Emoticons Movement III

This is the third movement of my latest three-movement composition for tuba/euphonium quartet called Emoticons. It is being composed as a result of a commissioning consortium consisting of the Tarnished Brass - Rowlett, TX, the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, NC, the Triangle Tuba Quartet - Durham, NC, the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, TN, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - Chattanooga, TN, and Kansas State University - Manhattan, KS. More groups are welcome to the join the consortium as the deadline for expressing interest has been extended until June 30, 2015. For more information, please visit http://www.cooppress.net

The idea behind Emoticons is to symbolically represent emotions and this last movement is Euphoria. As you can see and hear, it is in a fast tempo and is in a rondo form ABACABA. The tonality is major with some borrowed chords to spice things up. There are frequent modulations to add variety to the tonality.

The A section is very rhythmic as it alternates meters of 6/8 with meters where the quarter note gets the beat. The eighth note remains constant throughout these meter changes. I used 2/8 instead of 1/4 because I thought it would be less confusing, but the 2/8 has one quarter note beat in it. Sudden shifts in dynamics are used in the A sections to add interest since the A section occurs four times.

The B sections also have meter changes but the quarter note beat dominates with an occasional 3/8 thrown in.

The C section is the central section and is in 4/4 time and more legato for contrast. It begins with the two tubas, then adds canons with the top three instruments while the 2nd tuba does a staccato accompaniment, and finally the melody appears in the 2nd euphonium while the other parts accompany. The A and B sections are primarily C major while the C section explores the mediant keys E major and Ab major, before moving to A major for the last statement.

Your comments are always appreciated.

Dr. B