Procession of the Legionaries for Young Band (Grade 1.5)

Procession of the Legionaries for Young Band

• Composed 2020, rev. 2021
• Grade c. 1.5
• Duration: 2.5m

The legionaries were the citizen soldiers of Ancient Rome—the individual members of the Roman Legions, which were the military might of the Empire. In composing Procession of the Legionaries, I wanted to write a stately fanfare and march that evokes militaristic might with an ancient sentiment, using mostly quartal harmonies in contrast to the plethora of plain vanilla tonal works for young band.

To many of us, quartal harmonies (particularly parallel 4ths and 5ths) sound older and more ancient—and indeed early polyphonic music often considered 3rds to be dissonant compared to “perfect” fourths and fifths. But perhaps we can also attribute that association to film composers who have often used stark quartal harmonies to create an “ancient” sound. An interesting paradox is that at the same time, quartal harmonies can sound fresh, modern, and sophisticated.

Procession of the Legionaries (originally titled “Ascent of an Ancient Empire”) came right on the heels of my previous piece for young band, Deep Space Voyage. In that piece, I used quartal harmonies in the march section to depict the coldness of space. Here, I use them much more extensively.

Like in Deep Space Voyage, I used mental imagery to help inspire the musical ideas and give it a cinematic feel, but the piece isn't programmatic. Instead, I encourage students to create their own imagery and story lines as their own personal reaction to the music. It can also be a bouncing-off point for learning about the legionaries.

My hope is that students will find Procession of the Legionaries a fun and exciting piece that ignites their imagination, and inspires them to rise to the challenge of performing it successfully.