Brass

Few people know that my professional music career began as a 14-year-old tuba player in a Dixieland band at Cedar Point, an amusement park in my hometown of Sandusky, Ohio.  I was fortunate to attend Mount Union College where a fantastic educator, Carl H. Kandel, had developed a unique brass ensemble environment. The Mount Union Brass Choir played nearly every weekend at a church service or a symposium somewhere in Ohio or eastward. In four years at Mount Union, I had the opportunity to play, arrange, and conduct brass music at the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA; Riverside Church in NYC;  Carnegie Hall in NYC; Yale Brass Symposium in New Haven, CT; and a myriad of other venues.

Even though primarily a choral music educator, I began brass ensembles wherever I taught. These arrangements are the result. My life as a choral director brought me into contact with a great deal of music that translates well to brass ensemble. The similarity between vocal production and brass production creates a close connection in phrasing and musical approach.  Thanks go to three great instrumental educators with whom  I worked: Dave Mitchell, Dave Martinson, and Fred Ellwein; who were all-in on my brass music interest.

The following contains scores (with accompanying parts) that are available. There will be more added. The Robert King system is used for describing the music parts: 3 numerals, decimal point, 2 numerals – trumpet/horn/trombone before the decimal, euphonium/tuba after; e.g.,  4 trumpet parts, 4 horn parts, 4 trombone parts, euphonium and tuba would show as: 444.11. I often tailored transcriptions to match the ensemble for which I was arranging, so if you are interested in something that doesn’t quite match the ensemble that you have; it is probably possible to create something more suitable.