Chamber Music Noms

John Stevens is well known for his composing and arranging, particularly for brass.  Several of his compositions have come to be standard repertoire, especially for the tuba and euphonium community.  One of the many pieces that he has written is Benediction (2003) , which was commissioned by Sotto Voce; a professional tuba and euphonium quartet. Benediction is truly a beautiful piece.  If you didn't know, not all tuba and euphonium pieces are marches, polka, or "goofy" sounding!  Stevens features the first tuba and the first euphonium player in this very lyrical piece.  Each of these voices has a solo line and is accompanied by the euphonium and tuba two parts.  He shows off the smooth and lyrical playing that tubas and euphoniums can do.  Slow and lyrical music for tuba and euphonium quartet? Tasty 😋 If you don't know much about what's being written for the tuba/euphonium community, you should check out the music composed and arranged by Jo...

There are so many great pieces of music out there written for brass chamber ensembles.  There is also a good amount of music that is not written for brass but instead are originally written for piano and are arranged for brass.  Recently, our class had our first student listening presentation.  The list of music presented included Shostakovich's Four Preludes Op. 34 numbers 6 and 14.  These were great to listen to!  Many may argue that a lot of transcriptions don't fit well for the brass ensemble.  Some literature, like Shostakovich's Four Preludes Op. 34 are great for the brass ensemble.   The piano is a beautiful instrument all on its own, but I believe that it does have certain limitations on how far it can reach expression.   Don’t get me wrong though, I truly do love music written for piano and enjoy listening to it.   These preludes that were arranged for brass and percussion bring out so many different colors tha...