Toccata

for solo euphonium

Work completed: September 2016

Duration: 6'

Difficulty: Very advanced

Toccata is a work written with the instrument's voice in mind. The beginning section - characterized by an unsettled, nervous continuum of notes - introduces the euphonium's frantic search to find its voice. A disjunct, aggressive statement of a central theme rings out in the upper register before the momentum of the music fizzles down and broadens out. Slowly, the music laments its inability to find beauty before blasting into another virtuosic frenzy. Passages fly by more quickly and unpredictably until, finally, peace is found. The euphonium freely sings a beautiful version of the beginning theme in its purest register. The range of the music climbs and eventually soars until the end.

Briana Engelbert Vogt, euphonium

Recorded October 4, 2016 at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music - Auer Hall