Bruce Broughton: Tent Meeting Revival (2014)
From the pen of award-winning film composer Bruce Broughton, Tent Meeting Revival is an extended character piece for solo euphonium and symphonic wind ensemble, in which the soloist takes the part of the preacher cajoling, leading and exhorting the faithful through hallelujahs, prayers, and enthusiastic devotion during an old-fashioned gospel tent meeting. The piece leads to an “all’s well” Hallelujah wind-up finale.
The work was commissioned by a consortium led by American euphonium soloist, Adam Frey, who gave the world première with the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony under Scott A. Stewart on May 11th, 2014 at Atlanta Symphony Hall. David Childs, together with Euphonium Foundation UK, was part of the consortium and gave the British première with the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, directed by Wing Commander Duncan Stubbs OBE on April 15th, 2016 in Peel Hall, Salford University, UK
Composer, Bruce Broughton is best known for his many motion picture scores, including Silverado, Tombstone, The Rescuers Down Under, The Presidio, Miracle on 34th Street, the Homeward Bound adventures and Harry and the Hendersons. His television themes include The Orville, JAG, Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures and Dinosaurs. His scores for television range from mini-series like Texas Rising and The Blue and Gray to TV movies (Warm Springs, O Pioneers!) and countless episodes of television series such as Dallas, Quincy, Hawaii Five-O and How the West Was Won.
With 24 nominations, Broughton has won a record 10 Emmy awards. His score to Silverado was Oscar-nominated, and his score to Young Sherlock Holmes was nominated for a Grammy. His music has accompanied many of the Disney theme park attractions throughout the world, and his score for Heart of Darkness was the first recorded orchestral score for a video game. In the spring of 2016, he arranged a commercial album of songs from motion pictures and Broadway for the multi-talented Seth MacFarlane.
Many of Broughton’s concert works have been performed by the Cleveland Orchestra; the Chicago, Seattle and National Symphonies; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; the Sinfonia of London; and the Hollywood Bowl. These have included Fanfare for 16 Horns, a joint commission by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the International Horn Society premiered at the Hollywood Bowl; Modular Music, composed for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; the children’s fantasy The Magic Horn; In the World of Spirits and A Celebration Overture are among his commissioned works for symphonic winds; and Fanfares, Marches, Hymns and Finale and Masters of Space and Time are among his works for brass. Broughton has also had numerous works for chamber ensembles performed and recorded throughout the world, including his Five Pieces for Piano, recorded by pianist Gloria Cheng; Excursions for trumpet and band, recorded by trumpet virtuoso Philip Smith; and his string quartet Fancies, recorded and commissioned by the Lyris Quartet. Broughton’s Heroes was used as the test-piece for 2021 Championship Section of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
Broughton is currently a board member of ASCAP, a former governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as a past president and founding member of The Society of Composers and Lyricists. He has taught composition and orchestration at USC’s Department of Screen Scoring in the Thornton School of Music, and at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. In 2020 he became composer-in-residence at the University of North Texas College of Music.