Reflections on the Last Post

Reflections on the Last Post Reflections on the Last Post for tuba and piano by Howard J. Buss was inspired by The Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium. It honors the thousands of soldiers who died to free Belgium in WWI. The Last Post Ceremony was first held on July 1928 and has been performed every night since November 11, 1929 at the Menin Gate Memorial, except during the years of the occupation of Ypres from May 20, 1940 to September 6, 1944. During the occupation the ceremony was continued at the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, England. The composition develops the “Last Post” bugle call, which is performed near the beginning of the ceremony. The work also has stirring sections signifying the youthfulness and vitality of those who fought and died on the Ypres battlefields This work was winner of the Composition Competition of the U.S. Army Band’s 2019 Tuba-Euphonium Workshop and will be used for the workshop’s 2020 performers’ competition. Score and part included.