Of Times Medieval: Concert Band Conductor Score & Parts

Spears crafts a genuinely theatrical narrative without sacrificing musical substance. The journey from sacred chant through street celebration to martial clash gives your band a compelling dramatic arc to inhabit, and the underlying liturgical foundation keeps the piece rooted in something timeless. This is program music that respects both your musicians and your audience.

You move through chambers of sound and time. The piece opens in contemplative stillness, rooted in the Veni Creator Spiritus chant, then erupts into bustling medieval pageantry and finally collides with the visceral clash of combat. Throughout, Spears maintains musical coherence even as the emotional terrain shifts dramatically.

Concert bands seeking repertoire with narrative scope and genuine musical ambition. This work suits programs wanting to program something beyond abstract formal structures, yet written by a composer with serious compositional credentials and decades of band writing experience.

• Shape the opening chant section with restraint and clarity; let the ancient modal character breathe before the orchestration builds around it.
• Balance the street celebration passage so rhythmic energy drives forward without drowning out the melodic material that anchors each phrase.
• In the battle section, coordinate the percussion effects and brass punctuation with your conducting to keep the chaos musical rather than merely loud.
• Use the full 284 pages of score to mark cues and sectional entrances; this programmatic arc requires careful attention to transitions between contrasting sections.

Program this as a centerpiece for a concert focused on storytelling or cultural narrative, or pair it with other programmatic works to create a thematic arc across your concert. Its length and dramatic range make it strong enough to stand alone as the featured work of an entire half, rather than grouped with lighter fare.

• Reading and executing rapid meter and key changes within a narrative context
• Balancing inner voices and accompaniment textures during textural shifts
• Coordinating complex rhythmic material across multiple sections simultaneously
• Responding to conducted nuance in sectional transitions and dramatic pacing
• Sustaining ensemble focus through extended programmatic forms