Welcome

This Blog is primarily a part of a Brass Ensemble Literature course I'm taking here at the University of Iowa. But I'm hoping to use this as a catalyst for my own professional blog on my website down the line. 

Euphoniums are easily the least represented member of the brass family. On this Blog I'll be looking into brass ensembles that feature the euphonium in different ways. Welcome!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Large Tuba and Euphonium Ensembles

Image
  Symphonia Symphonia was marketed as the first “professional” tuba-euphonium ensemble. The 20 member ensemble was first organized in 1995 by R. Winston Morris and Scott Watson. At the time, Morris was the professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Tennessee Tech where he was one of the pioneers of large tuba and euphonium ensembles. Watson was the professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Kansas and was aiming to create an ensemble that would be able to play intricate music for large tuba-euphonium ensembles.   Members included some of the finest American tuba and euphonium artists including: Brian Bowman, Dan Perantoni, David Werden, Denis Winter, Earle Louder, Fritz Kaenzig, Gail Robertson, Henk Feldman, Jeffery Funderburk, Jerry Young, John Stevens, John Mueller, Larry Campbell, Mark Nelson, Marty Erickson, Neal Corwell, Paul Droste, Rex Martin, Sam Pilafian, Thomas Ashworth, and Timothy Northcut. The group release 3 albums and performed at many conferences in the late 90’s and early 2000s. The g
Read more

Pure Euphonium

Image
  Today is euphonium quartet day! I’m going to be highlighting 3 quartets that featuring the same instrument, our beloved euphonium. These quartets sometimes stray away from using 4 euphoniums but the pieces we’re going to examine today all feature that sweet sweet dark chocolate sound. It’s pure euphonium! I also want to clarify the difference between euphonium choir and quartet. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Ben Roundtree’s piece CHARGE for euphonium choir. That was a piece written specifically for multiple people on the same part. Today the music we’ll listen to is written and arranged with quartets in mind. The textures are thinner and the sonorities are, generally, not as intense at the choir. So with that.. onward. Eufonix Eufonix is essential euphonium quartet listening because they were first. Made up of Aaron Tindall, Danny Helseth, Patrick Stuckemeyer, and the late Kelly Thomas the group was formed in 2008. Unfortunately, the quartet has been dormant since the sudden passing
Read more

Brass Ensemble Extravaganza 2023

Image
These are 11 videos of performances that I really enjoy and I believe are important to document and adopt into the canon of brass ensemble literature. Some of them are from established composers and ensembles and others are at the cutting edge of what new music can be.  The entire playlist is about 70 minutes long if you listen straight through. Feel free to skip around if something seems more interesting to you. The playlist is available here if you just want to listen and not read my carefully thought out commentary 1. Fugue from Trio Sonata in C Major (unknown year) - Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756) attributed to J.S. Bach (BWV 1037) Empire Brass Jeffery Curnow, trumpet Rolf Smedvig, trumpet Eric Ruske, horn Scott Hartman, trombone Samual Pilafian, tuba Release Date: 1990 This piece is falsely attributed to Bach! I went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find the original sonata only to find that in 1954 an original manuscript by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (Yes - that Gold
Read more