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davewerden

Philip Sparke Fantasy for Euphonium - Played by the Man for Whom It Was Written!

Rating: 6 votes, 5.00 average.
The Fantasy for Euphonium and Brass Band was written in 1979, I believe, and has been played by countless euphoniumists since then. It has also appeared on various contest lists in its piano version.

Sparke has a knack for writing music that is attractive the audience and a good challenge for the player(s). This particular piece was written for Ian Craddock, soloist with the Yorkshire Imperial Metals Band. I have just added Ian's performance of the Fantasy to my Euphonium Videos page. It is a good chance to hear the piece played when it was still new, and played by someone whom I assume consulted with the composer about the performance.

I have a warm association with this piece. Back before I was very familiar with the brass band world in England I purchased this LP (at that time I would purchase just about any LP that had a euphonium solo listed on its jacket). I was absolutely delighted when I heard it, and immediately set about ordering it to perform with the Coast Guard Band. It was not published for wind band, so my performances of this piece used the USCG Band brass and percussion sections. Despite of our lack of brass-band style instruments, the piece worked nicely with this ensemble.

The video of Craddock and the Yorkshire Band is actually a copy of the LP recording with still slides for a little visual interest:

Ian Craddock Playing Philip Sparke's Fantasy for Euphonium and Brass Band

Updated 02-22-2018 at 11:03 AM by davewerden

Categories
Euphonium-Tuba Blog , Videos

Comments

  1. DaveBj's Avatar
    Unfortunately, this video has been removed
  2. davewerden's Avatar
    UPDATE: the video is back! The link above should work now.