Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we are going to be discussing
Storming the Castle by Connor Dunford. Cheers
to starting the conversation. Okay, friends.
So this piece... Wait, that was a bad... Let's
do it again. There we go. Sorry, everyone. Yeah.
I know you were like, I can't listen to this
episode. Without the cheers. The clank was not
enough. Not correct. Welcome to my world, ladies
and gentlemen. This is Katie Lewis. Okay, we
are super excited to talk about this piece. We
are. this piece is written by little baby Connor
Dunford so we had never heard of him we were
like oh we've never done a piece by this composer
this is great let's do a little looking into
it well sweet baby was born in 2006 congratulations
this is awesome this is awesome he wrote this
piece was published his senior year of high school
like how cool was that yeah that's so cool. It
is cool and it's a great piece. We wouldn't be
talking about it if we didn't like it. Yeah and
we both performed it at the Texas Bandmasters
Association Conference this past summer with
the Phi Beta Mu Reading Band. This was one of
the new to the PML pieces that they included.
New published. New published. I'm so sorry I'm
so sorry I misspoke. New newly published pieces
because it was published in 2005. Twenty. 2025.
My bad everyone I'm having a little bit of an
issue. Okay but this piece is so cute and fun
and perfect for a young ensemble. It's in his
own description he talks about that this is that
he's always been kind of obsessed with medieval
armies at the size and scope of medieval armies.
They didn't have the technology that we have
these days but they were just massive. Tens of
thousands exactly like storming the castle and
he said this was written, you know with that
mental imagery in mind Yeah, massive large army
storming a castle. Yeah, it is in the key of
concert B flat It has split clarinet parts. It
has split trumpet parts a reasonable amount of
percussion You could get away with five or six
percussionists on this Ranges on it are not terrible.
It is four four if I didn't say that. It's about
152 on the metronome so it's fast the whole time.
It's about two minutes two fifteen yeah I mean
it's it's pretty short but very programmatic
I think it's really effective with this whole
theme of storming the castle. Yes it will be
very popular with your kids because it just sounds
cool. So the very beginning as I mentioned it's
marked at 152 the full band comes in with softer
dynamics the the kind of like melodic part are
the whole notes that are coming up and it's pretty
fast so it's like a scale going up in trumpet
Clarinet one and two And then the horn and alto
are just are there to excite you one and he's
an alto player So like as I look at this, I'm
looking at it through his eyes as he's probably
writing the part Yeah, you know pretty fun. Yeah,
so they're building it up. It doesn't need to
be loud The lows have one and three four one
and three four So as long as we can do that dotted
rhythm, you should be solid the snare drum is
a little bit more active down at the bottom,
but it's not bad. It's just one and two and three
and four E and one and two and three and four
E. And if you have a player, you know, if you
have a player that is able to play all of the
eighth notes on the right hand, that's how I
would advise them to do it. That way it'll sound
the most even. Right, right, right, right, right,
right, right, right, right, right, right, right,
right, right, right, right. That'll guarantee
that it sounds more even instead of them trying
to go right, left, right, left, right, left.
The articulation pattern in the alto tenor and
horn part is tongue, tongue slur, tongue, tongue
slur, tongue, tongue slur, tongue. Their tendency
of course is going to be - And keep it long,
tongue as well. That's right, that's right. Their
tendency is going to be to add a note under the
slur. Don't let them go ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Make
sure that they're articulating correctly. Yep.
This is all again, the whole notes are building
up starting at measure one. till five. And then
at five, the whole notes turn into half notes.
And then we're adding in more people on that
horn and alto part, the flute and oboe add in
the one we just talked about that was articulated.
So the full band is added in now the snare is
continuing on. We're all crescendoing, crescendoing,
crescendoing till the final moment at nine. Technically
we're leading to 11, but nine is where everybody
comes in together. So that's a long eight measure.
you're building everything up. The horn and the
alto along with flute and oboe have the last
little three and four and one two three four
and one and then timpani four and one and the
timpani has like a pretty cool little part alone
here at 11, the low brass come in and low reads
like bass clarinet, bari sax with the first melody.
This is, I guess, probably what he was thinking
of as like the army marching forward. One, three,
one, two, three. And again, it's tongued after
the slur, but this time it has a staccato. That's
right. One, three, one and two. three one and
two three four one two three and four and one
so the low people but it's not ridiculous right
like the highest note is an a flat um I mean,
I think it's pretty a well -written range of
notes for people. Definitely. There are a lot
of accents, like accents and staccatos, so stylistically
you want to make sure that your students are
comfortable with that. And he does a good job
of writing in all of these dynamic things as
well. So he's pretty clear about what his vision
is and what he wants it to sound like. Now you
have to make sure that the students execute all
the symbols they see. I also like that the bass
clarinet part is written low below the staff
here instead of in like the throat tone register
So it's kind of neat. It just I think it's effective
in how it sounds like low like the here comes
the army You get that reading sound. Yeah, which
is great. They continue on with that part But
now at I'm sorry at measure 15 they continue
on but now the horn has an an alto have a little
counter melody and then trumpet, flute and clarinet
have like a response as well. So we're layering
in three different parts here. He writes it very
well where you can see it and be able to hear
it really well. So the lows maybe can come down
one notch in their dynamic and let the alto and
horn counter melody line kind of take over. But
everybody's moving together with the one and
two. three, four, one, and two, three, and four,
and one, going into 19. And then 19, we've got
the trumpets on the melody now, like it's coming
closer to you, you know? And the flute, no bow,
and clarinet. So now we have this half note idea.
Ta, ta, ti, ta, ta. It's the same melody, yep,
yep. But the cool, now what changes is the low
voice part. So they're doing this new little
counter part to it. So they're echoing. So instead
of one, three, They're going rest two and three
rest two and three four one two and right Yeah,
this it now fits the puzzles a little bit different.
Yep again, there's not a lot of Things that he
left off like you can tell what he's wanting
So like if it's got an accent or if it's got
a staccato you want to make sure that you're
following all of those things Then at 22 or continuing
in the timpani keeps kind of helping lead into
the next little section 23 trumpets are continuing
on with flute oboe clarinet and the melody and
then we're leading decrescendoing into 27 at
the end of that phrase and now right here at
the end of this the Low voices are doing what
the out? and Horn did earlier ta ta ta ta ta
ta ta ta not as easy on trombone as it is on
alto saxophone so make sure again that you're
being real intentional about that articulation
luckily it's just four to three though yeah horrible
yeah and then we're decrescendoing at 26 going
into 27 because it's gonna be a recap of the
beginning so it's like the army is now going
in the distance one two three four then we're
going to lead up again with the whole notes in
the trumpet. Exactly like the beginning. Just
like the beginning. And then we 31, we get soft
again, and we crescendo up again. But now we
have a new thought from Flute and Oboe. They
have a little counter melody you'll want to bring
out. And that you want to shake the earth with
vibrato on the long notes in there. And it's
a little bit trickier counting because of ties.
Yes. Rest. Two and three, two and three. And
it builds. It goes up higher and higher. Two
and three. three one and then at the very end
the saxes and horns have that cool three and
four and one again so it all lands together one
two three four one two three with timpani underneath
one two three four one no nothing on beat one
timpani bump bump bump bump three four one so
it's just like a little like maybe the armies
are colliding together here right so storming
the castle a couple of things that stick out
to me here yeah Thank you, Katie. I'm doing motions.
Yeah, visuals. I wish you could. You're missing
out. So at 35 right here, one of the things that
sticks out to me that I know will be a problem
is beat four will be longer than beat one. Your
students will want to go tar. And they're all
marked the same way. So make sure that the note
links there are exactly the same. That would
be a good thing to do on concert F2. Absolutely.
or I would do like even just like changing yeah
tall tall tall tall tall tall yes that I mean
that would be totally fine whatever yeah making
sure that the note length is the same then right
before we get to 39 when we're at 37 now we're
not all on one and four together in unison summer
on one and three summer on two and four like
yeah the armies one two three four one Yeah,
I mean you're missing out on this visual. I'm
still doing some punches everyone. Alright, then
at 39 it's a percussion break. Timpani gets the
cool leading part along with snare drum and then
they've got that for four measures and then at
43 we come back in trumpets with the upper woodwinds
on the same little melody we've had the whole
time with the little alto horn counter melody,
lows playing just a little bass line. Now at
45, the Horns and Altos have a new moment where
they play like one, three, one, one and two and
three. So that's a cool new part to bring out.
Make it more important because the melody we've
heard, even though we may have new instruments
on the melody, it's the same melody and we've
heard it. Bring out this cool part that we've
never heard before. There's a couple little A
flats written in again, concert A flat, accidentals
here. but it's still the same melody. And then
we're gonna do the same little decrescendo. One,
two, three, four. Then we have the same as the
beginning, except now the trombone, euphonium,
bassoon, tenor sax part has what the flute and
oboe had before. So now they have that rest.
Two and three. Two and three. So we're building
it up again. Snare drum's behind them. We end
with that little like sax and horn. Three and
four and one. Everybody's got a chord. another
chord, timpani is going crazy with percussion
one two three four one And that's the end of
the piece. So it's the hardest rhythm is those
ties. Yes. And a dotted quarter note, eighth
note. Yes. One and three, four, one. That's it.
There's lots of style. Yes. So that, you know.
That's a good teaching piece for sure. Yeah.
And like I said, I love the dynamics. I love
that he's been real intentional about writing
him exactly what he wants. I feel like that makes
it... Easier for sure. Is that a picardy third
too? It is it but it is doing and it's not an
easy chord I mean the trumpets go up to a high
C sharp. I just noticed that so And it's a G
major chord at the end. Yeah, we've been in G
minor. The second trumpets are on A I mean, at
least they're the same fingering. So if they
miss the partial, then they're still playing
the right note, which is nice. But you might
want to rewrite that first trumpet part if that's
a little high for your kids. But you know them
better than we do. But the clarinet part stays
down low most of the time. The flutes are the
highest note as a B natural right there at the
very end. Great range for young band. Just a
very well written and fun piece. And cool little
programmatic piece. Shout out to them. young
composer. Yay! Way to go Connor. Yes, all right
well we hope you will consider programming Storming
the Castle and thanks for joining us on this
episode of Band BFFs!