Euphonium Concerto (“Swimming the Mountain”)
This composition is surely a first for most orchestras and audiences. It features one of the most neglected of instruments that is yet one of the most beautiful and technically proficient. It does make an appearance in a few orchestral scores, most notably in The Planets by Gustav Holst and Don Juan by Richard Strauss—as well as the “Bydlo” movement of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. Wearing that hat it generally is called a “tenor tuba,” for that is exactly what it is—the smallest member of the tuba family, a family with many different-sized members. Over the years since its invention around 1830 or so, it has functioned as an essential member of the band, and every band that you have ever seen or heard has one or more in it. The eu >>>