Euphonium repertoire
Encyclopedia
Part (music)
1) A part is a strand or melody of music played by an individual instrument or voice within a larger work. Parts may be referred to as an outer part or an inner part . Part-writing is the composition of parts in consideration of harmony and counterpoint...
in band
Concert band
A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...
or, less commonly, orchestral
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
music written for the euphonium
Euphonium
The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...
. Since its invention in 1843, the euphonium has always had an important role in ensembles, but solo literature was slow to appear, consisting of only a handful of lighter solos until the 1960s. Since then, however, the breadth and depth of the solo euphonium repertoire has increased dramatically.
Historically
Upon its invention by Ferdinand Sommer of WeimarWeimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, it was clear that the euphonium, compared to its predecessors the serpent
Serpent (instrument)
A serpent is a bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind. It is usually a long cone bent into a snakelike shape, hence the name. The serpent is closely related to the cornett,...
and ophicleide
Ophicleide
The ophicleide is a family of conical bore, brass keyed-bugles. It has a similar shape to the sudrophone.- History :The ophicleide was invented in 1817 and patented in 1821 by French instrument maker Jean Hilaire Asté as an extension to the keyed bugle or Royal Kent bugle family...
, had a wide range and a consistently rich, pleasing sound throughout that range. It was flexible both in tone quality and intonation and could blend well with a variety of ensembles, earning it immediate popularity with composers and conductors as the principal tenor-voiced solo instrument in brass band
Brass band (British style)
A British-style brass band is a musical ensemble comprising a standardised range of brass and percussion instruments. The modern form of the brass band in the United Kingdom dates back to the 19th century, with a vibrant tradition of competition based around local industry and communities...
settings, especially in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. When British composers who had written for brass bands began to turn their attention to the concert band
Concert band
A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...
in the early twentieth century, they used the euphonium in a very similar role. Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
, for example, wrote very important solos for the euphonium in his first (1909) and second
Second Suite in F for Military Band
The Second Suite in F for Military Band is Gustav Holst's second and last suite for concert band. Although performed less frequently than the First Suite in E-flat, it is still a staple of the band literature...
(1911) suites for band, and similar lyrical solos appear in many pieces from the 1920s and '30s by Percy Grainger
Percy Grainger
George Percy Aldridge Grainger , known as Percy Grainger, was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. He also made many...
and Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
.
When American composers also started writing for the concert band as its own artistic medium in the 1930s and '40s, they continued the British tradition of using the euphonium as one of the principal solo voices. Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Theme and Variations and Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
's Commando March, both from 1943, have extremely prominent, lyrical solos for euphonium; Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
's Suite of Old American Dances (1949) has brief solos and very active technical writing, and "When Jesus Wept," the second movement of William Schuman
William Schuman
William Howard Schuman was an American composer and music administrator.-Life:Born in Manhattan in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft, although his family preferred to call him Bill...
's New England Triptych
New England Triptych
New England Triptych is a symphonic composition by William Schuman. The work lasts about 16 minutes, and is written for an orchestra of 3 flutes , 2 oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion , and...
(1956) is largely a euphonium solo and lyrical duet for euphonium and cornet (arranged by the composer from the orchestral original which features bassoon and oboe). All of these pieces are still in the core repertoire of the concert band today, and these solos comprise the core body of euphonium excerpts.
Today
This is not to say that composers, then and now, valued the euphonium only for its lyrical capabilities. Indeed, examination of a large body of concert band literature reveals that the euphonium functions as a jack of all tradesJack of all trades, master of none
"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one....
, at times doubling the tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
in octaves, at times adding warmth to the trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
section, at times adding depth to a horn line, and at times adding strength to rapid woodwind lines. In general, idiomatic euphonium parts tend to be very active, resting little and covering a wide range.
In many ways, the role of the euphonium in concert band writing has not changed very much in the last several decades; as a solo instrument, it is still as popular with composers as ever, and it still continues in its versatile, jack-of-all-trades role. The influence of the brass band tradition in euphonium writing in is evident in the many euphonium solos in both brass band and concert band pieces by British composers Philip Sparke
Philip Sparke
Philip Sparke is a British composer and musician. He is noted for his concert band and brass band music.- Music for Winds :* 1973/1976 Gaudium* 1975 The Prizewinners for Brass-Band* 1978/1995 Fantasy for Euphonium...
and Gareth Wood; among contemporary American band composers, Robert W. Smith
Robert W. Smith
Robert W. Smith is an American composer, arranger, and teacher.-Biography:Smith was born in the small town of Daleville, Alabama on October 24 1958. He attended high school in Dadeville, after which he left for Troy State University, where he played lead trumpet in the Sound of the South Marching...
, David Maslanka
David Maslanka
David Maslanka is a U.S. composer who writes for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music and symphony orchestra....
, David Gillingham
David Gillingham
David R. Gillingham is a contemporary composer. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh for his undergraduate degree in Music Education and Michigan State University for his PhD in Music Composition/Theory. He currently serves as professor of music theory and composition at Central...
and James Curnow
James Curnow
James Curnow is a well known music composer for concert bands, brass bands, vocal and instrumental solos & ensembles. He has composed many pieces for bands from beginning to advanced levels. Curnow has also written arrangements of music pieces such as Trumpet Voluntary...
especially seem to enjoy using the euphonium as a solo instrument. The Gareth Wood concerto can be heard at http://www.archive.org/details/EuphoniumConcerto2006GarethWoodWorldPremierecompleteDr.Stephen
In orchestras
Although the deficiencies of the ophicleide gave rise to both the euphonium and the tubaTuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
in the mid-nineteenth century, the tuba has long since been accepted as an orchestral
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
instrument, while the euphonium never has been. Though the euphonium was embraced from its earliest days by composers and arrangers in band settings, orchestral composers have generally not taken advantage of its capabilities. Nevertheless, there are several orchestral works, a few of which are in the standard repertoire, in which composers have called for a tenor tuba, a German Tenorhorn¹, a Wagner tuba
Wagner tuba
The Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the French horn and the tuba. Also referred to as the "Bayreuth Tuba", it was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it, most...
, or a French tuba in C.
_10b.jpg)
Chief among these examples are the tone poems Don Quixote
Don Quixote (Strauss)
Don Quixote, Op. 35, is a composition by Richard Strauss for cello, viola and large orchestra. Subtitled Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters , the work is based on the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. Strauss composed this work in Munich in 1897...
(1897) and Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben
Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898, and heralds the composer's more mature period in this genre...
(1898) by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, which were originally scored for Wagner tuba, but after their performance on Wagner tuba proved unsatisfactory, were rescored for euphonium with Strauss's approval. In the first movement of his Seventh Symphony
Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)
Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony was written in 1904-05, with repeated revisions to the scoring. It is sometimes referred to by the title Song of the Night , though this title was not Mahler's own and he disapproved of it. Although the symphony is often described as being in the key of 'E minor,'...
(1906), Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
wrote an extremely prominent solo for Tenorhorn¹. Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
used a tenor tuba in three movements (Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus) of his suite The Planets (1914-16), and finally, the famous Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
orchestration (1922) of Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Pictures at an Exhibition
Pictures at an Exhibition
Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite in ten movements composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874.The suite is Mussorgsky's most famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists...
uses a French C tuba, having six valves and pitched a whole-tone higher than the modern euphonium, as a soloist in the "Bydlo" movement. Today, all of these parts are customarily played on euphonium, and in each of these cases, the instrument called for is used in a highly soloistic role, and is rarely written to function as part of the brass section.
In addition, a number of British composers in the pre-World War II era
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, including Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
and Arnold Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
, wrote orchestral pieces with two tuba parts, understanding that the first part would be played on euphonium. Finally, there are several orchestral pieces – though none in the standard repertoire – in which the composer specifically calls for a euphonium. Among them are Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's score to the ballet The Age of Gold, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Divertimento for Orchestra, and several symphonies by the British composer Havergal Brian
Havergal Brian
Havergal Brian , was a British classical composer.Brian acquired a legendary status at the time of his rediscovery in the 1950s and 1960s for the many symphonies he had managed to write. By the end of his life he had completed 32, an unusually large number for any composer since Haydn or Mozart...
, the American Roy Harris
Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris , was an American composer. He wrote much music on American subjects, becoming best known for his Symphony No...
, and the still-living Finnish composer Kalevi Aho
Kalevi Aho
Kalevi Aho is a Finnish composer.- Career :Born in Forssa, he studied composition at the Sibelius Academy under Einojuhani Rautavaara, receiving a diploma in 1971. He continued his studies for a year in Berlin with Boris Blacher...
.
¹This is not same as the English "tenor horn," but rather closer to the baritone horn
Baritone horn
The baritone horn is a member of the brass instrument family. The baritone horn has a predominantly cylindrical bore as do the trumpet and trombone. A baritone horn uses a large mouthpiece much like those of a trombone or euphonium, although it is a bit smaller. Some baritone mouthpieces will sink...
.
Solo repertoire
In contrast to the long-standing practice of extensive euphonium use in wind bands and orchestras, until approximately forty years ago there was literally no body of solo literature written specifically for the euphonium, and euphoniumists were forced to borrowTranscription (music)
In music, transcription can mean notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated, as, for example, an improvised jazz solo. Further examples include ethnomusicological notation of oral traditions of folk music, such as Béla Bartók's and Ralph Vaughan Williams' collections of the national...
the literature of other instruments. Fortunately, given the instrument's multifaceted capabilities discussed above, solos for many different instruments are easily adaptable to performance on the euphonium.
Transcriptions
The most common sources of transcriptions for euphonium are the cornetCornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
, vocal
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
and trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
repertoires. In each case, one can see the common threads of ease of reading and performance: cello and bassoon both customarily read in bass clef, making them easily adaptable; vocal solos are naturally suited to the singing quality of the euphonium; and in playing cornet solos the euphoniumist may use the same fingerings that a cornettist would.
Cornet
Probably the earliest solos played on euphonium were cornet transcriptions, especially variations on popular airs, such as those found at the back of Jean-Baptiste ArbanJean-Baptiste Arban
Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban was a cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet...
's Complete Method for Cornet
Arban method
The Arban Method is a complete pedagogical method for students of trumpet, cornet, and other brass instruments. The original edition was published by Jean-Baptiste Arban in 1864 and it has never been out of print since. It contains hundreds of exercises, ranging enormously in difficulty...
. A little later, in the early twentieth century, the American cornettist Herbert L. Clarke
Herbert L. Clarke
Herbert Lincoln Clarke was a well-known American cornet player, feature soloist, bandmaster, and composer....
wrote a body of virtuosic solos, including Carnival of Venice, Bride of the Waves, and From the Shores of the Mighty Pacific, that were and still are often performed on euphonium. In such cases, no adaptation or arrangement is necessary; a euphoniumist reads the original notation in B-flat treble clef, transposing down a major ninth, and performs the piece exactly as written, merely sounding an octave below the cornet.
Vocal
The large body of operatic arias, especially those for tenor or baritone, also provides an ideal source of literature for euphoniumists. Puccini'sGiacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
Vissi d'Arte and Nessun Dorma
Nessun dorma
Nessun dorma is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto , who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot...
are often performed on euphonium, and Germanic art songs
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
, such as Schumann's
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' , is the best-known song cycle of Robert Schumann . The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich Heine, composed 1822–1823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following the song-cycles of Franz Schubert , those of...
or Brahms's
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
Vier Ernste Gesänge, are also popular transcriptions, as is Rachmaninoff’s
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
Vocalise Op. 34 no. 14
Vocalise (Rachmaninoff)
Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 is a song by Sergei Rachmaninoff, published in 1912 as the last of his Fourteen Songs, Op. 34. Written for voice with piano accompaniment, it contains no words, but is sung using any one vowel...
. In performing vocal transcriptions, some adaptation may be necessary, either because the tessitura
Tessitura
In music, the term tessitura generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable range for a given singer or, less frequently, musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding texture or timbre...
is uncomfortably high or because the original key may present fingering or intonation problems.
Despite the prevalence of vocal transcriptions for euphonium, there remains much vocal work that is rarely, if ever, performed on euphonium, including Spanish
Zarzuela
Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
, French
French Opera
French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen...
, and German opera arias
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
. The possibility of performing choral music in a euphonium ensemble is also intriguing, but not often seen.
Cello and bassoon
Another source of transcribed literature lies in the celloCello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
repertoire. Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's six cello suites
Cello Suites (Bach)
The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of the most performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello...
are a cornerstone of the euphonium’s advanced repertoire and have been for some time; Leonard Falcone
Leonard Falcone
Leonard Falcone was best known as Professor of Baritone and Euphonium at Michigan State University where he also served from 1927 to 1967 as Director of Bands. The school's Spartan Marching Band transitioned from an ROTC auxiliary to a nationally known Big-10 conference marching band during his...
recorded two of the bourrees
Bourrée
The bourrée is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century. It is danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte. The main difference between the two is the anacrusis, or upbeat; a bourrée starts on the last beat of a bar, creating a...
several decades ago in the first volume of his "Leonard Falcone and his Baritone" series. Two other cello pieces that are commonly played on euphonium are Benedetto Marcello
Benedetto Marcello
Benedetto Marcello was a Venetian composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher.-Life:...
's Sonata in F Major, from the Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
era, and Julius Klengel
Julius Klengel
Julius Klengel was a German cellist who is most famous for his etudes and solo pieces written for the instrument. He was the brother of Paul Klengel....
's Concertino in C Major from the Romantic
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
era. Of course, some adaptation is necessary when performing cello pieces, especially in the case of multiple stops
Double stop
A double stop, in music terminology, is the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument or stringed instrument...
and arpeggiated chords, as well as when considering the ease of technique in certain keys for cello as opposed to euphonium. A few bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
pieces are regularly performed on euphonium as well, including Mozart's
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
Concerto in B-flat Major K. 191
Bassoon Concerto (Mozart)
The Bassoon Concerto in B flat major, K. 191/186e, written in 1774 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is the most standard piece in the entire bassoon repertory...
and Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually...
's Sonata in F Minor. Some pieces work the other way round, including Joseph Horowitz's Euphonium Concerto, which is often played on bassoon.
Other
Recently, there have been attempts at playing more exotic pieces that are much more difficult to adapt for euphonium, as seen in Japanese euphoniumist Shoichiro Hokazono’s recording of Astor Piazzola's Six Tango Etudes, originally written for fluteFlute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, and which, even transposed down a major ninth, pose severe range and technical difficulties for euphonium.
French Conservatoire
One area of literature in which transcriptions and original literature coincide is what could be called the "French Conservatoire" style of writing,¹ dating roughly from the first half of the twentieth century and best exemplified by the composer Joseph Eduard Barat (1882-1963). Some of the pieces in this school were written specifically for trombone, such as Barat's Andante and Allegro (1935) and Alexandre GuilmantAlexandre Guilmant
Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer.- Short biography :Guilmant was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer...
's Morceau Symphonique (c. 1937), some for trombone or euphonium, such as Paul Veronge de la Nux's Concert Piece (1900), some for euphonium or tuba, such as Barat's Introduction and Dance, and at least one specifically for euphonium, Barat's Morceau de Concours (1957).
¹So called because many of the pieces in this style were either written for professors at the French Conservatoire National de Musique, or were written as contest or instructional pieces to be used for students at the Conservatoire.
Early 20th century virtuoso
Saxhorn
The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a conical bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece. The sound has a characteristic mellow quality, and blends well with other brass.-The saxhorn family:...
cousins is the Concerto per Flicorno Basso (1872) by Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
. Quite demanding technically, the piece mixes the styles of the Italian opera overture and of the quintessential nineteenth-century theme and variations. Following this, for several decades the only literature written specifically for euphonium was in the same virtuosic technical style as the cornet solos described above. Falling under this category would be Joseph Deluca's Beautiful Colorado (1924), Simone Mantia
Simone Mantia
Simone Mantia was an American baritone horn/euphonium virtuoso and also trombone artist at the turn of the twentieth century. He was both a performer and administrator with many American band and orchestral ensembles...
's Fantasia Originale (1909), and Eduardo Boccalari's Fantasia di Concerto (1906). In the 1930's, many Euphonium solos were released in various band journals, in classic "theme and variations" setting were such classics as, The Song of the Brother (Leizden), Song of Faith (Ball), Ransomed (Marshall), and We'll All Shout Hallelujah (Audoire), as well as many others.
The new style
While British composers may have led the way in writing for euphonium in an ensemble setting, it was Americans who wrote the first of the "new school" of serious, artistic solo works written specifically for euphonium. The first two examples are Warner Hutchison's Sonatina (1966) and Donald White's Lyric Suite (1970), after which British composers followed suit with Joseph Horovitz's Concerto (1972, one of the first euphonium concertos) and Gordon Jacob's Fantasia (1973). Two early very difficult works are Samuel Adler’s Four Dialogues (for euphonium and marimbaMarimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, 1974) and Jan Bach’s Concert Variations (1978), both premiered by Dr. Brian Bowman. Two of the first unaccompanied solos for euphonium are the Mazurka (1966) by Nicholas Falcone, brother of early euphonium virtuoso Leonard Falcone
Leonard Falcone
Leonard Falcone was best known as Professor of Baritone and Euphonium at Michigan State University where he also served from 1927 to 1967 as Director of Bands. The school's Spartan Marching Band transitioned from an ROTC auxiliary to a nationally known Big-10 conference marching band during his...
, and the Sonata (1978) by Fred Clinard, Jr. All of these works remain basic repertoire for the euphonium.
Today
Since then, there has been a virtual explosion of solo repertoire for the euphonium; in a mere four decades, the solo literature has expanded from virtually zero to thousands of pieces as more and more composers have become aware of the instrument's soloistic capabilities.The euphonium literature from the past three decades has constantly "pushed the envelope" in terms of tessitura, endurance, technical demands, and extended techniques. To give only a few examples, James Curnow's Symphonic Variants (1984), now one of the classics of the literature, set new standards of range for the time, encompassing both D1 and F5
Scientific pitch notation
Scientific pitch notation is one of several methods that name the notes of the standard Western chromatic scale by combining a letter-name, accidentals, and a number identifying the pitch's octave...
. Roland Szentpali's Pearls (2000), written in a jazz/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
idiom, also uses a very high tessitura and contains extreme technical demands, while John Stevens' unaccompanied piece Soliloquies (2001) includes many wide leaps in range, both slurred and articulated.
Another segment of the avant-garde solo literature consists of those works for euphonium and recorded accompaniment, going all the way back to 1970, with John Boda
John Boda
John Boda was a professor of music theory, composition and piano at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida between 1947 and 2001. His papers and collection are at the Warren D. Allen Music Library....
's Sonatina for Baritone Horn and Tape. Since then, Neal Corwell, a euphonium performer as well as composer, has contributed many additional solos with synthesized
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, recorded accompaniment, beginning with Odyssey (1990). On the other hand, British composer Philip Sparke
Philip Sparke
Philip Sparke is a British composer and musician. He is noted for his concert band and brass band music.- Music for Winds :* 1973/1976 Gaudium* 1975 The Prizewinners for Brass-Band* 1978/1995 Fantasy for Euphonium...
has written numerous euphonium solos (e.g. Pantomime, Song for Ina, Harlequin) of a much lighter nature, though no less technically demanding.
The use of euphonium as a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment still remains limited. The earliest known composition of this type is Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
' Concerto No. 3 ("Diran, the Religious Singer") from 1948. Subsequent pieces include Rule Beasley's Concerto (1967), Hovhaness' Symphony No. 29 (1976), and the David Gaines
David Gaines (composer)
David Gaines is an American composer of contemporary classical music.He grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and was a euphonium and bass trombone player in both bands and orchestras , a backgroundthat enabled him in later years, as a composer, to champion solo opportunities for low brass...
Concerto (1987). Since then, an increasing number of professionally written concerti for euphonium and orchestra have appeared, including those by Jan Bach
Jan Bach
Jan Bach is an American composer. He taught at the University of Tampa from 1965 to 1966 and at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois from 1966 to 2002. His primary performing instrument is the horn, and he is especially renowned for his horn pieces and especially well-known among...
(1990), Jukka Linkola
Jukka Linkola
Jukka Linkola is a Finnish jazz pianist and classical composer. He has composed music for the Finnish National Opera and led several jazz Big Bands In addition he has won two Jussi awards for music.- External links :...
(1996), Vladimir Cosma
Vladimir Cosma
Vladimir Cosma was born April 13, 1940 in Bucharest, Romania, into a family of musicians.His father, Teodor Cosma, was a pianist and conductor, his mother a writer-composer, his uncle, Edgar Cosma, composer and conductor, and one of his grandmothers, pianist, a student of the renowned Ferrucio...
(1997), Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen
Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen
Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen is a contemporary Norwegian composer.- Life :Aagaard-Nilsen grew up in Kabelvåg on Lofoten in northern Norway. From 1986 to 1990 he studied at the Bergen Conservatory of Music and at the University of Bergen...
(2000), Alun Hoddinott
Alun Hoddinott
Alun Hoddinott CBE , was a Welsh composer of classical music, one of the first to receive international recognition.-Life and works:...
(2002), Juraj Filas (2003), Uljas Pulkkis (2004), Kevin Hill (2004), John Stevens (2004), Rolf Rudin (2007), Lee Bracegirdle (2007), Tim Jansa (2009), and Karl Jenkins
Karl Jenkins
-Other works:*Adiemus: Live — live versions of Adiemus music*Palladio *Eloise *Imagined Oceans *The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace...
(2009).
Non-traditional settings
Thanks to a handful of enterprising individuals, in recent years the euphonium has begun to make inroads in jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and other non-concert performance settings. One of these individuals was Rich Matteson
Rich Matteson
Rich A. Matteson, was an American jazz artist, collegiate music educator, international jazz clinician, big band leader, and jazz composer/arranger...
(1929-1993), who viewed himself primarily as a jazz musician who simply happened to play the euphonium. Together with two other euphoniums and three tubas and a rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
, he formed the Tubajazz Consort, which appeared in jazz clubs and at conferences worldwide to great acclaim. Today, jazz euphoniumists such as Marc Dickman carry on Matteson’s legacy, and jazz euphonium competitions are held around the world.
In addition, euphoniumists like Lance LaDuke and Matthew Murchison have recently explored and recorded the euphonium in non-traditional performance situations. LaDuke, in his CD Take a Walk, uses euphonium in a variety of quasi-country, comedic song settings as well as in his recording of Sam Pilafian's Relentless Grooves: Armenia, which uses a pre-recorded accompaniment and treats the solo euphonium almost as an Armenian
Music of Armenia
Armenia is situated close to the Caucasus Mountains, and its music is a mix of indigenous folk music, perhaps best-represented by Djivan Gasparyan's well-known duduk music, as well as light pop, and extensive Christian music, due to Armenia's status as the oldest Christian nation in the...
folk instrument
Folk instrument
A folk instrument is an instrument that developed among common people and usually doesn't have a known inventor. It can be made from wood, metal or other material. It is a part of folk music...
. Murchison has released a recording of traditional euphonium repertoire but has also formed, along with his wife and others, the world music group Mainspring, in which, Murchison’s website says, "A typical concert may consist of traditional jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
s and reel
Reel (dance)
The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....
s from Scotland
Music of Scotland
Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which has remained vibrant throughout the 20th century, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music...
and Ireland
Music of Ireland
Irish Music is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th, and into the 21st century, despite globalizing cultural forces...
, beautiful Mexican
Music of Mexico
The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages...
serenade
Serenade
In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
s, samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
s, a suite of Spanish folk music
Music of Spain
The Music of Spain has a long history and has played an important part in the development of western music. It has had a particularly strong influence upon Latin American music. The music of Spain is often associated abroad with traditions like flamenco and the classical guitar but Spanish music...
, an Armenian lament, entertaining original music, and always plenty of light-hearted fun!"