Among the Clouds - Brian Balmages 

One time Balmages came to rehearse with my band and he told us to give him 4 notes and we did. C,Db,G and F were the notes and he slowly walked to the piano and he started playing and my god it was the most amazing piece I have ever heard. He sat there for about four minutes and played the most beautiful and complex song I have ever heard... Edit: Oh my god. I’m sooo sorry for this embarrassing excuse of grammar. Ooooo, that’s horrific.

My concert is TODAY! I'm playing 1st clarinet! Wish me luck!

Trombones all remember measures 114 - 118.

I love how this song gives a chance for all instruments to pop out, with either little solos or just amazing parts to play with your section

I remember playing this on bass clarinet for concert band back in middle school and feeling like I was playing for a movie soundtrack. An absolute lovely piece to listen to after so long!

Personally, I think this is Brian's best piece.

Im not here because i played it, im here because brian balmages is an absolute musical genius. And no, I didnt play it.

I started out playing this on tuba then switched to euphonium full time. Basically got thrown into the fire with how high the part was, and it helped me out a lot.

I played the first clarinet part in this song the first year I was in band and totally nailed those solos! Still one of my favorite pieces I've played to date ^^

Brian Balmages is one of the best composers out there I absolutely love his work

Played this freshman year on first horn; one of the best pieces I've ever played.

Played this my freshman year of high school. Still one of my favorites. :)

Im glad I got to meet Brian Balmages what an absolute legend

french horn on this though is amazing

Flute is love flute is life 👌

2:22 is like my favorite part of the song. AL that low brass sound. Go tubas

Playing alto sax is so fun on this

I played Clarinet 1 measures 5-42 for my grandmother with Alzheimer's via zoom call (bc of covid) shortly before she passed and now whenever I play that part I get really emotional. It was the last time I got to see her even virtually before she succumbed to her disease, and she loved hearing the music, even if she wasn't really sure who I was.

Euphonium part is pretty bawlin'.

Been four years since I played this piece with my old high schools band. Jesus times flies. I’m a sophomore in college now and this is still one of my favorites

Oh god, 102 for clarinets... Well, 1st part Clarinets, atleast.

i swear all of brian balmages' songs feature clarinets and i loVE IT

1st f horn in our band and i loveee our part

After playing this in my Junior year of high school, I recognized a high school band practicing this outside just today! Really took me back

Where my clarinet squad at 👀 👋

1:55 that little part reminds me of Kirby music SOO much X3

This was my firt piece after switching to horn in f and this song will always stick with me!

this is the most beautiful concert band piece ever written. the horn parts are so majestic!

4:09 gives me chills. I think it's because of the snare. It sounds so cool when you're in the back.

I played this piece. Brings back past emotions...

3:08 the clarinets aghhh I need to play that in front of my whole band class

Played this on trumpet in my little crew. Best concert band song i ever played since everyone was in on making this sound pristine.

IM SO MAD!!!! I WAS GONNA PLAY THIS WITH MY BAND BUT CORONA CANCELLED IT AND NOW I CANT :(

I played this piece in eighth grade and fell in love with it. Now, as a senior in high school, I’m getting to play it with our top-level band. This piece is and always will be my favorite of all time.

bassoon woot woot

We played this in my 8th grade year for a music festival in St. Louis. Now I am a junior in college. Damn, time flies.

OBOES Yeah!!!!!!!

So thankful I got to play with him as my conductor!

Percussion :)

I'm playing 1st trumpet on this for my high school at our concert on Tuesday! I'm so pumped for it; this piece is my favorite that we're playing!

We play this to practice sight reading every year in my high school band and I play horn out of the two horns we have so we get the awesome parts

played this in my band class, one of my fav pieces by far. sounds so magical here. love it

i played this piece for my concert today and i’ll just say i got goosebumps bc the euphonium part is just something else lol

We're playing this right now for our high school and this is one the most fun peices I've ever played

When I learned my band is playing this I was sooooooooooo happy! Then I realized that Trombones dont have the fucking awesome melody.

My band started playing this when I was in 9th grade, but the instructor scrapped it because we didn’t get it down in time. I finally convinced him to let us play it in my senior year. It was the last song in our last concert. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for this piece.

1st flutes anyone?

I’m playing Arabian Dances soon, and I was curious what other pieces Brian Balmages wrote. This is _spectacular!_

Thank you Brian

I'm playing this for my 2019 spring concert.

Playing this in my upcoming concert in October :D I'm playing 3rd trombone, it's nice to play the first chair but sometimes it's also really cool when you get to play low parts and have totally unique rythms from everyone else

This is the one song I wish I could've played in high school, especially for our Big 9 event. I even practiced the entire song on my trumpet with the sheet music in my own time

I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH

Brian Balmages is an INCREDIBLE musical writer! Love this piece!

I'm a trombone actively playing this piece in high school. I'm stuck in 114-118. Any tips?

Probably my favorite piece done by Brian Balmages. While it wasnt this piece im glad i did get to meet him when playing Moscow for an allshore band, his thoughts on music are some of the most interesting to me, i hear my band may be playing into the artic this year, and im stoked to finally be able to perform another piece of his

the bass clarinet part in this is cool

I played first clarinet when I play this song and I loved it. This is a great song

I played this at mid fest and it was fun and im a tuba. We only saw this song about 5 times and it was good. Tubas for life

This one is by far my favorite by Brian! It really creates the dream that I'm flying "Among the Clouds"

All the flutes know THAT part

Played this on tuba in 6 or 7th grade still one of my favs

I wanna play this so bad but it's too complicated for me band students 😭 but it's so beautiful and breathtaking

Percussion on this song was sooo fun to play!!

Played this my senior year as first chair clarinet and I nailed that solo. Good times.

*goosebumps*

I loved playing this last year. Was one of my favorite pieces

Euphoniums all the way! I love my part for this song more than any other piece my band is doing!

The euphonium part is amazing

I gotta play this for my upcoming concert in high school

we’re playing this in band this year and it is certainly one of balmages’ best works.

Any tubas out there?

Played this piece back in middle school! Us clarinets had this inside joke that we used up until we went to high school, where whenever we'd listen to a song for the first time, and a hard-sounding part came up, we would always say "I bet this part is on measure 102", in reference to that dreaded clarinet part at around 3:08 in the video. It was a really fun piece to play, in all honesty, and I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again!

flute is da best

I played the tuba part on Double Bass for the band spring trip to St. Louis last April and I loved it! Other than the constant transposing...

any 1st altos?

Played this for district honor band, it was so much fun! (trumpet here)

2:27 is greeeat

This was so much fun to play

Played this in 4th grade, memories 😭

Playing this as a French horn one of best ones I’ve played

French horns all the way🤘🏻

Measure 114 is the bane of my existence

French horn and clarinets 0:54 are speeding up...

This was our finale for the middle school Allstate band in Alabama

#clarinet4lyfe

There.. Among the Clouds lay the lost city of Aeron.. Lost to time to protect the world.. Aeron rises again, awoken by a band of adventurers. But beneath the white marble stone lays a dark secret, a tarrasque.. Graknar.. The beast was trapped in ice and stone along with the city now he stirs again.. This piece helped inspire my next arc in my dnd campaign as a DM. Pretty cool, thanks Brian.

Any trumpet here?

Currently in the process of writing some stuff for a D&D campaign that involves a lot of worldbuilding for a location known as the Elemental Plane of Air. In a nutshell, its a dimension full of open sky, the most beautiful clouds you can imagine but better, and hundreds of floating islands scattered all over the place. Right now I'm working on the imagery for the location, and this is one of the two songs I'm listening to a lot for creative inspiration. And as a sidenote, I played this song with my school's band this past school year. I played the Alto Saxophone part.

#lowbrassftw

This always brings a smile to my face :)

Where my French Horn squad at👀👌

I'm loving all these comments about what instrument y'all are it's amazing

Seventh grade euph playing this in my school's symphonic band and lemme just say, these clouds are too high

This is one of his best... Tomorrow's yesterday and Images of Ireland is amazing

Who else in 2019

I remember playing this a year ago and it was great playing with the honor band for midfest. Tubas are the best.

love this song second Altos!!😍

Im so glad im performing this its my favorite

i love how almost everyone is all like this instrument us better because of this reason. I'm over here thinking of how the picture reminds me of SAO. sort of. just how the building is floating.