blues & rhythm, for solo tuba

Instrumentation: solo tuba

Year Composed: 2024

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Premiered in May 2024 by Meredith Fuller

Program Notes:

blues & rhythm is loosely based on the traditional gospel spiritual “There’s A Leak in this Old Building.”The lyrics to the main chorus of the song go: “There’s a leak in this old building and my soul has got to move.” This references how one sometimes needs to realize when things are no longer serving them, when their buildings have leaks, and they need to trust God to move on to something better. 

The piece alternates between soulful sections that quote the theme of the song and rhythmic sections, exploring the technicality and versatility of the blues scale. It has been deliberately written with minimal expression markings to give the performer liberties in expression, often a challenge in the classically-trained paradigm. The soulful sections test the player’s ability to bring out their own soul and meaning, and the technical sections challenge the player with a variety of moods, grooves, and rhythms—demonstrating the virtuosity of the player.