Euph Got to be Kidding Me

Anthony Plog is a composer and legendary trumpet pedagogue. His compositions for brass instruments number in the dozens including a 7-volume method book for trumpet. He has a trademark style of syncopated rhythms and writing in various modes and non-traditional scales. Fantasy Movements is a quintessential Plog work and features many of his stylistic trademarks.   It was written in 2009 and commissioned by The Sotto Voce Quartet and Cimarron Music Press. Sotto Voce is one of the most notable tuba/euphonium quartets in the world. Headed by their lead euphonium, Demondrae Thurman, the ensemble has recorded multiple award winning CDs and performed at some of the most prestigious concert halls and festivals in the world. However, there are allegations of sexual misconduct against contrabass tuba player Mike Forbes. There are public details from the case which can be found at this link . I will not dwell on this, as this is a post about the piece, not the ensemble. The recording of Fant...

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 ...