Come to the Edge, opus 63, by Neal Corwell
euphonium solo with orchestra

Instrumentation: euphonium solo with orchestra, or brass band, or piano reduction.
Copyright: 2014
Duration: 10:00
Range: F to c-sharp 2
Difficulty: IV
Publisher: Nicolai Music
Price:
$15 for piano reduction version
$55 for orchestra version (full score & parts)
Other Info: Premiered January 2015 at the annual TUSABTEW (The US Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Workshop) with Jeremy McBride as euphonium soloist accompanied by The US Army Band, “Pershing’s Own”. The brass band-accompanied version was premiered by Neal Corwell and the 2016 International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Tucson, Arizona. The version with band accompaniment was also premiered in 2016.

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Come to the Edge is a work for euphonium soloist with orchestra that draws its title from a poem by Christopher Logue, a British poet that lived from 1926 to 2011. The poem is as follows:

Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
and they came,
and we pushed,
and they flew.
The music features the interplay of two ideas presented by the soloist at the outset of the piece. The first is a quiet lyrical theme that begins with an upward soaring melodic line. This is contrasted with a rapid, vigorous, and aggressive chromatic sextuplet pattern, which propels the music forward, and is presented in many forms and guises throughout the work. The ensemble provides a varying background in support of the soloist that is sometimes lush and full, and sometimes spartan. Most notable are sections where slow rising lines are layered upon one another to create a clear and dramatic “ascension” effect. The listener will find that the piece always seems to be building, moving forward toward the next high point which, once reached, serves as a gateway to the next contrasting, and still building, section. The soloist will be challenged, but if he or she has solid technique, good triple-tonguing skills, and a solid high range (at least up to c-sharp), the difficulties should not take long to master.