In my last post, I shared the mockup audio of March of the Barbarians. I have since made one slight edit to the oboe part to keep it in the technical parameters of a grade 1 or 1.5 work for concert band. Other than that it remains the same.
For this post, I thought I would talk about the piece and share some excepts from the score and various parts. Let us start with the introduction.
Introduction
The piece starts off with a bang as the percussion section lays down a brutal groove that persists through much of the work.
Main Theme
Following the percussion intro, the low brass and low woodwinds come in with the main theme (doubled at the unison and octave for a nice balance of weight and resonance).
Battle Section
The main theme is followed by a chaotic battle section, where the entire band plays random notes over an intense percussion break.
Contrasting Lyrical Section
When the dust settles, the woodwinds are left to lament the chaos that fell upon them with a lyrical theme, complete with crying first clarinets (which only play the mouthpiece and barrel during the work).
The mood turns a bit more hopeful when the brass enters with the restatement.
And then a quick tutti transition, chock full of some nice harmonic moments and tasty suspensions, brings us back to the recap of the main theme, which ends the work. (Only the brass is shown, but the woodwinds double the parts as well).
Thanks for sticking with me as I rambled on about my new wind band piece. If you are a band director and liked what you saw (and heard), then please consider joining the consortium for this work. If you are not a band director but would like to support my work, you can donate to support my crippling caffeine addiction here.