20th Century on Euphonium Studio

Euphonium Concerto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vladimir Cosma, best known for his French film scores, brings a cinematic warmth and melodic directness to the euphonium concerto. The writing favours the instrument’s singing qualities and its capacity for long, shapely lines, wrapped in colourful orchestration. It has broadened the euphonium’s concert profile beyond the band world into the orchestral hall.

Euphonium Concerto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Martin Ellerby’s concerto ranges widely in mood across its movements, including a much-loved slow movement (“Album Leaf”) whose lyricism has made it a popular excerpt in its own right. Written for Steven Mead, it exists in both brass-band and wind-band scorings and has become one of the defining concertos of the 1990s repertoire boom.

Euphonium Concerto No. 1, Op. 64

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Golland’s first euphonium concerto is prized for its emotional intensity — dark, lyrical, and harmonically rich, with a slow movement that many players consider among the most moving in the repertoire. It sits firmly in the British brass-band tradition and remains a favourite for players who want expressive depth over surface brilliance.

Fantasy for Euphonium

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gordon Jacob’s Fantasy is often cited as the work that opened the modern euphonium repertoire — a piece of real compositional weight written by an established orchestral composer specifically for the instrument. Cast as a continuous fantasy rather than a multi-movement concerto, it moves between lyrical, singing writing that shows off the euphonium’s vocal tone and brisk, agile passagework that proves its technical range. It remains a standard audition and recital choice.

Rhapsody for Euphonium

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Curnow’s Rhapsody is one of the most-played American euphonium solos, valued for its balance of expressive lyricism and accessible technical demands. It gives a developing player a genuine concert vehicle — dramatic gestures, a singing slow section, a bright close — without the extreme range of the major concertos, which has made it a fixture of the student and early-professional repertoire.