Fantastic Friday - Gordon and His Euphonium

When Gordon was about 7 years old, he started music lessons at school, and chose the trumpet.  But his teacher switched him to the euphonium because, apparently, Gordon had trouble holding the trumpet up.  Personally, I think the music teacher – a lovely man who was also leader of the school orchestra at the time – wanted a euphonium player; just as well Gordon wanted to join the orchestra!!

(2008)

Imagine my surprise when he switched instruments – Gordon had gone to school with his very portable trumpet and came out of school, at the end of the day, with a large case he could barely lift!  My main worry was if it would fit in the boot of my little car.  It did.

It was the first time I’d seen and heard of the euphonium.  Its name comes from the Greek word,  euphonos, which literally translates as ‘of good sound’ –  eu means ‘well’ or ‘good’ and phonos means ‘of sound’.  One thing we’ve discovered over the 14+ years he’s been playing the euphonium is that not many people have heard of it; Gordon always describes it as a small tuba.

Gordon joined the band he’s in now, ‘Come Prima’, in 2008 and had his first concert with them in December 2008.  There were a few rough patches, some up-and-down moments, but he’s found his place in the band and thoroughly enjoys the rehearsals and the concerts.  He especially likes the dressing-up element of the concerts!

Come Prima's 10th anniversary concert - 2010

‘Come Prima’ had their summer concert last Thursday – the theme was ‘Once Upon a Time: Music to accompany Myths, Legends and Fables’.  Gordon decided to dress as an Egyptian and found wearing a ‘dress’ quite comfortable and cooler than he imagined!  I kept teasing him about his ‘frock’.

Gordon has a solo part in ‘Chicago’, one of my favourites.  At the last minute, I decided to record it but didn’t check if I had enough space on the memory card – turned out I didn’t!  I missed recording the last segment of the piece, which annoyed me somewhat at the time, and I apologise that it’s not the whole thing.  But I hope you enjoy it anyway …