I was able to be at ITEC 2014 in Bloomington, Indiana, for three days. That wasn't enough time because there was an unbelievable number of quality presentations, but it was all the time I had available. I did a rather poor job of getting to all those recitals I had highlighted in my schedule and did not see as many old friends as I had hoped (although I also had some great and welcome conversations with the friends I did encounter). On the other hand, I did make good progress on two self-assigned ...
Here is a very lovely song (almost a contemporary American hymn) from the movie by the same name. It is a new movie made by a tiny Christian production company, so it is doubtful that most of you would have seen the movie. The composer is Bruce Broughton (Academy Award winning composer of Silverado and many other soundtracks). This video is from a church service offertory, so you will hear some background noises. On piano is Sara Brunk. During the service we projected the words on our ...
I finally had a chance to play this while a recorder was running! I arranged it a while back because I thought it was a lovely piece. I also wanted to give folks an easy chance to play a Sousa piece that was not a march. Sousa wrote Nymphalin for violin and piano, and it has also been performed by band (the Marine Band, for one, but I don't know if it was Sousa's own arrangement or a Marine arranger did it). This arrangement is sold with two included versions. One is meant ...
Updated 02-22-2018 at 11:02 AM by davewerden
There has been so much confusion for soooooo long about the difference between baritone and euphonium that I wrote a monograph a few decades ago, which later become this web page: http://www.dwerden.com/eu-articles-bareuph.cfm I think it helped many to understand the technical differences. But there is nothing like seeing and hearing the different horns in action, so I recently recorded on video the same song, played in the same room, recorded on the same equipment, played ...
I recently had the privilege of reviewing a new CD of euphonium music. The artist is John Storey, who is principal and solo euphonium with the Coldstream Guards Band in the U.K. For U.S. readers who are not familiar with this band, it is roughly the equivalent of a U.S. Military Band. There are several wind bands in the Queen's regiments, including: The Grenadier GuardsThe Coldstream GuardsThe Scots GuardsThe Irish GuardsThe Welsh Guards In the U.S. our service ...
Updated 11-23-2021 at 06:54 PM by davewerden
I've always thought that "I Got Plenty o Nothin'" from "Porgy & Bess" makes a perfect euphonium solo, so now I have done a new YouTube video with that song. See if you agree with me. Like many euphonium players, I grew especially fond of this song from playing the band arrangement of Porgy & Bess, in which this song is introduced by a euphonium solo. But now I've decided to carry it to the next step by doing a complete arrangement of the song. (Of course that means I also get to play ...
Here is a brand-new video I made: my arrangement of Neapolitan Dance (from Swan Lake), by P.I. Tchaikovsky. Sheet music is available here: http://www.cimarronmusic.com/search....tle=neapolitan This recording features a 1935 Holton five-valve double-bell euphonium. The horn is a 4-valve instrument with a 5th valve that switches between the large and small bell. I used the four fingers on my right hand for the primary valves and reached around with the index finger of ...
I have always thought that "Old Man River" (from the Broadway show and movie "Show Boat") makes a fine euphonium solo. When we played a special arrangement with the Coast Guard Band, the arranger wisely thought to let the euphonium state the first instance of the main theme. And of course in the show it is sung by a rich, low male voice. While I was with the CG Band it was my good fortune to be part of the accompaniment for a guest vocalist, William Warfield. He had sung the song in ...