Euphonium Choir at the 2023 US Army Band Tuba Euphonium Workshop

This weekend, I had the privilege of attending and presenting at the 2023 US Army Band Tuba Euphonium Workshop. It was an incredible 3 days of tuba, euphonium, friendship, music and learning. I re-capped it on my music instagram page, drewbonnermusic, if you want hear and see more about it. 

One of the great things about this event is the opportunity to hear some of the world's greatest euphonium players in one place. The US military might be the largest employer of euphonium players in the country. While a career in a military band never interested me, the players in these ensembles are remarkable and achieve a level of musicianship that I aspire to. 

Pictured above is the Inter-service Euphonium Choir conducted by Dr. Brian Bowman. The ensemble is made up of various military band euphonium players from across the armed forces. They played an assortment of arrangements of classic band and orchestra pieces, but they also played a few pieces written specifically for a homogenous euphonium ensemble. I want to highlight one of my favorites.

Fantasy on CHARGE (originally titled Fantasy for Euphonium Choir) is a 4 movement work written by composer Benjamin Roundtree in 2011. The piece is dedicated to the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation. It is a reflection on the composer's journey of having a daughter with special needs, from the joy of pregnancy to the sudden diagnosis at birth to the weeks spent in the hospital and finally the assimilation of their daughter, Emily, being brought home and playing with their other children. 

The video of this performance is available on this video starting at 5:19:51.

The first movement, Beginnings, celebrates the joyful news of pregnancy and the spreading of the exciting news. Beginning with an exciting fanfare-like section, the dexterity of the euphonium in highlighted in the quasi-glissando figures. The tempo quickens and a flurry of notes appear in scalar patterns across the ensemble. The cohesion of the euphonium choir is highlighted. If this were written for tuba and euphonium quartet, there would be a very noticeable texture change during the trade offs between tuba and euphonium. 

The second movement, Struggle, depicts the natal intensive care unit and the technology keeping the babies alive. Roundtree attempts to highlight that dichotomy with ostinatos to represent the many sounds that the machines made and whisper's of a child's hymn to represent the innocence and angel like quality of the babies.

The third movement, Resolution, begins with the opening theme of the piece now in major as the family welcomed baby Emily into their home for the first time. It then transitions into a proper arrangement of the hymn-tune Jesus Loves Me, highlighting the vocal quality of the euphonium choir. It flows directly into the fourth movement, which depicts the children playing with each other via euphonium 1 and 2. The voices trade gestures in a musical representation of a game of tag.

I really enjoyed this piece and thought it would make a great addition to this blog highlighting euphonium in ensemble situations.   

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This week in euphonium pop culture features an incredible show from 2021-22 called Station Eleven. The series is about artists living in a post-apocalyptic society. At the beginning of the second episode they have a euphonium leading their caravan down the road to the next town. (even though the subtitles say TUBA PLAYING😡) It's an INCREDIBLE show based on a 2014 book with the same name. Highly recommend checking it out.