key change

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and then once we've hit key of concert F we go back to just the downbeats in the low brass

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the same type of idea. Yep so this is more the melody that we had at the beginning one

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two a one two one and two so it's major tonality and the same type of melody we had at the beginning

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but now instead of in the key of E flat we're in the key of F. Right so everything up a

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step you have the same stylistic considerations and the same technical considerations like

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Katie talked about earlier the sixteenth notes moving the tongue and fingers at the same time.

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Yeah and like clarinets are all doing like G A B C in sixteenths tada tada tada so just

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making sure that you know your kiddos are getting that to lay pretty easily at seventy

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five same thing they're continuing the melody on and then at eighty three the lows get to

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have their important part and they get two one two and one two one two and one so it's

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kind of like a typical like dogfight type section. Yes all the part Laura was just singing is

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in seventy percent of the band. That's right. So you have to make sure that it's really

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quiet and articulate and light and that you can hear all the different chord sounds. That's

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exactly right. Yeah so and and we spend time on just that. Okay the accompaniment part I

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don't want you to play your rhythm I only want you to play the note that you have and

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sustain it so we balance with that chord tone and and they get it in their ear sometimes

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when they see really rhythmic parts like this kids just automatically think tongue right

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and they stop thinking about tone so we want to make sure that they hear the tonality of

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what the chord tone is supposed to be then add in that articulation and if not all of

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your kids because this happens in the horn it happens in tenor sax it happens in several

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parts if they cannot all articulate the sixteenth notes cleanly they don't all need to play

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right sixteenth notes right absolutely they could just play rest two and one and yeah

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that's no problem and one and or just leave this part out and like make it be a cute little

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mini band feature where only two on a part play or something like that yes it's it because

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it can so many people in the ensemble have this part it can be overbearing and almost

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sound you know psycho yeah just like a little just overwhelming yeah so the low brass continue

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on their feature for quite a while then the whole group comes together at ninety four

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one and two and one a two the entire group has that except for the bass line tuba bass

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clarinet berry sax so everybody has to do one a two two one one two one and that's the

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end of the piece so it ends kind of with like the low brass being featured which is pretty

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cute this is such a great march it has a lot of good teaching opportunities but you definitely

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want to make sure that your ensemble is a little more mature because of the technical

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and articulation considerations that it requires but such a good little stately march for sure

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yeah well we hope that you will consider programming arc of triumph in the future and thank you

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for joining us on this episode of band BFS