James Grant - Eclectic, lyrical recital music for tuba

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SONGS VARIOUS
an ever-expanding collection of lyrical recital pieces for

TUBA

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STUFF - Theme with Seven Variations
solo tuba

	Listen to streaming audio of STUFF as performed by: Phillip Black Professor of Tuba/Euphonium Wichita State University Principal Tubist, Wichita Symphony	For information on purchasing, for educational purposes only, a CD of Phillip Black's 10/17/01 OCTUBAFEST 2001 faculty recital ($5, to cover his costs -- a bargain at twice the price!), contact Dr. Black directly by clicking here: < > recital includes: Stuff: Theme with Seven Variations - James Grant Sonatina - Halsey Stevens Concert Piece for Tuba and Piano - Libby Larsen Encounters II for solo tuba - William Kraft Convalescence Suite for solo tuba - Alec Wilder Concertino for Trombone and Piano - Ferdinand Davis
	Level:	intermediate/advanced
	Duration:	ca. 5 min 30 sec.
	Commissioned by:	78 adventure-seeking, fearless tubists from the US, Canada, and Japan.
	Comments and reviews:
... a GREAT piece... a neat, quixotic, rambunctious fun-fest!... Chuck Jackson 2001 Solstice/Equinox Commissioning Consortium participant freelance tubist, Las Vegas, NV ... an unqualified rave... playing it will be a lasting discovery process.... a piece that [we] will enjoy and include in repertoires for years to come... David Newbern 2001 Solstice/Equinox Commissioning Consortium participant Principal Tuba, Little Rock Wind Symphony Tubist, Ozark Point Brass Little Rock, AR
	Program notes:
	The first of four intermediate-level pieces composed as part of the 2001 Solstice/Equinox Commissioning Consortium for Tubists. Seventy-eight tubists from 30 states and three countries co-commissioned the music. A simple Theme, marked freely, opens and concludes the music, framing seven variations: Lullaby, Insistent, Cartoon Music, Gregarious, Urgent, More Urgent, and Swing It.
	I urge you to support Tuba-Euphonium Press and purchase a published hard copy of Stuff for $6! Click the arrow on the left to go to the Tuba-Euphonium Press search page and type in "James Grant."

Listen to streaming audio excerpts from Mark Nelson's CD Aboriginal Voices

	Fury I	ms. 1-14
	Fury I	ms. 49-61
	Fury II	ms. 1-48
	Fury III	ms. 43-64
	Fury III	ms. 111-127

Level:

advanced

Duration:

ca. 10 min 30 sec.

Commissioned by:

Mark Nelson

Comments and reviews:

...one of the most exciting and enjoyable solo pieces to be composed in the last 30 years... Grant really knows what the tuba can do and exploits these capabilities with great results... first-class music that is also a top-notch virtuosic display... rapidly becoming to the 1990s what the Kraft Encounters II was to the 60s and 70s for tubists as a piece to measure oneself by...

Fritz Kaenzig
Professor of Euphonium / Tuba, University of Michigan

...every time the Furies are unleashed, the audience has the same reaction: glazed and confused, furrowed brow, reflection, with the usual Cocker Spaniel head tilt, then after about 10 seconds -- spontaneous whoops! ...

Michael M. Bunn
Principal Tuba, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

...an absolutely brilliant work... one of the most challenging, yet inspired and playable unaccompanied tuba pieces ever attempted... [as compared to the Penderecki Capriccio:] even bolder, more lyrical, and exploitive of the true capabilities of the tuba, without avant-garde effects.... I believe Grant's Three Furies for Solo Tuba is destined to become a standard in the professional unaccompanied tuba repertoire...

Mark Nelson
New Materials Editor, T.U.B.A. Journal

Program notes:

Each of the Three Furies is virtuoso in its own right, offering a multiplicity of distinct rhythms, melodic figures and articulations:

Fury I is marked "decidedly jocular" and is a pleasant ramble through the registers of the tuba, featuring angular arpeggios and tonguing demands that one does not usually associate with the instrument.

Fury II, in form somewhat reminiscent of a minuet with trio, contrasts series of long, arching arpeggiated figures with an amicable waltz marked "gently inebriated."

Fury III is relentless and powerful, exploiting the full dynamic and articulative range of the tuba. Again, the performer is met with virtuoso demands not normally encountered in the tuba literature.

I urge you to support Tuba-Euphonium Press and purchase a published hard copy of Three Furies for $12! Click the arrow on the left to go to the Tuba-Euphonium Press search page and type in "James Grant."