Europa-Sequenza

Composed in a single span yet falling into four numbered sections, this virtuoso showpiece concentrates material from Holloway's concertante for tuba and orchestra, Europa and the Bull. The initial inspiration for that work was his "love of the noble solo instrument that is usually confined to roaring or brooding at the bottom of the brass section, plus admiration for some outstanding players of it when a rare moment of exposure reveals, as well as sheer power, their powers of cantabile and eloquence." The subject-matter is "the tale familiar from Ovid and other antique poets, then taken up by painters throughout the ages, of Jupiter's lustful hankering for the beautiful nymph Europa: his wooing her in the form of a bull, his plunging off with her into the turbulent ocean, his having his wicked way and gratifying her, willing or unwilling, and thus the foundation of the continent born of his incontinence."

A major addition to the solo tuba repertory.