The Cask of Amontillado is a tone poem for Concert Band based on the short story by Edgar Allen Poe. The narrator, Montresor, opens the story by stating “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” Montressor lures Fortunato, who is dressed as a jester including a cone hat with bells attached, to his home telling him that he has a wine, an Amontillado, but isn’t sure it’s the real thing. As dusk falls, they leave the carnival and approach the Montressor villa, a horn sounds. They enter the wine cellars and the nitre in the walls of the tunnels makes Fortunato’s breathing hard and he goes into a coughing fit. As they walk through the tunnels on the way to where the Amontillo is kept they talk of the Masons and Montressor says “Yes, I am of the masons” and pulls out a trowel from his cloak. Finally they reach the end of the tunnel and there is nothing but some shackles hung from a dead end. Montressor uses Fortunato’s drunkenness to his advantage and quickly chains him up. Montressor begins to build a wall around Fortunato. As the wall gets higher, Fortunato sobers up and realizes he’s in trouble. He tries to joke and says “We will all have a good laugh about this later!”, but as Montressor keeps building the wall he cries out “For the love of God, Montressor!”, and coldly Montressor replies, “Yes, for the love of God.”. As the last few bricks are put in place Fortunato’s coughing fits grow so severe he passes out. Montressor calls “Fortunato…..Fortunato…..”, and when there is no answer he thrusts his torch in the small hole remaining and just sees the hat of the jester fall off the now dead Fortunato’s head. The story closes saying “I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I reerected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. ‘In pace requiescat!’”

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