2/3 March
Concert Band - Digital Sheet Music

The piece is at least a grade 3 due to competing time signatures, contrapuntal melodies, and persistent upper register work across several sections.

Written during my time in the Army, this march emerged as a sort of "musical joke." The melody and rhythm parts alternate between 6/8 and 2/4 (or 2 over 3) time throughout the piece with the quarter and dotted-quarter keeping the same beat. It incorporates nearly every march convention that my friend and I could think of from the low brass taking over the strain and piccolo obbligato to the baffling euphonium arpeggios in the final strain along with the equally bafflingly obnoxious trombone countermelody. At the same time, it breaks convention by granting the horn players the melodic line in the trio section instead of giving them the back beats they love so much. One of the stranger jokes whose meaning one might miss is the mix up of beats at the key change which was done deliberately to put the generals and first sergeants out of step. It also contains a symphony's worth of stingers at the end (because 19-year-old me was hilarious ... apparently).

The piece begins with the melody in 2 with the rhythm in 3. The second time through the first strain, the euphonium, bassoon, and tenor saxophone add a 6/8 counter melody before the piece moves into the second strain with the low instruments taking a second melody in 3 while the high instruments play the rhythm in 2. This transitions back to a repeat of the first strain. The trio opens with the rhythm instruments tripping over themselves to establish the beat before the upper winds pick up the melody for the second half. The breakdown after the first iteration of the trio melody tosses a variation of the strain 1 melody between both time signatures leading into a dissonant lead-in to the first repeat of the trio melody with the piccolo playing a countermelody. This countermelody is a variation of the strain 1 melody as the part plays the melody forwards, backwards, backwards upside-down, and ending it with forwards upside-down before repeating back to the breakdown section. The final pass through the trio melody adds the high brass to the melody along with a countermelody in the trombones which alternates between 2 and 3 throughout to further the time confusion while the euphonium and tenor saxophones throw in their obligatory arpeggios for good measure. This culminates in a symphonic ending of stingers and a held unison root before a final stinger bringing the piece to a close.

Should the conductor wish to forego the ridiculous stinger ending, they may conclude the piece with the final note of measure 137 which contains the single, proper stinger chord. - George Willson

George Willson has been an author, performer, composer, and conductor for thirty years in various mediums and ensembles.

Mp3 performance is a midi extracted from the composition program.