Smash the Windows: Concert Band Conductor Score & Parts
By Robert Xavier Rodríguez
Grade: 4
Item: 35-PK00425716
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Description
"Smash the Windows" is a vigorous piece full of energy and motion. The work is based on a traditional Irish jig with the same name. Robert Xavier Rodriguez calls the piece a "toccata moto perpetuo," the music gradually builds from its quiet beginning to a brilliant flourish that, with sound effects, truly befits the title.
Learn more on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ComposersForum/search?query=Robert+Xavier+Rodriguez
BandQuest, an exciting series of new music and accompanying curricula for band, is a program published by the American Composers Forum. The series was started as a response to feedback from music educators that there is a pressing need for new, fresh band music. The heart of this program is new works written by a diverse group of leading American composers who have created challenging pieces that are a true departure from standard middle school repertoire. Every BandQuest project includes a residency component in which the composer works collaboratively with a middle school as they create their new piece. Many BandQuest pieces are accompanied by an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to assist students as they learn the music and to integrate each piece with non-music studies. Visit www.bandquest.org to learn more about this innovative series, and email bandquest@composersforum.org to request a free downloadable audio catalog.
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Additional Details
Publisher:
Hal Leonard
SKU:
35-PK00425716
More about this title
About the Composer: Robert Xavier Rodríguez
Robert Xavier Rodríguez is an American composer whose catalog spans concert music, opera, and educational works for young musicians. His approach to composing for student ensembles prioritizes accessibility without sacrificing musical substance, creating pieces that challenge players while remaining engaging to learn and perform.
Rodríguez has been deeply involved with the BandQuest initiative through the American Composers Forum, collaborating directly with student musicians during the creative process. This hands-on engagement with young performers shapes his understanding of what makes music both pedagogically sound and genuinely exciting for developing musicians.
Why we love this
The toccata moto perpetuo structure gives your band something genuinely different from typical contest fare at this level. Rather than relying on conventional formal patterns, the piece uses perpetual motion and gradual accumulation to build momentum, teaching students how musical energy functions across an entire work. The integration of sound effects and the reference to the traditional Irish jig ground the piece in something students can research and discuss beyond the notes on the page.
What to expect
Quiet anticipation gives way to rhythmic drive and relentless forward momentum. The energy builds with cumulative layers of sound until the final brilliant flourish, creating a piece that feels like it's accelerating toward something inevitable. It's vigorous and exhilarating, rooted in a folk tradition yet unmistakably modern in its compositional technique.
Who it's for
Grade 4 concert bands ready to tackle a contemporary work with real compositional substance. This piece engages students who need energy and forward motion but also rewards careful listening to harmonic and textural development.
How to get the most out of it
- Establish a steady, unwavering pulse from the opening quiet section. The piece relies on this foundation to make the gradual dynamic and textural buildup audible and coherent.
- Coordinate the sound effects cues with your principal percussion and front row. These moments are not incidental but rather structural markers that define the work's trajectory.
- Layer the dynamics deliberately rather than jumping to full volume. Rodriguez's architecture depends on incremental changes, so resist the urge to peak too early.
- Balance the traditional Irish jig melodic material across sections so it remains identifiable even as harmonies and countermelodies accumulate.
How to use it
This works especially well as a mid-concert piece that shifts the energy and introduces your audience to new American concert music. It pairs naturally with a concert exploring folk traditions and their transformations in contemporary music, or as a standalone showcase of what your band can do with challenging modern repertoire.
Skills your students will build
- Sustaining rhythmic consistency in moto perpetuo textures
- Reading multiple simultaneous rhythmic layers
- Responding to gradual dynamic and textural changes
- Balancing melody and accompaniment across shifting instrumental combinations
- Coordinating ensemble sound effects with pitched material