8′ / Brass Choir / $50 PDF Score and Parts

A Knight’s Tale is a programmatic work centered around a heroic knight, a princess in trouble, and dangerous mthyical creatures that our knight has to defeat if he wants to save the princess.

Each instrument section represents a character:

Trumpets – The Wizards

Horns – The Knight

Trombones – The Trolls

Euphonium – The Princess

Bass Trombone and Tuba – The Giant

Magical Creatures

Our hero meets his first challenge, a group of wizards. He is lifted through the air by their magic, and as much as the knight tries to fight them off, he realizes that their magic is just too strong. As the music reaches its climax in this section, the wizards decide to let the knight go. They drop him off and leave him to himself, alone, in a forest full of trolls.

12-Tone Trolls

The knight sees these trolls as a threat, and starts his attack upon them, only to realize that these trolls want nothing to do with him. He walks past them and through the forest, prepared but not concerned with these nasty trolls. After his journey through the forest, he finally reaches the tower from which the princess is trapped in, with one more challenge ahead of him.

Whole-Tone Giant

The final challenge our hero has to face is the ruthless one-eyed giant. The battle begins and it does not take long before the knight realizes that he is too weak against the mighty giant. Just as our hero is about to lose hope, he hears the princess theme in the distance. This gives the hero the strength he needs to push forward. Both the knight and the giant fight a fierce battle, the music reaches a loud and aggressive climax, and then silence.

Leaving the listener to ask . . . who won?

University of New Hampshire Brass Choir; Benjamin Martinez-Lizaola, conductor