davewerden

I have recently finished a new arrangement for euphonium-tuba quartet. This one is called Three Sacred Palestrina Pieces, originally composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.


Now and then I try to come up with something that is clearly simple enough for an average high school group, yet has enough musical substance to be a good choice for an advanced group. This is one such piece. The music was originally for voices and there are no flashy technical passages. However, the lines and harmonies Palestrina used are beautiful, and that translates very well for euphonium/tuba quartet.


Cimarron Music has this piece on hand right now. Here is the page:


Three Sacred Palestrina Pieces - Euphonium/Tuba Quartet


And here is a brief sample of the score. As you can see, the piece is very playable:


Three Sacred Palestrina Pieces - Score PDF


My original inspiration for writing pieces that were accessible for younger players came from a session I heard Harvey Phillips give when we were performing at Tennessee Tech many years ago. He was discussing euphonium-tuba ensemble pieces, and he said there were a lot of easy pieces, but the musical quality was low. And there were many really good pieces, but they were very difficult. Harvey said that we need more pieces written that are good musically but are playable by younger groups. I hope you agree that this one satisfies those specifications.