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No Longer at Ease is a stand-alone euphonium quartet inspired by Chinua Achebe’s 1960 novel of the same name. In Achebe’s novel a young man is sent to University by his village’s elders in the hopes he will return able to guide and protect his people through uncertain and unwanted colonialist developments. However, the man abandons their plans to pursue his own interests and faces the fallout of his actions upon his return home and in the volatile years to come. Reading such an affective work in the final semester of my Masters preparing to return home was timely and I have found the similarities between my life and Achebe’s art blurred. I began writing this work upon returning home to Niceville, Florida and realizing that both myself and the town I call home have changed drastically.

The piece begins with jarring sixteenth-notes derived from a rising arpeggiated-tetrachord. Ceaseless double tonguing, the lead in the fourth euphonium, and unsettling metric shifts combine for unique and frenetic effects. A yearning melody enters amidst this chaos and is a musical spelling of “home”. The return and developments of the frenetic material culminates in a solo statement of this theme. The middle section represents the home of years past and features a uniquely Niceville quote with fragments of the Niceville High School fight song. These fragments make up each independent line and the music culminates in a triumphant victory. However, this victory is cut brief by the cutting sixteenth-note driven material from earlier. The finale is an exciting mockery of the “home” theme with interjections and exploitations of all previous themes.

No Longer at Ease for Euphonium Quartet

www.MatthewNunesMusic.com

Matthew Nunes (ASCAP) is a euphoniumist and composer on the rise. 2017 was a breakout year as he advanced to the Leonard Falcone International Tuba-Euphonium Festival's Euphonium Artist semi-finals, and won the Montclair State University Concerto Competition with his own Concerto for Euphonium (2015). In 2012 he won the University of Central Florida Concerto/Aria Competition for Band – earning the distinction of being the first euphonium player to win since Dr. Gail Robertson. He has played with the Brass Band of Central Florida and has had multiple orchestra opportunities. He earned his Master’s in Euphonium Performance at Montclair State University studying with Derek Fenstermacher. His performance teachers include Tim Van Dam, Dr. Gail Robertson, Dr. Robin Sisk, Derek Fenstermacher, and Bente Illevold. 

Matthew is a published composer and arranger with works available from Cimarron Music Press and SheetMusicPlus.com. His Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Band was premiered by Dr. Gail Robertson and the Little Rock Wind Symphony in 2016, while his In League with Extraordinary Women (Concerto for Tuba and Wind Band) was premiered by Dr. Robin Sisk and the University of Florida Symphonic Band in 2018. In late 2021 he completed his Symphony for Orchestra and Choir, a massive and emotionally intense work. Matthew earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition from UCF studying with Christopher Marshall. 

Theory and research are important to Matthew, and in late 2019 his article Mystery, Necromancy, and the Euphonium was published in Vol. 47, No. 1 of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association Journal. 

My music is available from these publishers:
CIMARRON MUSIC PRESS
https://www.cimarronmusic.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=%22nunes%22

SHEET MUSIC PLUS DIGITAL DOWNLOADS
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/search?Ntt=%22matthew+nunes+music%22

No Longer at Ease for Euphonium Quartet

Matthew Nunes - Composer