Vesuvius is a grade 5 piece by composer Frank Ticheli. Vesuvius is a highly active and technically challenging piece. There is some back and forth and runs that can be particularly challenging. This piece uses many percussion instruments. This is a piece that is aggressive at time but tells a story that you can imagine somewhat like Fantasia. This piece keeps the audience’s attention through dynamic differences and stylistic changes. This piece goes from small and soft and quickly builds into a big and aggressive section, then back down again. This piece can help show a band’s stylistic abilities. This piece is difficult to play but is well worth the efforts put towards learning it.