Three Pieces for Tuba Ensemble - Salutation Fanfare, Simple Gifts, Octubafest Polka
Small Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

Small Ensemble Euphonium,Horn,Tuba - Level 2 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.917404

Composed by Gregory Fritze. 20th Century,Concert,Standards. Score and parts. 61 pages. Musica Nova USA #4984119. Published by Musica Nova USA (A0.917404).

Three Pieces for Tuba Ensemble is a collection of three pieces that were composed at different times for different occasions. This set makes up a good "suite" for concert performance. Although listed as a "tuba" ensemble compositions, euphoniums usually play the higher two parts. All three are written in five parts. Optional substitute parts for French Horn and Flüglehorn are also included in this set, as well as euphonium parts in treble clef.

Salutation Fanfarewas composed in 1985 for performance at the New York Brass Conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. That year, famous tubist Harvey Phillips was being honored at a special concert.  This piece started the concert with the composer conducting an ensemble of about twenty euphonium and tuba players made up of Indiana University alumni, free-lance musicians and other friends of Mr. Phillips. The piece is based on the phrase "Harvey Phillips Mr. Tuba". 

Simple Giftsis a traditional American folksong that has been arranged by many composers over the years. This arrangement was done in 1990 for performance at the International Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association Conference held in Sapporo, Japan. It was premiered by the Colonial Tuba Quartet that year. It has been arranged in four parts as well as this arrangement in five parts.

Octubafest Polkawas composed in 1976 at the request of Harvey Phillips for performance at the Octubafest activities at Indiana University. It was premiered by the Indiana University Tuba Ensemble that year, conducted by Harvey Phillips. Mr. Phillips was the first to use the word "Octubafest", probably in 1974 or 1975. Octubafest celebrations have taken place at many schools and universities ever since, usually in the month of October. He said that having an Octubafest celebration early in the school year provided an opportunity for new students entering college to get to know each other. At Indiana University during Harvey Phillips’ tenure (1973 – 1996) the Octubafest concerts were always followed by a party at Harvey’s house, making for a good time for all.

 

Gregory Fritze is a prize-winning composer and Fulbright Scholar, as well as an active performer and conductor. He recently retired from Berklee College of Music where he was Professor and Chair of Composition, serving on the faculty from 1979 to 2016. He has written over ninety compositions for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles and soloists. He has won over sixty composition awards both nationally and internationally, including First Prize in the 1991 TUBA International Etude Composition Competition, for his Twenty Characteristic Etudes for Tubaan important part of the tuba pedagogy repertoire. His compositions include works published by several publishers in the United States, South America and Europe and have been performed extensively throughout the world. 

He has been a frequent traveler to Spain since 1993 and has promoted compositions by Spanish composers around the world. He is the only composer who has been commissioned six times by Spanish bands for Certamen competitions, with each band winning first prize. 

He has thirty-three compositions commercially recorded on Albany Records, MSR Classics, Crystal Records, Mark Records and others. He has been a guest lecturer, conductor and performer at many colleges, universities and music festivals in the United States, Canada, Japan, South America and Europe. He was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1954 and has Composition degrees from the Boston Conservatory and Indiana University. He now resides in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida.