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

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On today's episode, we are going to be discussing Heroes Triumphant by Willie Owens. Cheers

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to starting the conversation. Well, this piece is absolutely awesome. I think it is a perfect

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like fanfare concert opener. It's a really great piece. It's super short. It's about 90 seconds in

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length, 4-4 throughout. Concert B-flat. It does have quite a bit of accidentals. It's really fast,

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but you've got some flexibility in the tempo. Split clarinet parts and trumpet parts. The

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trombone and euphonium part are not always the same. So you want to be aware of that. Lots of

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percussion and like Willie Owens often does, he does an advanced option percussion part or a regular

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percussion part. I love that. So you have the opportunity to differentiate for your percussionists,

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but there is a lot of other percussion involved. You need, I would say, six percussionists to be

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able to cover all of these parts well and they are all pretty active throughout the entire piece.

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You have to have a timpani part. The bells part is not always 100% doubling. It's kind of by itself.

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Yeah. So you definitely need to have a good percussion section, good sized. So it starts off in

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Concert B-flat and it goes 138 to 152. So like Laura said, it's a short piece because it goes by

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really fast. It has a lot of style considerations too, just even right off the gate, one and two

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and with an accent and a slur and one and two and with accents and slurs again and accents don't

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always happen in the same spot for every instrument. So this has a lot of like little nuances that you

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have to really go into detail on with the kids and like you're going to accent on beat one and two,

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but then the saxes are going to accent on beat three, you know, and kind of explain like where

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people are in the importance and how that feels right. Even in the very first measure, it goes

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through different sections where there's an accent on beat two, an accent on beat three and an accent

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on beat four and obviously he's intentional writing that. So you've got to make sure that that comes

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across orally as the kids are performing it and that idea kind of carries throughout this whole

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thing. Yep. You need really good trumpets for this piece too. Like I mean it's hero's triumphant

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and it's like a fanfare. So I mean I think that goes without saying but the trumpets are featured

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front and center for most of this. The woodwinds get a bunch of flashy moving stuff. So it starts

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out with just the woodwinds on measure one. They have that accent motif that Laura and I just

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mentioned and then the rest of the brass minus the trumpets come in a measure two with a four

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tape piano and we're crescendoing to beat one of measure three where the trumpets come in with

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the melody. So they have the melody alone. They are in split parts. Both need to be heard equally.

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The horns kind of come in with a little bit of a counter melody-esque line underneath them three

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measures into their melody along with tenor sax. Woodwinds are continuing to do like Laura said

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little like flashy eighth note-y type things. Then the trumpets get a C versus a D in the first

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trumpet, forte piano with a G and trumpet two. So like they really have to be able to hear their

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partials and their chord to make that be excellent. Lows get a little response, rest two, three and four,

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one and a tenuto and accents. So oh no they're all accents. Sorry my eyes are getting old.

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All accents as they go lower but they don't have like a super duper like important part.

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So your low brass just need to be able to articulate well. Really everybody needs to be

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able to articulate well right. So and I will tell you and when I have played this piece I think it

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it has the tendency to sound noisy if you don't balance and layer it correctly.

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The woodwind parts are so active and they are not the same. We're like the flutes are not doubling

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you know what's happening in the lower reeds or whatever. They're not all the same all the time.

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So you want the oboes are doing something a little different. You want to make sure. Clarinet

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too is totally different from clarinet wine. That's right. So I mean I would even if you have the

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ability to divide your group brass and woodwinds this is a piece that I think could really benefit

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from you know independent time with the woodwind section and the brass section before you put it

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together. Otherwise it really can just sound noisy. Yeah and you want the moving eighth notes to be

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brought out as often as possible and that this is a good opportunity to teach your students that too.

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So if they do have a couple little moments like in the low brass they have some eighth notes here

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and there like in response to the trumpet melody for instance at measure 10 they have one two and

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three and four and the trumpets just have a long note on top of them. So that's a musical idea that

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you can teach students about how composers like to do that as you transition into the next section.

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And then at 11 they're continuing on with the melody horns come in as well with a counter melody

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but there are some accidental lots of accidentals in this section. Yeah so it goes and adds in like

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some concert A flats and then those continue on for quite a bit of time. The flutes and the clarinet

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one has now also added in with the trumpet but the low people are still just kind of chilling in the

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background. We've got harmony parts in clarinet. Nobody is resting like the entire band is playing.

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So like Laura mentioned like you want to make sure you spend a lot of time talking about the role

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of your instrument in this piece and are you the melody and if not back off. One other thing I like

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to do sometimes is like in my non-varsity band is sometimes say like first chairs play you know or

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like we don't we're not doing chairs right now in that group but like when we used to or you can

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say eighth graders why don't you play this time and it kind of just gives the kids the sense of like

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oh that's what it's supposed to sound like you know it's not supposed to be overly you know when

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composers write music they don't write for nine flutes they write like for one on a part right

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and does it sound cool you know so that's something else to just kind of keep in mind is you may have

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to say okay well you're gonna maybe not play this one measure because it's too noisy or you can come

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in after that you know and do what works best for your group absolutely but this piece can definitely

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come across as too much in your face if you're not careful. The we continue on with the upper

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people having the melody and then at the end of their melody they have a little trill and then the

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lows have another response with accents two three and four one and then they have a long note with

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some percussion doing a little it sounds like a route like what's that what's like a drum line

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does it roll off it kind of sounds like that there to me and i'm like oh it's kind of like a little

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marching band um it's because it's triumphant and then the bells come in all by themselves yeah bells

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are one and or sorry yeah one and and three four and and two and they have their own little moment

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like you have to have them you do and this is another moment right here where i think the mallet

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choice for bells is really important otherwise it can otherwise it can sound really really

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really teeny and not good as we transition into this new section at 22 the melody goes into the

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clarinet and alto um it's even cute in the horn more like mellow exactly not as fast technique

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we don't have a lot of eighth note technique there's more slurs involved in this point in this section

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more woodwind feature here that it's cued in a lot of the brass but more woodwind feature with tuba

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here and he uses he uses a lot of dynamics in this like kelly uh katie kelly katie talked about the

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forte piano crescendos at the beginning of the piece there are those forte piano crescendos and

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like in this section almost like a hairpin dynamic oh for sure feeling in this little section here at

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22 so lots of opportunities to kind of get your kids to come out of their shell dynamically and

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musically and be a little bit more expressive the fluton oboe have that little eighth notey response

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to the melody in the clarinet and sax and they have like two three and four and one two and and

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then they have a little trill and then the trump or then the horns come back with the melody with

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the altos they continue on and then the flutes have a little response so it's kind of like

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um a little conversation between them a little bit and the trumpets are not playing and that's

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good they get a little bit of a break if your horns didn't play the cues earlier then this is

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the first time we're getting that horn color in the melody as well which i personally like now the

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bells are continuing their same little ostinato throughout this whole section this is another

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section where i think it can get noisy sounding if they are not being very they they can't be mindless

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when they're going through and playing this they have to make sure that their ears are open and

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they are constantly listening that's exactly right they're constantly listening for the melody as well

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then we have in measure 28 a dotted quarter note eighth note rhythm i think it's the first time we've

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seen it in the piece yeah so everybody has that rhythm or in the melody i guess i should say

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and then horn and tenor sax have this little one and two and three like a little mini scale it comes

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back later in the piece too um so it kind of sounds like we're triumphanting the or like you know

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telling them that the trumpets are coming back and then the trumpets come back in so they have the

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melody but split parts again so second trumpet is also still important for that harmony and riddled

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with more accident oh lots more accident yeah we have concert eight or not concert a flat we have

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concert g flats lots of them in the low brass part in the low reeds part um so fifth position is

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something you're gonna have to really get friendly with in the low brass um yeah so this piece it can

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be a little bit tricky because you're gonna have to work on it in little chunks just harmonically

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to make sure it sounds exactly right and the chords are are lining up um lots of movement the

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clarinet i'm sorry the flute and the oboe have four and one and two and three and four so they

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have another little cutesy moment um and then the trumpets are continuing the melody and there's

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lots of pickup notes in in some of the accompaniment parts you want to bring the the pickup note out

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but let the half notes not be as strong and this happens a lot in this piece where i feel like

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the end of a phrase overlaps with the beginning of another phrase sure and it's really common for

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younger players who are ending the phrase to drop it the second that they hear the new phrase start

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and that should not happen or that's where they take a breath right exactly yeah a huge gap so

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this will be another great spot to say you're not allowed to breathe there because if you do

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there's a gap before the horn right in or whatever yeah so you can play an out breath marks where

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kids are gonna play somewhere else in your marked parts ahead of time you can mark the breath marks

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for like make the trombones breathe in one measure make the phonemes breathe in a different measure

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so that way it kind of balances itself out um and then it just keeps going with these

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accidentals for quite a bit of time the snare drum comes comes back in it's been snare has been kind

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of laying out here while the bells were doing their thing snare comes back in here the part is a

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little bit less active for the wind players but still lots of accidentals another dynamic opportunity

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where we have the whole ensemble crescendoing to a forte and then immediately dropping um off

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to piano where we start layering an entrance where we're building one two and three four and one

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two and three more people are adding in so you're getting that automatic um crescendo by the addition

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of instrumentation um but that this section is real important make sure you all articulate the

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same because we have unison rhythm in a lot of the sections uh and we're just building texture

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to get to measure 39 at 39 we have an entrance on beat one with a little trill in the upper woodwinds

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and i would 100 take it down to one on a part on this trill because it can be like way too much

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it's a upper not an upper C on clarinet but a third space C and an upper B flat on the flutes

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so and a B flat in the oboe it just could be a lot so maybe either they play it really quiet or one

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on a part um and the lows come in on beat one as well then the trumpets and the alto and clarinet

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two come in on beat three and then low brass plays on beat four so another little kind of stacking

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moment nobody on beat two but it's got a cool effect to it it's really cool and that would be

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something i would practice bopped like i would so that everyone can clearly hear when the new

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instrument comes in yep um and then at measure 40 the low brass have a new rhythm one and four

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so just teaching them to articulate that and accent the and so it really jumps out is a good thing

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to spend some time on then you have these quarter notes that are accented going up it's that same

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mini scale that the horns had before except instead of eighth notes it's now quarter notes and it's

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accented um the horns have it as well with them so that's a cool little um counter melody part that

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i think should be brought out then one measure later the low brass have four accented quarter

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notes so they're kind of doing it in response and then the full band has one two and three and four

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and then we're back to the same entrances on beat one and three and four yeah we repeat that exact

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same thing with the trills in the upper woodwinds where you can tell that we're just kind of building

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towards the end we see our first little moment of staccato notes here around measure 45 um so we

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have some staccatos and accents and the staccatos are written only in the upper voices here so you

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hear it in the trumpet the flute clarinet alto low voices do not have those written so i would be

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real intentional about observing that and making sure that that is played exactly how it's written

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um another forte piano crescendo so because we have so many of these in this that would be something

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i would practice in my daily drill like let's take a concert f and we're gonna practice you know this

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forte piano crescendo in our daily drill regularly so that you get it when it's across the whole

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ensemble like this or most of the ensemble it's got to be balanced you don't want anyone sticking

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out of the texture you've got to talk about the intonation and how it affects tuning when they

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crescendo like that so you know apply that to your daily drill and i talked to students on

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forte pianos about numbers like we'll talk about the dynamic number system i do like one to ten

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and like we never play ten and we never play one because i don't think that middle school kids can

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necessarily handle playing a ten or a one so this would be a perfect moment where you could say the

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forte piano should be like a seven to a three and then on the next beat go up to four and on the next

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beat a five and then you end on six so it kind of gives the kids like a number system to think about

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where they're not like laura said crescendoing more than their neighbor and sticking out of the

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ensemble or like well it says crescendo so i'm just gonna play really loud you know what we use

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i use the number system like katie does too i use that same thing i also like every time we play

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forte crescendos we talk about the word zoom so i am the students will even write it on their part

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or i'll write it on their part um before i hand it out to them but we say the word zoom we talk about

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the z at the beginning is the forte and i make the whole ensemble say it and hold the m so we go zoom

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zoom we say it and then we play it and get them used to what because let's be the kids are not

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gonna have a problem with the crescendo they're gonna have a problem with the piano right they'll

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they can do the forte and they can do the crescendo it's the piano part so we use that word zoom

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and say it and play it and then add that numbering system like like katie talked about and then at 49

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we have the upper woodwinds again with some fun little doodly eighth notes just like the beginning

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trumpets have the melody again and then like i mentioned before we get that little horn miniscale

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at the very end uh one and two and three one and the whole band ends on beat one of the last measure

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you will want to make sure that you end that with a ta articulation so it has a little bit of length

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it is an accented note but um lots of accidentals here at the end too just like before so this piece

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is i would definitely say like a one plus one point five yeah i agree um just because it's it's

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thickly textured it is nobody's resting very often you know it's pretty much like active the whole time

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but it's short you know so if you're willing to go into that great detail and work your way up in the

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in the speed process then it'll be great i think it's got a lot of great uh learning opportunities

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for younger bands and it would even be Katie and I were talking it would even be a fabulous piece for

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a varsity group to play at uh at a fall concert you know or at a patriotic ceremony or whatever

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so um it it is a really good piece challenging for the grade level that it is but but well worth it

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if you're willing to put in the time and effort well we hope you will can consider programming

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heroes triumphant in the future and thank you for joining us on this episode of band bfs