UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
July 10, 2008
Date:___________________
Kimberly Dianne Rooney
I, _________________________________________________________,
hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:
Doctor of Musical Arts
in:
Horn Performance
It is entitled:
Compositional Trends in Solo Horn Works Composed by Horn
Performers (1970–2005): A Survey and Catalog
This work and its defense approved by:
bruce d. mcclung
Chair: _______________________________
Randy Gardner
_______________________________
Robert Zierolf
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Compositional Trends in Solo Horn Works by Horn Performers (1970–2005):
A Survey and Catalog
A document submitted to the
Division of Graduate Studies and Research
of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the degree of
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
in the Division of Performance Studies
of the College-Conservatory of Music
2008
by
Kimberly D. Rooney
B.M., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002
M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2004
Committee Chair: Dr. bruce d. mcclung
ABSTRACT
A survey of solo horn works composed in the late twentieth century exhibits the strong
influence of horn performers on the instrument’s expanding solo repertoire. Hornists such as
Jeffrey Agrell, David Amram, Paul Basler, Randall Faust, Lowell Greer, Douglas Hill, Lowell
Shaw, Jeffrey Snedeker, and many others have contributed worthwhile new works to the horn
repertoire. These works take advantage of recent compositional trends in order to showcase the
full spectrum of musical possibilities available to the modern hornist.
The goal of this study is to draw attention to the large body of horn solo repertoire that
has been composed by hornists from 1970 to 2005, to explore the technical challenges it poses,
to consider common trends among the works of several hornist-composers, and to encourage
performance of this repertoire. Chapter One provides an overview of the project and examines
the relevant existing research. Chapter Two provides a brief historical context by summarizing
the contribution of several representative players, including Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni
Punto), Louis-Francois Dauprat, Jacques-Francois Gallay, and Franz Strauss, to the solo horn
repertoire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Chapter Three surveys the more recent
repertoire with discussion of selected characteristic works from the last thirty-five years that
demonstrate current trends in horn solo composition. These trends include the introduction of
jazz elements to the solo horn repertoire, the revival of the natural horn, and the use of
nontraditional accompaniments including various types of electronic media. Chapter Four
provides the conclusions of the study. This project concludes with a catalog of works composed
by horn performers between 1970 and 2005.
ii
© Copyright by
Kimberly Dianne Rooney
2008
iii
COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS
Jeffrey Agrell, September Elegy.
Copyright © 2001 by Jomar Press. Used by permission of Jomar Press and Jeffrey Agrell.
David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk.
Copyright © 1991 by C. F. Peters Corporation. Used by permission.
Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!
Copyright © 1998 by RM Williams Publishing. Used by permission.
Louis-François Dauprat, Hornkonzert Nr. 5, op. 21.
Copyright © 2005 by Robert Ostermeyer Musikedition. Used by permission.
Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media.
Copyright © 1978 by Faust Music. Used by permission.
Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof.
Copyright © 1991 by Lowell Greer. Used by permission.
Jazz Set for Solo Horn
Words and Music by Douglas Hill
Copyright © 1987 Associated Music Publishers, Inc. (BMI)
International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
Used by Permission.
Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings.
Copyright © 1990 by IHS Manuscript Press. Used by permission.
Giovanni Punto, Concerto No. 11 in E Major.
Copyright © 1983 by Medici Music Press. Used by permission
Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts.
Copyright © 1999 by The Hornists’ Nest. Used by permission.
Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend,
Copyright © 1997 by Birdalone Music. Used by permission.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project could not have been completed without the assistance of many mentors,
colleagues, and friends. Special thanks go to my advisor, bruce mcclung. Randy Gardner has
served as a helpful guide and advisor throughout this project and during the five years preceding
it. Marcia Spence provided assistance with engraving musical examples. The University of
Cincinnati provided a summer research fellowship grant that enabled me to travel and interview
many of the composers discussed in this volume. Jeffrey Agrell and Douglas Hill contributed
the initial research that inspired this study and have been valuable resources and sources of
encouragement throughout the project. Hornist-composers David Amram, Paul Basler, Randall
Faust, Lowell Greer, Lowell Shaw, and Jeffrey Snedeker also gave generously of their time and
provided valuable insights for which I am very grateful. Finally, I would like to thank my
parents for their ongoing support.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Chapter One: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Chapter Two: Historical Precedents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni Punto) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Louis-François Dauprat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Jaques-François Gallay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Franz Straus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Chapter Three: Trends in Works by Hornist-Composers (1970–2005) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
First Trend: Jazz Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Douglas Hill, Jazz Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Second Trend: Contemporary Use of the Natural Horn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Jeffrey Agrell, September Elegy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Third Trend: Electronic Accompaniments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Chapter Four: Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..84
Preface to the Catalog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Catalog of Solo Works Composed by Horn Performers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni Punto), Concerto No. 11, III. Menuetto,
mm. 50–78.
11
2. Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni Punto), Concerto No. 11, III. Menuetto,
mm. 109–20.
11
3. Louis-Francois Dauprat, Concerto No. 5, III. Rondo–Bolero: Allegro
moderato, mm. 140–58.
14
4. Jacques-Francois Gallay, 11th Solo, mm. 22–42.
16
5. Jacques-Francois Gallay, 40 Preludes, Op. 27, No. 26, unmeasured.
16
6. Franz Strauss, Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra, mm. 1–56.
19
7. Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts #9, mm. 1–5.
28
8. Twelve-bar blues harmonic progression
28
9. Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts #11 (bass part), mm. 37–54.
29
10. Blues scale
30
11. Lowell E. Shaw, Just Desserts #11, mm. 1–10.
30
12. Lowell E. Shaw, Just Desserts #11, mm. 63–6.
31
13. David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk, mm. 9–20.
33
14. David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk, mm. 37–44.
34
15. David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk, mm. 81–3.
35
16. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Lost and Found,” mm. 16–8.
39
17. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Cute ‘n Sassy,” mm. 1–8.
40
18. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Fussin’ for Emily,” mm. 1–10.
41
19. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Fussin’ for Emily,” mm. 65–73.
42
20. Harmonic Series
44
vii
21. Hand Stopping Chart
45
22. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 7–10.
50
23. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Prelude,” page 1, systems 3–4.
51
24. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 1–3.
51
25. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 18–27.
52
26. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 61–6.
52
27. Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend, mm. 22–39.
55
28. Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend, m. 45.
56
29. Jeffrey Agrell, September Elegy, mm. 32–4.
59
30. Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, mm. 1–6.
66
31. Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, mm. 40–5.
66
32. Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, mm. 63–80.
67
33. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 79–80.
71
34. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 1–4.
72
35. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 40–3.
73
36. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 36–9.
73
37. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 1–7.
74
38. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 80–91.
74
39. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 61–7.
75
40. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 92–8.
75
41. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Grind, mm. 13–7.
76
42. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Eagle at Ease in the Sky,” mm. 4–5.
78
43. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Eagle at Ease in the Sky,” m. 17.
79
viii
44. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Six-legged Dance,” mm. 3–7.
79
45. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Six-legged Dance,” mm. 22–8.
80
46. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Woodland Trail,” m. 33.
81
47. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Woodland Trail,” mm. 19–27.
82
48. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Spring Dance,” m. 31–3.
82
ix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Purpose of Study
A survey of solo horn works composed in recent years exhibits the strong influence of
horn performers on the instrument’s expanding solo repertoire. While collaborations with great
performers including Dennis Brain, Barry Tuckwell, and Froydis Ree Wekre have inspired
several adventurous works by mainstream composers, many composers approach the horn with
some trepidation. 1 As Gunther Schuller writes in the preface to his Horn Technique, the horn
has a reputation of being “devilishly difficult,” which intimidates many composers. 2 In many
instances the burden has fallen on horn players themselves to compose rewarding and idiomatic
music that satisfies today’s virtuoso performers. Hornists such as Jeffrey Agrell, David Amram,
Paul Basler, Randall Faust, Lowell Greer, Douglas Hill, Lowell Shaw, and Jeffrey Snedeker have
all contributed worthwhile new works to the horn repertoire. These works take advantage of
recent compositional trends in order to showcase the full spectrum of musical possibilities
available to the modern hornist.
The goal of this study is to draw attention to the large body of horn solo repertoire that
has been composed by hornists from 1970 to 2005, to explore the technical challenges it poses,
to consider common trends among the works of several hornist-composers, and to encourage
performance of this repertoire. While the repertoire is far too large to treat every work or every
1
A selected list of solo works composed for Dennis Brain includes Malcolm Arnold’s Horn Concerto No.
2, Paul Hindemith’s Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, and Gordon Jacob’s Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra;
Selected works composed for Barry Tuckwell include Don Banks’ Horn Concerto, Iain Hamilton’s Sonata Notturna
and Voyage for Horn and Chamber Orchestra, Thea Musgrave’s Music for Horn and Piano and Horn Concerto, and
Gunther Schuller’s Concerto No. 2 for Horn. Andrea Clearfield composed Songs of the Wolf for Froydis Ree
Wekre.
2
Gunther Schuller, Horn Technique, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), preface.
1
composer individually, I will provide a brief historical context by summarizing the contribution
of several representative players to the solo horn repertoire during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. I will then survey the more recent repertoire with discussion of selected characteristic
works from the last thirty-five years that demonstrate current trends in horn solo composition.
These trends include the introduction of jazz elements to the solo horn repertoire, the
contemporary use of the natural horn, and the use of accompaniments that include electronic
media. This project also includes a catalog of works composed by horn performers between
1970 and 2005.
Literature Review
Research exists on several historic hornist-composers, but most of it focuses on their
roles as performers and teachers. Histories of the horn discuss the important eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century virtuosos including Jan Vaclav Stich, Louis-François Dauprat, FredericNicolas Duvernoy, Heinrich Domnich, and Jacques-François Gallay, but scarcely mention their
compositions for horn. 3 Theses on more modern hornist-composers, including Lowell Shaw, 4
Bernhard Krol, 5 Randall Faust, 6 and Gunther Schuller, 7 credit them with their individual
3
John Humphries, The Early Horn: A Practical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000);
Reginald Morley-Pegge, The French Horn, 2nd ed. (London: Benn,1973); Barry Tuckwell, Horn (London:
Macdonald, 1983).
4
Heather Lankford, “Lowell Shaw (b. 1930): His Musical Career and Contributions to Horn
Ensemble Literature” (D.M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, 2000).
5
Brian Kilp, “A Discussion of Selected Works of Bernhard Krol Featuring the Horn: Thoughts on
Historical Lineage and Performance” (D.M.A. thesis, University of Arizona, 1998).
6
Alan Mattingly, “A Performance Guide to the Horn Works of Randall Edward Faust” (D.M. thesis, The
Florida State University, 1998).
7
Stephen H. Farnsley, “Gunther Schuller: His Influence on the French Horn” (D.A. thesis, Ball
State University, 1985).
2
contributions as performers, pedagogues, and composers, but they do not link their works to the
development of horn technique or the works of other hornist-composers. A thesis by L. Paul
Austin, Jr. discusses several contemporary compositions written by hornists; however, his work
considers only works that were composed for natural horn from 1982 to 1992. 8 Aside from the
composers’ own writings and several published interviews and recording reviews, I found little
scholarly research that considers the works of important contemporary hornist-composers, such
as Jeffrey Agrell, Paul Basler, Lowell Greer, Douglas Hill, and Jeffrey Snedeker. While these
are well-known names among horn players, many of their works are still relatively unknown.
Although researchers have neglected important works composed by horn performers, the
topic of composition is frequently discussed in horn publications and at horn workshops. In
recent years several prominent hornists have advocated composition as a pedagogical tool for
hornists, to aid in the development of creativity and interpretive skills. A chapter in Douglas
Hill’s Collected Thoughts about Teaching, Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance entitled
“Compose Yourself” encourages composition as a pedagogical experiment and a creative
exercise. 9 Subsequently, Jeffrey Agrell began a quarterly series in 2001 in The Horn Call
entitled “The Creative Hornist,” primarily dedicated to encouraging hornists to exercise
creativity through composition, arranging, and other outlets. These sources provide useful tools
for the aspiring composer, but they scarcely acknowledge the finished products of these efforts.
8
L. Paul Austin, “Contemporary Natural Horn Compositions: A Survey of Literature Composed between
1982 and 1992” (D.M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1994).
9
Douglas Hill, Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance (Miami:
Warner Brothers Publications U.S., 2001), 110–14.
3
Organization
This document begins with a short summary of the role of several important hornistcomposers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This chapter briefly considers the works
of Giovanni Punto (Jan Vaclav Stich), Louis François Dauprat, Jacques-François Gallay, and
Franz Strauss. I provide an overview of the historical precedents of today’s hornist-composers,
acknowledging their significant advances to horn technique and important works that are still
part of the repertory.
The primary section of this document is concerned with works for horn composed by
hornists from 1970 to 2005. I present selected examples of these works in three categories and
consider how modern hornist-composers have introduced jazz elements to the solo horn
repertoire by discussing selections from Lowell Shaw’s Just Desserts, David Amram’s Blues and
Variations for Monk, and Douglas Hill’s Jazz Set. I describe the contemporary use of the natural
horn in Lowell Greer’s Het Valkof, Jeffrey Snedeker’s Goodbye to a Friend, and Jeffrey Agrell’s
September Elegy. Because L. Paul Austin’s thesis covers a similar topic, I have selected two
works for natural horn composed after its publication. Furthermore, I have differentiated my
approach from his by looking closely at these three pieces, considering especially the use of
contemporary effects and harmonies and how they are employed on the natural horn. Finally, I
discuss the use of electronic media as a form of accompaniment in recent works for horn
including Randall Faust’s Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, Paul Basler’s Dance Fool,
Dance!, and Douglas Hill’s Thoughtful Wanderings.
At the beginning of each of these sections, I introduce the trend that links the examples,
placing the works within a context and discussing possible motivations for the use of jazz
elements, natural horn, and electronic accompaniments. For each of the representative works I
4
provide a brief biographical background for the composer, mention his most important
compositions for the horn, and discuss the pertinent details of the work including explanation
and musical examples of special technical or musical demands each work makes on the
performer. Information gleaned from interviews with the composers has informed my
discussion.
The second half of this project comprises a catalog of horn solo works composed by horn
performers from 1970 to 2005. For each work, I have included the composer, title, year
published (if available), medium, and publisher. I compiled this information from a variety of
sources, including WorldCat, composer catalogues, publishing companies, existing horn
bibliographies, and, whenever possible, the composers themselves. This bibliography is limited
to works that prominently feature the horn as a solo instrument, either unaccompanied or
accompanied. I have limited the composers listed to those who have performed professionally
for a significant period as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician, or university
professor. I intend for this bibliography to be a useful reference for a hornist looking for fresh
recital repertoire or who might be interested in presenting a recital based upon hornists as
composers. This list presents a number of options to those interested, and it also refers them to
appropriate publishers.
As the catalog reveals, the list of hornists who have participated in the creation of new
repertoire for the horn is lengthy. Many of these composers have contributed only a handful of
new works, while others have composed prolifically and added a wealth of quality works. I have
made an effort during the course of this survey to spotlight those composers whose music
demonstrates the aforementioned trends and whose contributions to the horn’s repertoire have
been significant beyond the few works that I will discuss. Regretfully, superlative hornist5
composers including Vitaly Buyanovsky, Bernhard Krol, Verne Reynolds, and Kerry Turner are
not discussed in this volume. This is due to the restrictions of subject matter and space, not to
any judgment on the quality of their music.
6
CHAPTER TWO
HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
For centuries hornists have contributed to the development of the horn’s technique
through their own compositions. Musicians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were
typically educated as performers, teachers, and composers and were frequently active in all of
these arenas. Historic hornists, such as Jean-Joseph Rodolphe (1730–1812), Giovanni Punto
(1748–1803), Heinrich Domnich (1767–1844), Louis François Dauprat (1781–1868), Giovanni
Puzzi (1792–1876), Jacques-François Gallay (1795–1864), Franz Strauss (1822–1905), and
Henri-Adrien-Louis Kling (1842–1918), all contributed to the horn repertoire. Many of their
works have been neglected or forgotten or make only occasional appearances on recitals. These
works reveal much about the development of the horn and its technique, and the special skills of
the performers themselves. Some accomplished hornists composed works primarily as vehicles
to display their own talents, whereas, others composed examination pieces for their students. In
many cases, works composed as a means of virtuosic display have not stood the test of time.
Historian Reginald Morley-Pegge expresses his distaste for such compositions:
Eminent performers, who were rarely gifted composers, wrote musically valueless
solos for themselves to show off their virtuosity to the best advantage, and in so
doing tried to make the horn accomplish feats for which by nature it was unfitted.
It must never be forgotten that the place of mere virtuosity, unless accompanied
by great artistry, is the Palace of Varieties or the Circus. 10
Attitudes like these have inhibited the study of the large volumes of music composed by
horn performers. While not all of the music composed by historic horn performers merits serious
study, many works have endured into the modern repertoire and deserve recognition. These
10
R. Morley-Pegge, The French Horn: Some Notes on the Evolution of the Instrument and of Its Technique
(London: Ernest Benn, 1978), 103–4.
7
works will be discussed throughout the course of this chapter. Furthermore, even those
“musically valueless solos” that were composed to show off a performer’s talent have value for
modern historians and performers. For historians they offer clues to recreating period
performance practice. They also reveal the extent of what it was possible to achieve on the horn
and paved the way for future performers and composers to take similar risks, thereby increasing
standards of horn technique.
Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni Punto)
One of the most prolific and influential of the early hornist-composers, Jan Vaclav Stich
became the eighteenth century’s most well-known horn virtuoso. Stich also played the violin,
conducted, and composed, but he made his reputation as a hornist. He was born into the service
of Count Joseph Johann von Thun in Bohemia, who was so impressed with his early talent on the
horn that he sent Stich to study with Matiegka in Prague, Schindelarz in Mannheim, and Hampel
and Haudek in Dresden. 11 At the completion of his schooling, Stich returned to Count von Thun,
only to abandon his service three years later to pursue a career as an international traveling
virtuoso. At this time, he Italianized his name to avoid being caught by the count’s servants,
who had been sent to find him and knock out his front teeth. Punto’s ensuing travels took him to
performances in Hungary, Italy, Spain, France, and England. During his travels he attracted the
attention of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Paris. Mozart wrote to his father, stating “Punto bläst
magnifique!” and composed the Sinfonia Concertante for Punto and a few of his colleagues. 12
Punto also impressed Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna and inspired him to compose the Sonata,
11
Ibid., 152.
12
W.A. Mozart, letter to father, April 5, 1778, quoted in Barry Tuckwell, Horn (London: Macdonald,
1983), 125.
8
Op. 17. Beethoven and Punto premiered the Sonata in April 1800. 13
A reviewer for the Prager Neue Zeitung described one of Punto’s performances as
follows:
Punto received enthusiastic applause for his concertos because of
his unparalleled mastery, and respected musicians said that they
had never before heard horn playing like it. This performance on a
usually clumsy instrument sang out in all registers. In his cadenzas
he produced many novel effects, playing two-and even three-part
chords. It demonstrated again that our fatherland can produce
great artistic and musical geniuses. 14
Punto composed sixteen concertos for horn and orchestra, one concerto for two horns and
orchestra, a large number of horn duets and trios, and various other works for mixed
ensembles. 15 While Punto was certainly a prolific composer for horn, evidence suggests that
some of these compositions were actually the work of other composers, including Carl Stamitz
and Antonio Rosetti, which Punto adapted and arranged to demonstrate his own abilities. 16 This
document will not explore the questions of authenticity, but will rather discuss the passages of
Punto’s music that demonstrate his compositional style and performance capabilities.
Punto’s horn compositions demand exceptional agility. The performer is asked to
negotiate wide leaps and rapid arpeggios, and to demonstrate tremendous hand horn technique in
passages of rapid runs. The use of such difficult hand work must have been quite surprising,
since the method of adjusting the pitch with the hand in the bell was a skill that was understood
13
Morley-Pegge, 153.
14
Prager Neue Zeitung, no. 39 (1801), 473, quoted in Tuckwell, Horn, 126.
15
Reginald Morley-Pegge, Horace Fitzpatrick, and Thomas Hiebert, “Punto, Giovanni [Stich, Johann
Wenzel (Jan Vaclav)],” Grove Music Online [Accessed 25 July 2007],
http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=145959527&hitnum=1&se
ction=music.22558.
16
Ibid.
9
by only a few horn players at the time. In 1792 Punto published the first method on hand horn
technique entitled Seule et Vraie Méthode pour apprendre facilement les Elémens des Premier et
Second Cors: Composée par Hampl et perfectionnée par Punto son Elève (The only true method
for easily learning the components of first and second horn: composed by Hampel and perfected
by Punto, his student). However, this method left many details to the reader’s imagination.
Authorities suggest that the practice of handstopping was still a specialized skill understood by
only a few masters and their pupils. 17 Though Punto’s concertos lack the grace or elegance of
those by Mozart, they do serve as a tour de force of the natural horn’s capabilities. His Concerto
No. 11 in E Major ends with a theme and variations movement, which is representative of
Punto’s compositional style. The theme and variations form allowed Punto plenty of
opportunities to compose increasingly difficult passagework and to show off his own astonishing
abilities. The following excerpts from the second and fourth variations are characteristic of
Punto’s style.
17
Tuckwell, 28.
10
Figure 1. Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni Punto), Concerto No. 11, III. Menuetto, mm. 50–78.
Figure 2. Jan Vaclav Stich (a.k.a. Giovanni Punto), Concerto No. 11, III. Menuetto, mm. 109–
20.
In this respect, Punto may be compared to Nicolo Paganini or Franz Liszt, later virtuoso
performer/composers of the nineteenth century. Several of Punto’s concertos, most notably
Concerto No. 1, Concerto No. 7, and Concerto No. 11 are still performed frequently on horn
recitals.
11
Louis-François Dauprat
Another influential hornist-composer of the nineteenth century, Louis-François Dauprat,
composed many pedagogical works as part of his role as professor at the Paris Conservatory.
Little is known of Dauprat’s early years. He sang as a choir boy in the Maitrise de Notre Dame
of Paris before deciding at age thirteen to play the horn. He began to study under Jean-Joseph
Kenn at the Paris Conservatory (then known as the Institut National de Musique.) He was the
first hornist to win a premier prix at the conservatory and was given a new silver horn made by
Raoux as a reward. After a short stint in the military, Dauprat returned to the Paris Conservatory
where he began harmony and composition studies under Charles-Simon Catel, François-Joseph
Gossec, and Antoine Reicha, and also assumed the position of Assistant Professor of Horn.
Dauprat’s teaching career is distinguished by his celebrated Méthode pour cor alto et cor basse,
published in 1824. This comprehensive method is generally recognized as the greatest
pedagogical resource of its time and one of the best horn treatises ever written. Dauprat’s
performance career included posts in the Paris Opéra, Chapelle-musique, and Societé des
Concerts du Conservatoire. Although Dauprat may have preferred the anonymity of the
orchestra to the attention of a featured soloist, 18 he nonetheless composed a large number of solo
works for horn. These works were primarily used as examination pieces for Dauprat’s students
at the Conservatory.
Louis-François Dauprat’s compositions include operas, symphonies, and many works for
horn. His output for solo horn and horn ensembles includes five published concertos (plus a
sixth concerto and concertino in manuscript), two sonatas, several solos for horn and piano, three
18
Grady Joel Green, Jr., “Louis-François Dauprat: His Life and Works” (D.D.E. diss., University of
Northern Colorado, 1970), 32.
12
quintets for horn and strings, and many horn duos, trios, quartets, and sextets. 19 Dauprat’s horn
ensemble works are noteworthy because of his practice of composing for horns crooked in
different keys. This practice widened the ensemble’s possibilities for playing different keys,
harmonies, and tone colors. Mozart used a similar technique in his G-minor Symphonies No. 25
and No. 40, where he employed two pairs of horns, a pair in G and a pair in B-flat.
Dauprat’s solo writing adheres to the formal and harmonic conventions of the early
nineteenth century. Although his approach to structure and harmony is conservative, his writing
for the solo horn is quite adventurous. Dauprat’s concertos typically feature lyrical melodies that
are simply presented in the exposition then embellished and ornamented until they resemble
etudes or virtuosic showpieces. His fourth horn concerto is subtitled Hommage à la Mémoire de
Punto and is composed in a median range and a style that is meant to emulate the playing style
and compositions of Punto. 20 In his other concertos, Dauprat frequently varied the rhythm by
juxtaposing duple and triple groupings. Many of Dauprat’s solo works for horn and piano, as
well as Concertos No. 3 and No. 5, feature two alternative solo parts, one for cor alto and one for
cor basse. The two parts are identical in many places; however, Dauprat composed slightly
different figurations to accommodate a high or low horn player. This excerpt from the end of the
third movement of Dauprat’s Concerto No. 5 clearly shows how Dauprat provided alternative
solo lines for cor alto and cor basso while maintaining the structure, harmony, and virtuosity of
the featured part.
19
Ibid., 57–99.
20
Louis-Francois Dauprat, Hornkonzert Nr. 4, op. 19, preface by Robert Ostermeyer (Leipzig: Robert
Ostermeyer Musikedition, 2005), preface.
13
Figure 3. Louis-Francois Dauprat, Concerto No. 5, III. Rondo – Bolero: Allegro moderato, mm.
140–58.
While many of Dauprat’s works for horn are still available, those most often performed
today include 20 Duets (for Horns in Different Keys) published by McCoy’s Horn Library and
Sonata in F for horn and harp published by Editions Chouden.
Jaques-François Gallay
Jaques-François Gallay was born in 1795 in Perpignan in southeast France. Gallay’s
father, an amateur horn player, supervised his early instruction. Gallay made his professional
debut at age fourteen, filling in for the solo hornist of the local theater who was indisposed by an
illness. The opera he played, Les Visitandines by François Devienne, featured an obbligato horn
solo of some difficulty, evidence that Gallay exhibited unusual talent at a young age. 21 Years
later, Gallay completed his first horn concerto in 1818, only six months after beginning
21
Amy Jo McBeth, “Jacques-Francois Gallay: A Study of his Life and Selected Works for Accompanied
Horn” (University of Iowa, 2005), 15–6.
14
composition lessons. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1820, despite being over age, and
studied horn with Dauprat. Following graduation, Gallay’s professional engagements included
the Odéon orchestra, Theatre Italien, Chapelle Royale, and Societé des Concerts. In 1842 Galley
took over Dauprat’s position as professor at the Paris Conservatory, where he remained until his
death in 1864. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, critics of
Gallay’s performance described “a bright tone quality, evenness between open and stopped notes
(aided by a preference for a narrow bell throat), secure attacks and clear technique.” 22
Gallay composed two concertos for horn and orchestra, many solos for horn and
orchestra or horn and piano (including several fantasies based on opera melodies of the time), a
large number of duets, a few trios, and several collections of very influential etudes and study
pieces. 23 Gallay’s performance expertise enabled him to compose music that is idiomatic for the
horn, capitalizing upon the horn’s most comfortable register and saving the extremes of range for
especially dramatic moments. Gallay’s penchant for melody and drama makes his compositions
enjoyable to play. His music features frequent dotted rhythms, surface chromaticism, modal
shifts, and other characteristic Romantic gestures. The primary theme from Gallay’s 11th Solo
displays his use of dotted rhythms, melody, and chromaticism within a tonal context.
22
Quoted and translated in Jeffrey Snedeker, “Gallay, Jacques Francois,” Grove Music Online (Accessed
25 June 2007), http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=470443256
&hitnum=1&section=music.10539.
23
Ibid.
15
Figure 4. Jacques-Francois Gallay, 11th Solo, mm. 22–42.
Gallay’s horn concertos and other horn solos are seldom heard in today’s performances.
However, his 40 Préludes, mésuré et non-mésuré are frequently used as teaching materials
because they explore technical challenges while offering tremendous freedom with regard to
interpretive choices. Figure 5 is an excerpt from one of these preludes that shows how Gallay’s
tendency toward melody, Romanticism, and drama display themselves in an unmeasured
composition.
Figure 5. Jacques-Francois Gallay, 40 Preludes, Op. 27, No. 26, unmeasured.
16
Philip Farkas recorded four of these Preludes on Shared Reflections: The Legacy of Philip
Farkas. 24
Franz Strauss
Although his legacy is invariably linked to the success of his son Richard, Franz Strauss
achieved a reputation of his own as the most gifted hornist of his time. Aside from his celebrated
solo and orchestral accomplishments, his compositions for horn remain some of the most often
performed works of a nineteenth-century hornist-composer. Born in 1822 in Parkstein, Bavaria,
Strauss suffered a difficult family life during his early years. His father left when Strauss was
five years old. He remained under the guardianship of his mother and her three brothers, one of
whom was a town watchman and music instructor. Strauss was apprenticed to this uncle, Johann
Georg Walter, who gave Strauss early instruction in violin, guitar, clarinet, trumpet, trombone,
and horn. Strauss was engaged to teach music lessons by the time he was nine years old and
traveled on foot to perform with the local band in nearby villages. 25 He joined the Munich Royal
Court Orchestra in 1847, a post he held for forty-two years. Strauss married Elise Seiff in 1851.
Within four years Strauss lost his eldest son to tuberculosis and his wife and daughter to cholera.
Strauss gave up his orchestral commitments for a period following these tragedies but soon
returned to the orchestra as a violist, resuming his position in the horn section after a couple of
years. More than a decade later Strauss married Josephine Pschorr, who became the mother of
24
Philip Farkas, et al. Shared Reflections: The Legacy of Philip Farkas, Tempe, AZ: Summit, 1995, DCD
176.
25
William Melton, “Franz Strauss: A Hero’s Life,” The Horn Call: Journal of the International Horn
Society 29, No. 2 (February 1999): 21.
17
Richard.
Strauss was frequently hailed as the most accomplished hornist of his day. Critics lauded
his strength, tone, articulation, and phrasing, which he especially enjoyed employing in works of
his favorite composers, including W. A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and
Felix Mendelssohn. Strauss’s musical preferences were conservative, but he favored a
progressive approach to the development of the horn. He is said to have begun playing on a Bflat horn in 1867 while most of his colleagues were still employing the Horn in F. 26 He was
frequently called upon in the Munich Royal Court Orchestra to perform Wagner’s operas. While
the personalities of the two men regularly clashed, Wagner respected Strauss’s talent. He once
commented, “This Strauss fellow is really intolerable, but when he plays it is impossible to be
angry with him.” 27 Wagner even asked Strauss for advice on the composition of the famed horn
call in Siegfried.
Franz Strauss began composing during his teens but composed many of his works around
the 1870s. His works from this period include two horn concertos, five works for horn and
piano, a collection of horn quartets, and a number of other dances and marches. He also
composed two collections of etudes that were published posthumously by Richard. Franz
Strauss’s conservative musical preferences are clearly audible in his works for horn. His
Fantasie, Les Adieux, Nocturno, Concerto, Op. 8, and Theme and Variations are standard fare
among today’s hornists. These works are beloved for their beautiful Romantic melodies and for
exploiting the horn’s trademark lyrical and heroic qualities.
26
Ibid., 23.
27
Richard Strauss, “Erinnerungen an meinen Vater,” Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen, ed. Willi Schuh
(Zurich, 1981), 153, quoted in Melton, 25.
18
Franz Strauss’s Concerto, Op. 8, is one of his most frequently performed works. The
opening theme of this work reveals his love of beautiful melodies, conservative Romantic
harmony, and surface chromaticism and ornamentation.
Figure 6. Franz Strauss, Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra, mm. 1–56.
Unlike Punto’s virtuosic works, Strauss’s compositions are not excessively difficult to play.
They are, however, quite idiomatic and showcase the best qualities of the horn’s timbre, a sound
that Strauss insisted could be attained only through the practice of long tones and interval
studies. 28
28
Quoted in Melton, 23.
19
CHAPTER THREE
TRENDS IN WORKS BY HORNIST-COMPOSERS (1970–2005)
Just as historic hornist-composers advanced horn technique by way of their adventurous
compositions during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, today’s hornist-composers continue
to explore new avenues for creativity and to enrich the solo horn repertoire by introducing ideas
that were previously foreign to the solo hornist’s experience. The output of modern hornistcomposers is as varied as the composers themselves. Kerry Turner composes in a Western, neoromantic style that features cantabile melodies and acrobatic passages, often delivered at a
blinding pace. Gunther Schuller’s works capitalize on atonal harmonies and widespread use of
descant and triple horns, which challenge the range and endurance of many of today’s
performers. Douglas Hill exposes the spectrum of extended techniques possible on the horn and
employs them to great effect in several of his works. This list could continue. Nonetheless, an
exploration of the repertoire composed by horn performers between 1970 and 2005 has revealed
several trends, which have occupied many of that period’s most influential hornist-composers.
These trends demonstrate areas that are relatively new to the horn field and yet are increasingly a
part of every professional hornist’s experience. Through their compositions for solo horn,
hornist-composers have helped to project these ideas into the mainstream of the horn’s
repertoire. These trends include jazz influences, contemporary use of the natural horn, and use
of electronic media in combination with the horn.
20
First Trend: Jazz Elements
Traditionally, the horn has rarely been included in jazz combos or jazz bands. Jazz
hornist Tom Varner explains that the horn’s timbre has difficulty penetrating jazz textures and
that the closeness of adjacent harmonics makes the horn a precarious instrument in jazz
settings. 29 This difficulty is compounded by the fact that few hornists study jazz as a part of
their educational curriculum. Yet, in the past several decades, a handful of hornists have
managed to succeed as jazz artists, and many others have dabbled in jazz while maintaining
careers as orchestral musicians and university professors. Hornists such as John Clark, Arkady
Shilkloper, Rick Todd, Adam Unsworth, and Tom Varner have all released jazz recordings. 30
Horn conferences frequently feature performances by jazz hornists and open-mike nights to
encourage free improvisation. Jazz skills are increasingly in demand in traditional horn jobs,
including orchestra jobs, which rely upon pops concerts for a substantial percentage of their
revenue. Clearly, the jazz idiom has entered horn culture.
As many hornists have become involved in jazz, some hornist-composers have also been
eager to incorporate jazz styles into the solo horn repertoire. Perhaps because jazz
improvisation and composition have so much in common, several jazz hornists have become
some of the most prolific composers of solo music for the horn. In recent decades these horn
29
Jeffrey Agrell, “Jazz and the Horn: Tom Varner,” Brass Bulletin 47 (1984): 56–7.
30
John Clark, Faces, ECM 1-1176; Il Suono, Germany: CMP Records, 1993, CMP CD59; I Will, New
York: Postcards, Inc., 1997, POST 1016; Song of Light, HMM 001; Arkady Shilkloper, Hornology, Moscow:
Boheme Music, 1998, CDBMR 809016; Mauve, Vienna: Quinton, 2001, Q0106-2; Pilatus, Moscow: Boheme
Music, 2000, CDBMR 906063; Richard Todd, New ideas, Newton Centre, MA: GM Recordings, 1985, GM2010;
Adam Unsworth, Excerpt This!, Wyncote, PA: Unsworth Music, 2006, 783707282008; TomVarner, Tom Varner
Quartet, Milano: Soul Note, 1981, SN 1017; Motion/stillness, Tom Varner quartet. Milano: Soul Note, 1983, SN
1067; Second Communion, Winthrop, MA: OmniTone, 2001, 12102; Swimming, Winthrop, MA: OmniTone, 1999,
11903.
21
performers have introduced jazz elements to a significant body of horn solo music. Among
these solo works are several collections by Douglas Hill, including Jazz Soliloquies, Jazz Set for
Solo Horn, and Song Suite in Jazz Style, David Amram’s Blues and Variations for Monk, and
Lowell Shaw’s Just Desserts. A collection entitled Jazz Café, Volume I, published by Southern
Music Company, includes a number of jazz horn works composed by jazz hornists including
Thomas Bacon, Vincent Chancey, John Clark, and Tom Varner. Other hornists, such as Jeffrey
Agrell, Paul Basler, Bernhard Krol, and Verne Reynolds, have also incorporated aspects of jazz
into their compositions for horn. Of these many solo horn works that feature jazz elements, this
document will focus on numbers nine and eleven from Shaw’s Just Desserts (1999), Amram’s
Blues and Variations for Monk (1982), and Hill’s Jazz Set for Solo Horn (1982–4).
In a talk he gave in 1983, hornist, composer, jazz artist, and historian Gunther Schuller
offered the following explanation of “What Makes Jazz Jazz?” He said:
Jazz is an inherently creative music, not primarily commercially oriented
(however much the commercial musics may steal and borrow from it);
that it is essentially an improvised music, that improvisation is and has
been always the heart and soul of jazz; that it is generally couched in a
rhythmic language based on a regular beat, modified by free rhythmic,
often syncopated, inflections, all with a specific feeling and linear
conception we call “swing”; and finally that jazz is, unlike many other
musical traditions, both European and ethnic / non-Western, a music
based on the free unfettered expression of the individual. This last is
perhaps the most radical and most important aspect of jazz, and that
which differentiates it so dramatically from most other forms of musicmaking on the face of the globe. 31
Within this broad definition of jazz are included a number of diverse styles, ranging
from blues, Dixieland, swing, bebop, cool jazz, free jazz, funk, fusion, and more. Each of these
styles possesses its own approach to melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre, complicated even
31
Gunther Schuller, “What Makes Jazz Jazz?” in Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 27.
22
more by the idiosyncrasies of the artists who have characterized the art form and its
development. This diversity of styles makes generalizations about jazz history and theory
difficult. For the purpose of this document, each selected solo horn work will be related to the
style of jazz it best represents. While these works are heavily influenced by jazz, they do not
include improvisation. Listeners will recognize that they belong much more to the recital stage
than the jazz club. The compositions in the Jazz Café collection do include opportunities for
improvisation and are much more suited to an authentic jazz setting than the works discussed in
this study.
A survey of the horn’s involvement in jazz during previous decades and at present
provides an appropriate context for the exploration of jazz elements in the modern horn
repertoire. Schuller credited Jack Cave as the first hornist to perform and record in a jazz
setting. 32 He can be heard on Artie Shaw’s Frenesi record from 1939. Other hornists quickly
followed suit. John Graas performed with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra beginning in 1942 and
recorded with artists including Stan Kenton, Shorty Rogers, and Pete Rugolo. A hornist and
composer whose credits include positions with the Indianapolis and Cleveland Orchestras and a
commission from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, 33 Graas also became the first hornist to
lead his own jazz group in California. 34 Following these two trailblazers, the best-known of the
early jazz horn pioneers is Julius Watkins. During his early career, Watkins found it necessary to
play trumpet in several big bands in order to make a living. However, in 1949 he performed as
French horn soloist on an album with Kenny Clarke. Watkins later recorded on horn with most
32
Gunther Schuller, Horn Technique, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), preface.
33
Steven Strunk, “Graas, John (Jacob, Jr.).” Grove Music Online (accessed 15 October 2006),
http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=jazz.174300.
34
Schuller, Horn Technique, preface.
23
of the notable names of the time, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dizzie
Gillespie, Charlie Mingus, Thelonius Monk, and Oscar Peterson. 35 Hornists Junior Collins,
Gunther Schuller, and Sandy Siegelstein can be heard with the Miles Davis Nonet on the
landmark Birth of the Cool album. 36 David Amram, who will be discussed in more detail
below, performed in jazz clubs in Frankfurt, Paris, and other European cities, as well as in New
York City.
Other hornists, including John Barrows, James Buffington, Vince DeRosa, Earl Chapin,
Paul Ingraham, and Ray Alonge were also active in the jazz scene during the middle of the
twentieth century. Many of these artists, most notably Schuller, Barrows, and DeRosa, were also
accomplished classical hornists, holding positions in symphony orchestras, opera orchestras,
motion picture recording orchestras, and on the faculty of major universities. These artists
helped to dispel the myth that performers could not excel in both classical music and jazz.
A new generation of jazz hornists took the stage around the early 1980s and continue to
perform and record frequently. John Clark is a New York hornist whose credits include a
number of Broadway shows and motion picture soundtracks as well as recordings or
performances with the likes of Thelonius Monk, Frank Sinatra, Ornette Coleman, Gil Evans,
Charlie Mingus, Billy Joel, and Sting. For several years he led his own group, the John Clark
Quintet, and he has recorded a number of solo and ensemble jazz CDs. Tom Varner, who
relocated to Seattle in 2005 after being active in New York for many years, is recognized for his
35
Douglas Hill, “Jazz and Horn and More,” The Horn Call: Journal of the International Horn Society 26,
No. 1 (November 1995): 17.
36
Miles Davis, notes from Birth of the Cool, Capital Records, 1948, LP.
24
large output of solo CDs. 37 He has served as leader for several groups including a quartet known
as Hemoglobin, a trio called American Songs, and the Tom Varner Quartet. On the West Coast,
jazz hornist Richard Todd performs in classical ensembles including the Los Angeles Chamber
Orchestra and the Santa Barbara Symphony, and also records frequently as a studio musician.
He can be found on countless movie soundtracks and has released several jazz feature CDs. 38
Russian hornist Arkady Shilkloper has released several jazz horn CDs and has even succeeded in
adapting the alphorn to a jazz setting. 39 In his recordings and in live settings, Shilkloper
frequently records his own improvisations and plays them back as a vamp, improvising new
melodies above his own improvisations and creating layers of improvised riffs and melodies.
Other hornists who have been active as jazz artists during the last couple of decades include Tom
Bacon, Vincent Chancey, Peter Gordon, Willie Ruff, and Jeffrey Snedeker, among others. A
relative newcomer to the jazz horn scene is Adam Unsworth, who recently relinquished his job
as fourth horn with the Philadelphia Orchestra to become professor of horn at the University of
Michigan. Unsworth released his first jazz CD, Excerpt This!, in 2006. 40 A former student of
Douglas Hill, he employs a variety of instruments in his compositions including violin, flute,
bass clarinet, and horn to create a unique jazz texture.
37
TomVarner, Tom Varner Quartet, Milano: Soul Note, 1981, SN 1017; Motion/stillness, Tom Varner
quartet. Milano: Soul Note, 1983, SN 1067; Second Communion, Winthrop, MA: OmniTone, 2001, 12102;
Swimming, Winthrop, MA: OmniTone, 1999, 11903.
38
Richard Todd, New ideas, Newton Centre, MA: GM Recordings, 1985, GM2010.
39
Arkady Shilkloper, Hornology, Moscow: Boheme Music, 1998, CDBMR 809016; Mauve, Vienna:
Quinton, 2001, Q0106-2; Pilatus, Moscow: Boheme Music, 2000, CDBMR 906063.
40
Adam Unsworth, Excerpt This!, Wyncote, PA: Unsworth Music, 2006, 783707282008.
25
Lowell Shaw–Just Desserts
Hornist, teacher, and composer Lowell Shaw is best known for Fripperies, a collection
of horn quartets composed to introduce his students to the rhythms, styles, and articulations of
big band music. Shaw’s first attempts at arranging music occurred in high school, when he
frequently assembled arrangements for his woodwind quintet. During undergraduate study at
Northwestern University, Shaw took one course in instrumental composition. “It turned into the
only incomplete that I ever had in my scholastic career. I thought I had to write Brahms’s fifth
symhony.” 41 Later, Shaw was exposed to jazz styles and jazz arranging during a stint in the Air
Force from 1951 to 1955. 42 He filled in with the dance band there when they were missing a
trombonist. During this period Shaw observed the work of the band’s arrangers, learning what
he could about the way they arranged jazz charts.
Later, when he was serving as horn professor and band director at the University of
Buffalo, Shaw created a university dance band and encouraged his horn students to join the
group. However, instead of immersing them in this setting without any jazz experience, he
composed Fripperies to help prepare them for the new challenges they would encounter in the
dance band. Initially, the Fripperies were intended solely as pedagogical tools. At the
suggestion of a few of Shaw’s friends, however, in 1964 he and three friends created The
Hornists’ Nest, a publishing company that made available Fripperies and several horn
arrangements. Shaw said he argued against publishing Fripperies because they seemed too silly
and frivolous. Sales were slow at first, but after presenting a workshop on them at the 1972
41
Lowell Shaw, interview with author, 9 July 2007, Frankfurt, Michigan.
42
Wallace Easter, “Ride of the Fripperies,” The Horn Call: Journal of the International Horn Society 30,
No. 2 (February 2000): 47.
26
International Horn Workshop at Indiana University at Bloomington, sales began to take off.
The first of Just Desserts was also composed in preparation for this workshop. Shaw asserts that
he wrote it in about twenty minutes before the workshop to serve as a demonstration. 43
While a number of hornists were already performing and recording as jazz artists in the
1960s, this collection by Lowell Shaw was the first compilation of works with a jazz flavor that
were composed for horn ensemble and intended for the general horn playing community. The
Fripperies are now accompanied by Quipperies for horn quintet, Tripperies for horn trio,
Bipperies for horn duo, and Just Desserts for solo horn. All of these collections share the aim of
presenting hornists with the rhythms, styles, and articulations of jazz music in order to introduce
classically oriented hornists to the language of jazz. They are accessible in range and technique.
Shaw explains, “I was never a high horn player. My aim was to write stuff that I would have
enjoyed playing.” 44 The compositional style is not excessively complicated, and the results are
entertaining for performers and audiences alike. The harmony is also quite accessible. Shaw
states that his harmonic ideas are reminiscent of barbershop quartet music. 45 A couple of years
after their initial publication, Shaw wrote an optional additional bass part to accompany the Just
Desserts, inspired by a “jam session” with his son, a cellist. For those who might be interested in
learning to play in jazz styles, Just Desserts are a good place to start.
Shaw describes Just Desserts number nine as having a “Dixieland flavor.”46 Indeed, the
melodic style of this piece mimics that of Dixieland with its simple, singable, syncopated
43
Shaw, interview by author.
44
Ibid.
45
Ibid.
46
Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts–Frippery Style (Buffalo, NY: The Hornists’ Nest, 1999), preface.
27
melodic lines. Following the initial presentation of the melody, the subsequent stanzas are
written-out improvisations that paraphrase and embellish the original material. Unlike later jazz
artists who frequently ignored the original melody and improvised on chord changes, this music
is reminiscent of New Orleans Dixieland, where front-line players improvised on the melody. Of
course, absent here are the intersecting improvised lines, the polyphonic web of melodies that
characterizes Dixieland music. This feature is impossible to imitate with only a single solo
instrument. This selection demands swung eighth notes and includes accents that occur
sometimes on the beat, sometimes off the beat, and sometimes in patterns that suggest hemiolas.
Shaw asserts that uneven eighth notes and unusual accent placements, especially those at the
ends of beats two and four, caused him special trouble when he was first learning to play in a
jazz style. 47 For that reason they are a common feature in his jazz-oriented works for horn.
These variable accent placements are evident from the first phrase of this piece.
Figure 7. Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts #9, mm. 1–5.
Just Desserts number eleven is a twelve-bar blues. Blues form is based upon the
following twelve-measure harmonic progression:
I-I-I-I, IV-IV-I-I, V-IV-I-I
Figure 8. Twelve-bar blues harmonic progression.
47
Ibid.
28
This progression is contrary to the usual dominant-tonic direction of most Western music and
instead is the result of African call-and-response structures integrated with the plagal cadences
heard in the “Amen” that closes hymns in many American Protestant churches. Although the
basic blues progression is rather simple, composers frequently elaborate the basic progression
with chord substitutions and added harmonies. Such is the case in Shaw’s Just Desserts number
eleven. This progression is not explicitly stated during this number, but a distinct relationship to
this structure remains evident. The piece remains faithful to this progression for the first eight
measures of each variation, but it is altered at the end of the progression by substituting a V/V-VI-V sequence that leads smoothly back to the beginning of the pattern. The horn part suggests
this alteration, which is confirmed by the accompanying bass part. In the following excerpt, the
beginning of each twelve-bar progression is indicated by a rehearsal letter.
Figure 9. Lowell Shaw, Just Desserts #11 (bass part), mm. 37–54.
Another distinguishing characteristic of the blues is the use of the blues notes. While
there are several variations on the blues scale, this number uses the most traditional, a six-note
29
scale that features the lowered third, raised fourth, and lowered seventh scale degrees. These
characteristic tones are known as “blue notes.”
Figure 10. Blues scale
This scale forms the basis for the melodic vocabulary of this piece. Just as Shaw elaborated the
blues progression by adding and substituting chords, he also added melodic interest through the
addition of notes not found in the blues scale. The employment of the blues scale with additional
decorating notes is common practice among blues musicians. A closer look at phrases of this
piece reveals the work’s general reliance upon the blues scale.
Figure 11. Lowell E. Shaw, Just Desserts #11, mm. 1–10.
The blues scale is found throughout the piece, but the final measures emphasize this pitch
collection by stating the scale explicitly in the third measure before the end.
30
Figure 12. Lowell E. Shaw, Just Desserts #11, mm. 63–6.
Like Just Desserts number nine, this selection also demonstrates swung eighth notes and the
offbeat accents that one expects from a composition of Lowell Shaw.
David Amram–Blues and Variations for Monk
David Amram’s career has spanned so many disciplines and musical styles that he is
difficult to characterize. A horn player who has performed with the National Symphony
Orchestra and in jazz settings across the United States and abroad, Amram is also a sought-after
composer, conductor, world music scholar, and soloist. Aside from the horn, Amram is
proficient on the piano, guitar, and a variety of flutes and percussion instruments that he has
discovered during his explorations of world musics. His compositions blend classical ideas with
influences from jazz, folk, and world music.
As a teenager, Amram studied composition with Wendell Margrave in Washington D.C.
According to Amram, Margrave “was a big proponent of Bach and understanding Bach chorales
Bach inventions, fugues, and the construction of Bach’s music and the three hundred years of
music before Bach. . . . He explained to me that that was the grounding for Western music.” 48
At the Manhattan School of Music, Amram studied composition with Vittorio Giannini and
Noah Uhlelah, from whom he learned the fundamentals of composition, ear training, theory, and
species counterpoint. Amram also took seven influential lessons with an American composer
48
David Amram, telephone interview with author, 22 September 2007.
31
named Charles Gills. “Those seven lessons with him opened up my mind to everything that I
had dreamed of doing and I always was told I couldn’t do and just gave me the encouragement
and inspiration to dare to go ahead and try to do what I had been doing all my life anyway:
combining the principals of the Baroque composers, as composers who also performed and
improvised, and to write music with enough clarity so that those who performed it would be able
to feel that they were being creative, and to try to do it in my own voice.” 49
Amram’s primary horn instruction was supervised by Abe Kniaz, whose emphasis on
the importance of being able to playing in various styles influenced Amram to combine his
passion for jazz with his passion for the horn. “He not only taught me a lot of the fundamentals
of horn playing, but also emphasized the importance of trying to take the music off the page and
be creative in the spirit of whoever the composer was whose works you were playing.” 50
“Playing jazz was just simply another language, another style, another procedure, another series
of nuances, another way of playing great music, and it wasn’t foreign, and it wasn’t wrong, and it
wasn’t for any special kind of person.” 51
Amram composed Blues and Variations for Monk in memory of his close friend
Theolonius Monk, an influential jazz pianist, composer, and arranger most recognized for his
contribution to the bebop style. Amram became associated with Monk and his family when he
moved to New York City in 1955. “They took me into their home and made me feel welcome
and encouraged me to do what I was doing and were really nice to me. T.S. Monk was only five
years old. Now he’s in his fifties and we still see each other and play together whenever we can.
49
Ibid.
50
Ibid.
51
Ibid.
32
So the piece itself was kind of a thank-you to the whole Monk family for their kindness to me
and also a tribute to Thelonius himself and all that he did to upgrade twentieth-century music.” 52
Like Just Desserts number twelve, Blues and Variations for Monk is based on the
twelve-bar blues form and employs the blues scale on C. The style of the piece is meant to
emulate Monk’s compositional style. “When I wrote the Monk piece, I was trying to use
elements of what Monk himself used for his compositions, and I stayed always within the
harmonic framework of the 12-bar blues. That’s of course what Monk so often did in some of
his classic composition. It’s just that he used expanded harmonies and amazing rhythmical
procedures and sounds and colors.” 53 Amram intended for the whole piece to sound like a
perfect, improvised solo. “It would be something that would sound as if it was being made up on
the spot but really had a perfect musical structure.” 54 After a short introduction, Amram
introduces the theme for the work.
Figure 13. David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk, mm. 9–20.
52
Ibid.
53
Ibid.
54
Ibid.
33
The theme is followed by five improvisatory-sounding variations. In the second variation,
Amram includes a nod to the absent rhythm section, as the hornist is instructed to tap the bell of
the horn in rhythm and to articulate a pulse through the horn with air only, simulating a high hat
and brushes on cymbals.
Figure 14. David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk, mm. 37–44.
The fourth variation references the “wah-wah” of a trumpet with a plunger mute. In this
instance, the “wah” effect is accomplished by closing the hand in the bell. The performer
should be aware of a few misprints in this section in the published edition. These “wah-wah”
effects are notated as half-step intervals, but they should be performed as whole-step intervals in
order to be consistent with the pitches of the blues scale. Furthermore, the first three measures
of this variation were printed in error and should be cut in order to maintain the 12-bar blues
form.
Openness to influence and source materials from other styles of music, including pop,
folk, classical, and ethnic musics is a common feature in jazz music. These sources may be the
34
basis for a tune or harmonic progression, absorbed into the musical texture, or quoted in the
midst of an improvisation. In the fifth and final variation of Blues and Variations for Monk,
Amram employs this practice to acknowledge the classical horn-playing tradition. In this
variation, he quotes a well-known horn excerpt, the call from Siegfried’s Rhine Journey, which
he interrupts with a harmonic surprise to conclude the variation.
Figure 15. David Amram, Blues and Variations for Monk, mm. 81–83.
Blues and Variations for Monk concludes with a restatement of the theme and a brief “bluesy”
coda that restates the opening gesture.
When Amram wrote Blues and Variations for Monk, he had no idea that the piece would
acquire such a following. “I was out in Taos, New Mexico doing something with a whole
orchestra. . . . I gave him [Douglas Hill] a manuscript copy with a signed picture of me in a
cowboy hat playing a French horn and I think I signed it ‘For Doug Hill and the underground
horn players of America’ or something. I assumed he was just going to play it one time.” 55
Amram explained that copies of the piece began to circulate in the horn community and that it
was performed many times, including an excellent performance by Tony Ciccere at the Library
of Congress. Later, Amram invited T. S. Monk, Thelonius’s son, to hear the piece at a museum
55
Ibid.
35
concert. With the encouragement of T. S. and the interest of the horn community, Amram finally
published the work in 1991.
Douglas Hill–Jazz Set
Douglas Hill’s prolific compositional output defies his minimal composition training.
Aside from a brief experience with Roger Johnson at the Rocky Ridge Music Center when he
was a junior in high school, Hill credits Robert Beadell at the University of Nebraska and Yehudi
Wyner at Yale University for commenting informally on some of his early works. Hill said he
really started dabbling in composition when he attained a symphony orchestra job after college
and realized that he had a lot of free time. During this period he composed a series of horn duos
and trios which were published by The Hornists’ Nest. In the late 1980s, Hill began composing
more regularly, producing a new work almost every year. 56
During the past decade, Hill has been a strong advocate of composition by horn
performers. His article “Compose Yourself” resulted from a talk given at the 1998 International
Horn Workshop in Kansas City, Missouri. This article outlines Hill’s thoughts about
composition by performers. Hill avers that composition is absolutely necessary for performers.
Regardless of whether a hornist composes a work for publication or for his or her own
enjoyment, the process of writing music forces a performer to consider the composer’s
perspective. This process centers the performer’s focus on realizing the composer’s intentions in
performance instead of trying to sound like an accomplished hornist. 57 “Isn’t it interesting that
we can get a doctor’s degree in performance without ever having created an original piece of
56
Douglas Hill, interview by author, 12 July 2007.
57
Ibid.
36
performance music? You can’t get a doctorate in dance without choreographing. You can’t get
a doctorate in English without writing something. You can’t get a doctorate in art without
creating something original of your own. But we can get performance degrees without ever
having created a piece of original music.” 58
Among Hill’s compositions, several reveal an interest in incorporating elements of jazz.
A former student of hornist Paul Ingraham, Hill is one of the primary scholars who have
researched both contemporary and historic jazz hornists. Although his resume includes positions
with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic, as well as his present
role as professor of horn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he has performed in jazz
settings and can be heard on recordings of his own jazz-oriented compositions. 59 Hill actually
began his performance career as a jazz double bassist prior to his experience as a jazz hornist.
Hill describes the inspiration behind his Jazz Set as “a parent’s feelings and responses to
his child.” 60 The programmatic movement titles include “Lost and Found,” Cute ‘n Sassy,”
“Lullaby Waltz,” and “Fussin’ for Emily,” and represent a series of interactions between parent
and child. Hill, who wrote a handbook on the use of extended techniques for horn, demonstrates
these interactions with a wide variety of effects, including doinks, drops, wah-wahs, quarter
tones, glissandos, squeals, vibrato, multiphonics, flutter tongue, “spit-tongue attacks,” half-valve
techniques, percussive effects, and many more. Extended techniques such as these are frequently
found in recent works by hornist-composers who have sought to expand the timbral possibilities
58
Ibid.
59
Douglas Hill, A Solo Voice, Newton Centre, MA: GM Recordings, 1987, GM2017; The Modern Horn,
Camas, WA: Crystal Records, 1984, S672.
60
Douglas Hill, program notes from Thoughtful Wanderings, Musicians Showcase Recordings MS1060,
2000, compact disc.
37
of the horn. 61 Examples of them will be discussed in several of the works featured in this
document. However, nowhere are they as apparent as in these jazz-influenced movements by
Douglas Hill. Because jazz musicians have traditionally been very open to experiments with
unique tone qualities and timbral effects, these movements seem an appropriate outlet for Hill’s
many progressive techniques.
Composed between 1982 and 1984, these four movements make extraordinary demands
on the performer, utilizing both high and low extremes of range and requiring a facile technique.
Although the demands of these movements are beyond the scope of much of the traditional
repertoire, Hill and others have recorded and performed these works with great success. Only a
few professional hornists were willing to attempt Jazz Set when it was first composed, but Hill
recounts that many hornists today, including university students and at least one high school
student, have performed this work. 62 Increased willingness by hornists to approach such difficult
music is motivated in part by the existence of the music itself. Hill cites Verne Reynolds’s 48
Etudes as another instance where the work of an adventurous hornist-composer raised the
standards of technique for the whole horn community. These etudes, which many believed were
unplayable when they were first published in 1961, are now frequently part of a horn student’s
undergraduate or graduate curriculum. Although Jazz Set did not immediately attract the same
degree of attention as Reynolds’s Etudes, more hornists are embracing new techniques and
61
Extended techniques for the horn have been the subject of much recent research. For an explanation of
the various extended techniques, pedagogical considerations of extended techniques, and examples of extended
techniques in the horn repertoire, consult the following: Douglas Hill, Extended Techniques for the Horn: A
Practical Handbook for Composers and Performers (Hialeah, FL: Studio 224, 1983); Timothy Thompson,
“Extended Techniques for the Horn: An Historical Overview with Practical Performance Applications” (D.M.A.
thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997); Karen Robertson-Smith, An Annotated Bibliography of Works for
Unaccompanied Horn, 1975–1995 (D.M.A. thesis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1998); James A. Criswell,
The Horn in Mixed Media Compositions Through 1991 (D.M.A. thesis, University of Maryland, 1995).
62
Hill, interview with author, 12 July 2007.
38
challenges as they become familiar with this work and others like it. Hill believes that today’s
hornists are more open to new challenges than many performers of previous generations. “I
would say things have changed quite a bit. I think horn players [today] are much more
adventurous. I think they’re looking for ways to do things that others don’t do. I think horn
players are just getting a lot more interesting.” 63 Hill’s own practical experience as a horn
performer benefits Jazz Set as well. While he may push the envelope, he is fully aware of the
horn’s capabilities and never demands anything that is beyond the reach of possibility.
The emotional content of the first movement, “Lost and Found,” ranges from sadness to
feelings of loss to anger and despair. Jazz characteristics in this movement include a variety of
subdivisions over an implied steady beat, suggestions of a walking bass, and many of the abovementioned timbral effects. During the “lost” section of the movement, Hill displays sadness
through sagging pitches, notes that are indicated a quarter tone low, and other “falling” gestures.
Figure 16. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Lost and Found,” mm. 16–18.
The quarter tones in this movement are indicated by arrows and alternate fingerings (designated
in parenthesis). These fingerings take advantage of harmonics that are naturally out of tune.
After this morose beginning, the “found” section immediately jumps to double and then
quadruple time. This burst of activity is punctuated by moments where fluttering valves,
63
Ibid.
39
glissandos, and tremolos depict a person in a frenzied state. A meterless, contemplative interlude
interrupts this flurry, characterized by undulating sobs and pulsating vibrato in the low register.
An indication at the beginning of the second movment, “Cute ‘n Sassy,” designates that
the opening figure should be performed with “bebop eighths.” The relationship of this
movement to bebop is easy to identify. Bebop is characterized by fiery tempos, angular
melodies, large intervals, erratic phrase lengths, and dramatic use of silences. These traits are all
evident from the opening statement, a quick clause that frequently recurs in the movement and
ties its many surprising outbursts into a unified whole.
Figure 17. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Cute ‘n Sassy,” mm. 1–8.
Hill mentioned that the music of Thelonius Monk influenced him while writing this movement. 64
Among the extended techniques Hill employs in this playful movement are valve fluttering, halfvalve glissandos, flutter tongue, and a percussive effect created by loudly sucking air through the
horn while kissing the mouthpiece. Another effect in this movement, the “spit tongue attack” is
described by Hill as a “very short, sudden, indiscriminate attack at a general pitch level done by
pursing the lips into a tight aperture, arching the tongue to the front of he mouth and forcing out
64
Douglas Hill, interview by author, 18 January 2007, Madison, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
40
the consonant sound “pt” as if spitting a hair off of your lip.” 65
Following these peculiar opening movements, the third movement, “Lullabye Waltz,” is
refreshingly simple. It begins as a gentle ballad that gradually accelerates into an upbeat waltz
based on the original melody. Hill describes the program of this movement as an experience he
had while trying to lull his young daughter, Emily, to sleep. Despite his best efforts to calm her,
the music suggests that Emily had other ideas. 66 Hill’s extended techniques are kept to a
minimum here, leaving space for lyrical expression. This movement is composed in arch form,
the waltz framed by singing statements of the ballad melody, and closes with a brief return to the
waltz that picks up speed until it crashes into the final flourish.
The final movement, “Fussin’ for Emily,” is in the style of Fusion, a type of playing that
combines elements of jazz and rock music. The opening theme is a playful tune that Hill sang to
his daughter as a young girl. 67
Figure 18. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Fussin’ for Emily,” mm. 1–19.
From the rock tradition, one can hear the driving beat and repetitive melodic segments. More
65
Douglas Hill, Jazz Set (Newton Centre, MA: Margun Music, 1984), Notations.
66
Hill, interview by author, 18 January 2007.
67
Ibid.
41
reminiscent of jazz are the walking bass lines and the reliance upon the blues scale. A “doowap” effect is accomplished by moving the hand in the bell from a half-stopped position to an
open position on a single partial.
A middle section features multiphonics in a series of short duets in which the
performer’s playing accompanies his/her simultaneous singing through the horn.
Figure 19. Douglas Hill, Jazz Set, “Fussin’ for Emily,” mm. 65–73.
This kind of vocalization has existed since the first half of the eighteenth century. Giovanni
Punto was known for his performance of horn chords, and they make a well-known appearance
in Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino in E minor, Opus 45. Contemporary composers have
revived this technique to some degree. Nonetheless, the use of polyphonic parts sung and played
simultaneously requires substantial practice and makes only isolated appearances in the horn
repertoire.
As stated earlier, jazz composers frequently draw inspiration from a variety of musical
sources. Hill ties the parent/child interaction theme of the four movements together near the end
by quoting the theme from Sesame Street. The movement concludes with a restatement of the
opening. This time, however, the theme is to be played in a staccatissimo-funk style.
42
Second Trend: Contemporary Use of the Natural Horn
While many contemporary hornists have looked to jazz to find inspiration for their
compositions, other hornists have looked to the ancestry of the horn to find new ideas for modern
works. In recent decades, a rebirth of interest in the instruments and performance practices of
previous centuries has resulted in a revival of the natural horn. The development of period music
ensembles has necessitated the training of skilled performers on historic instruments, resulting in
a resurgence of natural horn teachers and builders. Furthermore, a number of recordings in
recent decades have featured eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works performed on natural
horn. The movement toward incorporating historical performance practices into performances of
works of previous centuries has been so influential during the past three decades that the natural
horn, once a point of interest among specialized scholars, is now taught in many universities and
conservatories worldwide. Hornist-composers have embraced this movement and created an
increasing body of new works for the historic natural horn.
Before discussing how composers have employed the natural horn for contemporary
compositions, a few brief notes about the natural horn’s origin and performance technique are
appropriate. Descended from the hunting horn, the natural horn is the valveless ancestor to the
modern orchestral horn. During its early existence as a musical instrument (as opposed to a
signaling device), the horn played only fanfares, usually during hunt scenes in operas. The
hunting horn was limited to the open tones of the harmonic series (see diagram), but could be
played in different keys by inserting varying lengths of tubing, called crooks, into the horn’s
leadpipe. The harmonic series on the horn includes those notes that occur above a fundamental
43
by applying increasing amounts of lip tension to the mouthpiece. 68 The following is the practical
range of the harmonic series for a natural horn crooked in C.
Figure 20. Harmonic Series. 69
When writing for the horn, Baroque composers maximized the melodic potential of the horn by
using primarily the open notes in the horn’s high range. Many composers of this period wrote
music that extended the high range further than what is printed above, stretching the horn’s range
in their works beyond the twentieth harmonic.
A discovery that by introducing the right hand to the bell and experimenting with varied
degrees of closure, one could not only soften the tone of the instrument but also alter the pitch of
the horn, opened a wide spectrum of musical possibilities for the horn. Anton Joseph Hampel is
credited with codifying a technique whereby the manipulation of the hand in the bell enabled the
horn to produce a full chromatic scale. The system resulted in notes of uneven tone quality, but
over time performers learned to minimize these differences and composers learned to use them
for musical purposes. The diagram below shows a guide for how much hand closure is
68
L. Paul Austin, Jr., “Contemporary Natural Horn Compositions: A Survey of Literature Composed
Between 1982 and 1992” (D.M.A. thesis: University of Cincinnati, 1994), 5.
69
Jeffrey Snedeker, “The Natural Horn Today,”
http://www.compositiontoday.com/articles/natural_horn.asp (Accessed 17 January 2007). Used by permission.
44
necessary to produce all the notes of the chromatic scale. In this diagram and in most notated
horn music, the + symbol indicates that the note should be fully stopped, requiring the performer
to completely seal off the end of the bell with the hand.
Figure 21. Hand Stopping Chart. 70
The development of the valve in the nineteenth century enabled hornists to produce a full
chromatic scale without manipulating the hand in the bell and therefore without the great
inequalities of tone colors. Composers and hornists embraced this new development with varied
degrees of enthusiasm. Early valved horns frequently possessed mechanical flaws. Furthermore,
the articulation of the valves when depressed disrupted the smooth legato of the natural horn and
distressed many performers and listeners. The new valved horn also possessed an evenness of
timbre that made the instrument more versatile but compromised its wide range of tone colors.
Nonetheless, during the course of the nineteenth century, the valved horn gained popularity on
the natural horn until in the twentieth century the natural horn was seldom played or taught (a
notable exception is in France where the natural horn remained the primary vehicle of horn
instruction until 1902). 71 Following the rise of the valved horn, the natural horn was seldom
used until the movement toward rediscovering historic performance practices began in the
70
71
Ibid. Used by permission.
Birchard Coar, The French Horn (DeKalb, IL: Dr. Birchard Coar, 1947), 62.
45
1950s. 72
A number of modern horn performers have studied and performed on the natural horn,
perfecting hand-horn technique and discovering how composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries employed the unusual tone qualities of the natural horn to musical advantage. Among
these pioneers of the modern natural-horn movement are Bernhard Krol and Hermann Baumann
in Europe and Lowell Greer, Richard Seraphinoff, and Louis Stout in the United States. Greer
and Seraphinoff established themselves as leaders of the natural-horn movement by winning
early natural-horn competitions and recording works on natural horn. Both Greer and
Seraphinoff are now involved in the reproduction of authentic natural horns. Seraphinoff also
leads a yearly natural-horn workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Louis
Stout, formerly professor of horn at the University of Michigan, was an influential teacher and
collector of natural horns. In addition to his teaching at the University of Michigan, Stout
traveled the country with a lecture-presentation entitled “The Horn, from the Forest to the
Concert Hall.”
As a generation of natural-horn performers and scholars arose, hornist-composers also
began to take interest in this rediscovered instrument. As early as 1951 Bernhard Krol published
a collection of studies for natural horn. 73 Later in the 1950s, Seattle composer and hornist John
David Lamb composed a duo for natural horns entitled Flourishes (1957, revised 1993) and a
72
This is a necessarily abbreviated discussion of the natural horn’s emergence as a musical instrument and
its decline. For more on the subject, see Reginald Morley-Pegge, The French Horn: Some Notes on the Evolution of
the Instrument and of Its Technique (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1978); Austin, Jr., “Contemporary Natural
Horn Compositions”; Barry Tuckwell, Horn (London: Macdonald & Co, 1983).
73
Bernhard Krol, Naturhorn-Studien: für das B-Waldhorn (Leipzig: Pro Musica Verlag, 1951).
46
work for natural horn, piano, and women’s chorus entitled Heart Spring (1958). 74 A few
decades later hornists Robert Patterson and Hermann Baumann followed suit. Patterson
composed Psalm of Faith in the Wilderness for full chorus and natural horn in 1982 and followed
that work with Four Pieces for solo natural horn in 1985. 75 Baumann’s Elegia for solo natural
horn, composed in memory of a deceased student, served as the competition piece for the First
International Hand-Horn Competition in Bad Harzburg, Germany in 1984. These hornists and
others sought to create a contemporary repertoire for the natural horn, capitalizing on the natural
horn’s unique timbral qualities to create innovative sounds. These composers combined
extended techniques and improvisation with more traditional horn motives like hunting calls.
Because hand-horn technique is foreign to most mainstream composers, the task of composing
these works has fallen primarily to hornist-composers who are familiar with the art of composing
as well as the technical limitations and possibilities of the natural horn. This repertoire serves as
an ideal sample to discover ways that contemporary hornist-composers have used their variety of
skills to lead the solo horn repertoire in new directions. According to one natural horn expert,
Jeffrey Snedeker:
The natural horn, the valveless predecessor to the modern instrument, has several unique
characteristics that seem to appeal to contemporary composers—the heroic, hunting
qualities so often associated with the horn throughout its history are frequently used, but
a wide ranging color palette offered by hand technique (introducing the hand into the
bell to create new pitches and tone colors) and by crooks (extra pieces of tubing which
put the horn in different keys, each having a slightly different tone color) offer new
choices to contemporary composers. 76
Aside from the works mentioned previously, the many works by horn performers to arise
74
Jeffrey Snedeker, “New Wine for Old Bottles: Contemporary Music for the Natural Horn,” The Horn
Call: Journal of the International Horn Society 38, No. 1 (October 2007): 61.
75
Austin, 54.
76
Snedeker, “The Natural Horn Today.”
47
from this movement include Vitali Bujanovski’s Ballade for solo natural horn (1987), Bernhard
Krol’s Moment musical for solo natural horn (1987), Douglas Hill’s Thoughtful Wanderings for
natural horn and percussion (1988), Lowell Greer’s Het Valkhof for solo natural horn (1991),
Randall Faust’s Dances for natural horn and percussion (1992), Jeffrey Snedeker’s Goodbye to a
Friend for solo natural horn (1997), Jeffrey Agrell’s September Elegy for natural horn and piano
(2001), and Thomas Hundemer’s Gently Weep for natural horn with digital delay (2004). Many
additional works have been composed for natural-horn ensembles or for natural horn with voices
or other instruments. The repertoire for this instrument is continually growing and has even
attracted the attention of some mainstream composers in recent years. Peter Maxwell Davies
includes two natural horns in The Jacobite Rising (1997) for vocal soloists, choir, and orchestra,
and Gyorgy Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto (revised 2003) for solo horn and chamber orchestra
includes four obbligato natural horns. This document will look more closely at three pieces that
demonstrate the wide variety of works that have been composed for the natural horn since 1970:
Greer’s Het Valkhof, Snedeker’s Goodbye to a Friend, and Agrell’s September Elegy.
Lowell Greer–Het Valkhof
An acclaimed soloist, scholar, orchestral musician, and natural-horn builder, Lowell
Greer has also contributed significantly to the contemporary natural horn repertoire. His career
has included principal or titled posts with the Detroit Symphony, Mexico City Philharmonic,
Antwerp Philharmonic (now the Royal Flemish Orchestra), Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and
Toledo Symphony, as well as many early music ensembles in the United States, Canada, and
Europe. He has won a number of international horn competitions and performed as a soloist
with over fifty orchestras in the United States and abroad. His recordings of the music of
48
Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven are superb examples of the capabilities of the natural horn. 77
Greer received his early training in theory and voice leading from his mother. He later
studied composition from Frederick Ashe at the University of Miami during junior high and high
school and completed additional studies at Wheaton College and American Conservatory.
Recently, Samuel Adler has served Greer as a composition advisor. Greer’s compositions
include several solo works for horn, a number of horn ensemble and chamber music works, and
several masses that prominently feature the horn or natural horns. His recent work, Requiem de
Chausseur for twelve hunting horns, tenor, and organ, was composed for a memorial symposium
in honor of former Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, and Lyric
Opera hornist Helen Kotas Hirsch. 78
Greer composed Het valkof for the Natural Horn Division of the American Horn
Competition in 1991. Het valkof translates as “The Falcon Court” in Dutch and was inspired by
Greer’s visit to the ruins of Frederick Barbarossa’s hunting lodge in town of Nismegen in the
Netherlands. The work is divided into two major sections, Prelude and Frederick Barbarossa,
which are separated by a twenty-second pause (during which the performer is advised to empty
the horn’s slides). The work opens with a horn call that recalls Greer’s feelings as he crossed
into a clearing and the impressive ruins of the Barbarossa estate came into view. The Prelude
movement depicts images from the estate’s history that Greer imagined upon sight of the ruins.
According to the composer, this section should be interpreted with freedom and plenty of
77
Lowell Greer, Horn Concertos and Rondos, Los Angeles, CA: Harmonia Mundi France, 1988, HMU
907012; Music for Horn, Los Angeles, CA: Harmonia Mundi France, 2001, HCX 3957037.
78
Lowell Greer, interview by author, 8 July 2007.
49
imagination. 79 The Frederick Barbarossa movement depicts the man himself, a German king
who eventually became Holy Roman Emperor. Barbarossa is remembered for his erratic temper
and unpredictable personality, which sometimes led him to kill subjects on a whim. Greer
describes Barbarossa’s temperament with instances of polymodality, shifting meters, and
changing moods. During this Frederick Barbarossa movement, the performer should maintain a
steady tempo. 80
Mixed meters and polymodality are the most apparent contemporary features of this
work. The shifting meters flux between 6/8, 5/8, and 9/8, and provide an unpredictable rhythmic
progression. Polymodality centers around the home key and its parallel minor. This contrast of
the printed C major and C minor triads is quite evident in the following phrase.
Figure 22. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 7–10.
A short stopped section also differentiates this piece from earlier natural horn works. By
comparing the excerpt below with the harmonic series and the hand-stopping chart above, one
can see that the passage following the fermata is composed entirely of closed pitches. Passages
like this, although not nonexistent, were uncommon in earlier works for the natural horn. The
hand in this passage functions much like a modern mute, as a means of purposefully changing
the tone color of an entire phrase.
79
Ibid.
80
Ibid.
50
Figure 23. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Prelude,” page 1, systems 3–4.
Though the piece is clearly E-centric (or F, depending on the crook used), Het Valkhof relies
more upon half-step relationships than traditional tonal harmony. A frequent motive involves the
repetition of a single pitch that is decorated by upper and lower half-step neighbor tones. The
difficulty with this motive is that the printed A-flat is a fully stopped partial, while the printed Fsharp is only half stopped. The performer must adjust the hand to produce both of these pitches
and the open printed G in tempo and with a minimum of difference in tone.
Figure 24. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 1–3.
This half-step circling motive recurs several times during the work in different keys,
changing the order of open, stopped, and partially stopped harmonics. In the following two
excerpts, the accented notes are fully stopped, while the partials that surround it are open. The
performer must exercise special care to make the closed tones project more loudly than the open
ones.
51
Figure 25. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 18–27.
This work concludes with a final statement of this neighbor motive in the home key. In
this instance the accented tones are open harmonics, enabling a powerful closing gesture.
Following a false ending that fades to pianississimo, this final burst should come as a complete
surprise to the listener.
Figure 26. Lowell Greer, Het Valkhof, “Frederick Barbarosa,” mm. 61–66.
Het Valkhof works well as a programmatic recital piece. The interpretive and technical
challenges would be appropriate for a university student interested in exploring the natural horn.
The piece would also suit the purposes of a professional hornist who is interested in learning and
presenting new repertoire.
Jeffrey Snedeker–Goodbye to a Friend
Jeffrey Snedeker, a leading scholar in the study and performance of natural-horn music,
serves as professor of horn at Central Washington University and performs as principal horn in
the Yakima Symphony, the Wenatchee Valley Symphony, and the Lake Chelan Bach Fest. The
52
1991 winner of the Natural Horn Division of the American Horn Competition, Snedeker’s
interest in natural horn reveals itself in his publications and recordings. His first solo recording,
Musique de Salon: 19th-Century French Music for Horn and Piano, focused on music for natural
and early valved horns, including natural-horn works by Louis-François Dauprat and JacquesFrançois Gallay. Incidentally, like many of his colleagues, Snedeker also displays an interest in
jazz and in 1998 released a recording, First Times, showcasing the horn in jazz settings.
Although Snedeker does not consider himself to be a serious composer, he has explored
both improvisation and composition and has published a few works for solo natural horn. About
composition, Snedeker states:
I think there’s actually some truth to Hindemith’s statement that composition should be a
sort of natural occurrence in the evolution of the musician. One of the things that most
people have to get past is that it’s okay to write music even if it’s bad. If you’re inspired
to do it, good and bad don’t really have to participate in it. You just do it and you see
how it goes, and then if its great, lucky you, and if not, you’ve at least gone through the
process of trying to organize your musical inspiration. 81
Snedeker’s Goodbye to a Friend for solo natural horn in E or E-flat was composed by
Snedeker “in response to the prospect that a good friend was going to move away.” 82 Structured
in several sections that represent a series of emotions including “initial sadness, increasing
frustration, pleasant memories, and resignation,” 83 the piece offers few challenges to the
contemporary natural hornist. The piece arose as a result of some improvisation on the natural
horn when thoughts of his friend were occupying Snedeker’s mind. About the natural horn,
Snedeker cites the varied color palette as the instrument’s most interesting quality as well as its
81
Jeffrey Snedeker, interview with author, 7 August 2007.
82
Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend (Bloomington, IN: Birdalone Music, 1997), program notes.
83
Ibid.
53
biggest challenge. “You don’t want to deny the color changes but you don’t want the color
changes to become a distraction. What you want is beautiful music.” 84 The goal in this piece, as
in most works for natural horn, is to make the inherent color contrasts part of the expressive
affect of the work.
Although Goodbye to a Friend is relatively straightforward, it does feature a couple of
passages that extend beyond the traditional historic use of the natural horn. One contemporary
feature recalls a similar short passage from Het Valkof. The middle section, which begins at the
asterisk and depicts the composer’s “pleasant memories,” relies on closed pitches alone. In
accordance with the lontano (distant) indication in the score, the timbre of the closed pitches in
this section underscores the emotional content of the section. The composer’s fond memories of
his friend seem far away, in light of the upcoming separation. Snedeker acknowledges that few
earlier composers employed such lengthy passages of stopped notes. He cites a passage in
Gallay’s Méthode in which Gallay suggests that composers are not using the stopped horn
enough. Gallay himself composed a few works that feature stopped sounds in this way,
including 11th Solo, which Snedeker recorded on his Musique de Salon CD. Nonetheless, few
composers followed Gallay’s advice, and the ensuing invention of the valved horn narrowed the
window of opportunity for further experiments. This contemporary approach to natural horn can
therefore be interpreted as a continuation of Gallay’s ideas.
84
Snedeker, interview with author.
54
Figure 27. Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend, mm. 22–42.
Another contemporary feature of this work is use of the low range. The opening theme is
repeated one octave lower at the end of this piece. In this low octave, there are fewer available
open harmonics to choose from, but the harmonics can be bent to produce a number of different
pitches. For this reason, lip flexibility takes the place of hand technique in this range, and the
performer’s ear is necessary for placing the closed harmonics accurately and with a focused tone.
Furthermore, the printed G at the bottom of the bass clef is not an open harmonic and must be
“lipped” into place by bending the C above it down a full perfect fourth. These notes were
employed on rare occasions in earlier natural-horn repertoire, including low natural-horn etudes
and the famous fourth horn solo in the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, but their
presence here reveals Snedeker’s willingness to exploit the full potential of the natural horn.
55
Figure 28. Jeffrey Snedeker, Goodbye to a Friend, m. 45.
Aside from these few contemporary innovations, Goodbye to a Friend remains relatively
uncomplicated and accessible for both performer and listener. Its melodic structure employs a
simple, clearly tonal, harmonic plan. The home key (E minor or E-flat minor, depending on the
crook used) is clearly established and prevalent through most of the piece. The middle section
deviates from the rest of the work by modulating up a half step and to a major mode. The major
mode depicts the composer’s pleasant memories, and the half-step modulation is merely a
byproduct of stopping the horn. Goodbye to a Friend causes few rhythmic problems. The outer
sections are unmetered and printed in proportional notation. The performer should maintain an
underlying eighth-note subdivision to ensure the accurate relationship between quarter notes and
dotted-quarter notes. However, these outer sections are labeled “Freely,” so the performer can
take rhythmic liberties to suit his or her interpretation.
Jeffrey Agrell–September Elegy
Jeffrey Agrell, author of The Creative Hornist series discussed in the introduction, is
another composer who has combined modern ideas with the natural horn. What makes Agrell
unique among hornists is his emphasis not just on creativity but especially on spontaneous
creativity. Agrell has performed numerous recitals and released three CDs, Repercussions (with
56
pianist Evan Mazunik), Mosaic (with Mazunik and cellist Gil Selinger), and Side Show Time
(with Cerberus, the brass quintet-in-residence at the University of Iowa, and Walter Thompson),
showcasing his abilities at improvisation and soundpainting. 85 While the idea of improvisation
has gradually seeped into the horn repertoire through the jazz-oriented works discussed above (as
well as a handful of aleatoric works), Agrell is the first hornist of modern times to advocate and
demonstrate improvisation in a more classical style. After a twenty-five year career as associate
principal of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland, Agrell returned to the United
States where he currently serves as Professor of Horn at the University of Iowa. In addition to
September Elegy, Agrell has published a work for two natural horns and percussion titled New
Wine in Old Bottles. He describes the natural horn as an “underused resource” for contemporary
music and says that contemporary composers “haven’t even scratched the surface” of the
possibilities of the natural horn. 86 Among his other compositions for solo horn, those that
incorporate optional opportunities for improvisation include Night Sonata and Attitudes. In
addition, Agrell recently published a book, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians, which
provides games and guidelines to stimulate interesting collaborative improvisation among
classical musicians. 87 Drawing on his experience as a jazz guitarist, Agrell has also composed a
number of jazz-oriented works, including his Spring Swing, Blue Ballad, and Eight O’Clock
Jump for horn quartet, bass, and drums. Aside from his many compositions for horn, Agrell has
composed prolifically for other instruments and ensembles. He did not study composition and
85
Jeffrey Agrell and Evan Mazunik, Repercussions, Iowa City, IA: Wildwind Records, 2003, CD 1001;
Agrell, Mazunik, and Gil Selinger, Mosaic, Iowa City, IA: MSR Classics, 2007, MS 1158; Agrell, John Manning,
and Brent Sandy, Cerberus: Side Show Tim, New York: Dane Recordings, 2005, Dane Recordings 0062.
86
Jeffrey Agrell, interview with author, 27 July 2007.
87
Jeffrey Agrell, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2008).
57
cites this as an asset to his compositional style. His compositional language is drawn largely
from his experience as a jazz guitarist, although he also credits the influence of world and folk
musics.
September Elegy for Natural Horn and Piano combines emotionally charged
improvisation with the distinctive qualities of the natural horn. As Agrell writes in the program
notes, the piece “arose as an expression of grief from the tragic events of September 11, 2001.” 88
Agrell intends that this work should reflect the performer’s deeply personal reaction to the
tragedy, a condition that encourages the prevalence of improvisation. September Elegy is
organized into four sections: Prologue, Chorale, Reflection, and Epilogue. Of these four
sections, only the Chorale is fully notated. Agrell states, “The idea is that every hornist plays it
differently and that every hornist himself/herself plays it different every performance, so it’s
really a reflection of the whole mood of the tune and the individual voice of that person.” 89
During the Prologue the pianist keeps a steady pulse and interjects with notes from a given set of
pitches. Meanwhile, the hornist improvises according to the mood of the piece. The notated
Chorale begins quietly and builds to a horn outburst that one might associate with the tragic
events of September 11, 2001 or with the performer’s response to the tragedy. This eruption also
incorporates structured improvisation.
88
Jeffrey Agrell, September Elegy (Austin, TX: JOMAR Press, 2001), program notes.
89
Agrell, interview with author.
58
Figure 29. Jeffrey Agrell, September Elegy, mm. 32–34. 90
The Reflection will most often serve as a catharsis after the horn’s declaration. During
this third section, the piano improvises alone, commenting on the preceding event. Finally, the
Epilogue recalls the structure and pitch collection of the Prologue; however, the Epilogue is
shorter than the Prologue, and the performer is instructed to end this section abruptly.
In addition to the integration of improvisation, Agrell also contemporizes September
Elegy through the use (and suggested use) of extended techniques. In addition to a few
portamento effects notated in the Chorale, Agrell insists that the performer should be aware of
the extended capabilities of the natural horn (including fluttertongue, trills, glissandi, stopped
and echo effects, and use of the seventh, eleventh, and thirteenth harmonics) in order that he or
she may draw upon these resources during the course of improvisation. 91 About his decision to
feature the natural horn in this work, Agrell writes:
Since beginning to work with the natural horn last year I have become very impressed
with its powerful expressive capabilities, which can be used to surprising advantage in
playing contemporary music. For example, the range of tone colors, the use of stopped
and half-stopped hand positions (including portamento effects) is much more vivid than
that possible on the modern valve horn. The natural horn is also capable of extraordinary
crescendos and decrescendos that can be startling and dramatic. Add to this extended
spectrum of expression the element of improvisation—completely unknown on the horn
since Punto ad libbed classical cadenzas in the early 1800s—and you have a very unusual
90
Copyright © 2001 by Jomar Press. Used by permission of Jomar Press and Jeffrey Agrell.
91
Agrell, September Elegy, program notes.
59
musical adventure, and one that will be different for every performance. 92
September Elegy’s blend of classical ideas with improvisation makes it unique among
solo horn compositions. This piece would be a good fit for anyone interested in experimenting
with improvisation. The notated horn part is not exceptionally difficult, so the piece could be
crafted for players of all ability levels.
92
Ibid., program notes.
60
Third Trend: Electronic Accompaniments
In recent decades hornists have also expressed their creativity by pairing the horn with a
variety of electronic accompaniments. These accompaniments, ranging from synthesizer to
prerecorded tape to digital delay, have further diversified the solo repertoire. Although this
body of literature is not exclusively generated by horn performers, hornist-composers have
contributed much to creative advances in this area. Experimentation with acoustic instruments
and electronic media followed the works of early electronic music and musique concrète
composers of the 1940s and 1950s. The combination of acoustic instruments with electronic
media dates from the 1960s, while examples of the horn in this setting began appearing in the
late 1960s and continue to increase today. John Rimmer’s Composition I from 1968 was a
pioneering work in this genre.
According to Randall Faust, the types of electronic media frequently used in
combination with the horn fall into three categories: composer-prepared tapes, performerprepared tapes, and live electronic media. 93 Although much has changed in the technology used
to create electronic accompaniment since 1970, these three categories have remained consistent.
Of these categories, composer-prepared tapes remains the most common and easiest to perform.
All that is required is a tape recorder or CD player, an amplifier, and speakers. This music is
especially convenient for recital tours. As long as the venue can provide the materials listed
above, the performer need not be concerned about rehearsing with a different accompanist
before each performance. Faust’s Concertpiece I: Prelude and Dance, John Rimmer’s Tides,
Paul Basler’s Dance, Fool, Dance!, and Douglas Hill’s Thoughtful Wanderings fit into this
93
Randall Faust, “A Comprehensive Performance Project in Horn Literature with an Essay Consisting of
Three Original Concertpieces for Horn and Electronic Media, and Explanation of Techniques Used, and a Listing of
Relevant Literature” (D.M.A. Thesis, University of Iowa, 1980), 11–12.
61
category. Initially published with a score for natural horn and live percussionist, Thoughtful
Wanderings is now published with a composer-prepared tape that includes the percussion parts
and nature sounds.
The latter two categories, horn with performer-prepared tape and horn with live
electronic media, require more preparation from the performer. Performer-prepared tapes must
be recorded and manipulated by the performer prior to the performance. To the author’s
knowledge, Faust’s Concertpiece II: Calls of the Night is the only piece from 1970 to 2005 that
is composed by a hornist and requires a performer-prepared tape. Detailed instructions on
performing this work can be found in Faust’s thesis. 94 Compositions for horn and live
electronic media include real-time processing of sounds created by the live performer. These
sounds can be altered through amplification, filtering, ring modulation, and tape delays. 95
Hornist-composers have contributed several works in this category, including Faust’s Horn Call
for horn and electronic media and Concertpiece III: Sequence, John Rimmer’s Extro-Intro, and
Thomas Hundemer’s Gently Weep for natural horn with digital delay.
This document will explore the challenges and salient features in three works that
feature the horn with an electronic or prerecorded accompaniment: Randall Faust’s Horn Call
for horn and electronic media, Paul Basler’s Dance, Fool, Dance!, and Douglas Hill’s
Thoughtful Wanderings. These works were chosen to demonstrate the variety of ways hornistcomposers have used electronic media to accompany the solo horn and to recognize three of
these composers whose works have been especially influential.
94
Ibid.
95
James Alan Criswell, “The Horn in Mixed Media Compositions Through 1991” (D.M.A. thesis: The
University of Maryland, 1995), 10–13.
62
One of the primary difficulties of performing music with a prepared tape is keeping the
live acoustic part synchronized with the recorded accompaniment. Because of this complexity,
use of mixed-media accompaniments has altered the way many composers approach rhythm. In
addition to the traditional metered organization of most classical music, many modern
composers have sought new ways of notating sound into time that are more appropriate for
electronic accompaniments. These include proportional notation (where the comparative values
of quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, etc. remain consistent despite the absence of an
overriding meter), chronometric notation (where time is notated by the number of seconds), and
time frames (where the occurrence of one musical event signals the entrance of another). In the
works that will be discussed in this section, Faust’s Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media
and Basler’s Dance, Fool, Dance! rely upon traditional metrical organization, and Douglas
Hill’s Thoughtful Wanderings uses both proportional and chronometric notation to express
rhythmic ideas.
Randall Faust–Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media
A pioneer of music for horn with electronic accompaniments, Faust teaches horn and
music theory at Western Illinois University and horn at the summer program of the Interlochen
Center for the Arts. He frequently performs the works of contemporary composers and
composes for a variety of ensembles. Several of his horn compositions feature unusual
accompaniments such as the organ, harpsichord, or electronic media. His Horn Call for Horn
and Electronic Media from 1976 served as the topic of his doctoral thesis as well as an article in
The Horn Call in 1981. 96
63
Faust’s compositional training began when he was a high school student at Wilson
Campus High School, the laboratory high school for Minnesota State University–Mankato.
During this time he studied under one of the composition professors at MSU–Mankato, Dr. Rolf
Scheurer. Later, Faust studied with Warren Benson at the Interlochen Arts Academy and with
Anthony Iannaccone at Eastern Michigan University. Faust credits Iannaccone for being the
first to encourage him to explore electronic music. 97 As a Master’s student in theory and
composition at Minnesota State University–Mankato, Faust again benefited from Rolf Sheurer’s
guidance. Finally, Faust studied composition at the University of Iowa with Donald Martin
Jenni and Peter Tod Lewis. Lewis, who was the Director of the Electronic Music Studios at the
University of Iowa, also served as a co-advisor for Faust’s DMA thesis. Faust’s interest in
combining the horn with electronic media resulted from collective influence of Lewis, Paul
Anderson, Faust’s horn professor at the University of Iowa, and from his teaching assignment at
Shenandoah Conservatory from 1973–1982. As part of this assignment, Faust taught both horn
and electronic music. The time he spent studying both fields encouraged him to experiment
with possible interactions between the two.
Faust’s explorations with horn and electronic media were not only some of the first of
their kind; they remain some of the most well-known works in this genre. Aside from John
Rimmer, Faust has contributed more works for horn and electronic media to the repertoire than
any other hornist-composer. His work in this field has attracted the attention of several
scholars. Doctoral theses by James Criswell and Alan Mattingly also consider Faust’s
96
Randall Faust, “Electronic and Compositional Techniques Used in Horn Call,” The Horn Call: Journal
of the International Horn Society 11, No. 2 (April 1981): 58–61.
97
Randall Faust, questionnaire by author, electronic mail, 15 January 2008.
64
explorations with electronic media. 98 Unquestionably, Faust’s work with electronic media
helped pave the way for composers and hornists to follow suit.
Like the other composers consulted in this study, Faust considers composition to be a
valuable skill for a performer. “The perspective of thinking of music from the point of creation
is both informative and liberating. Futhermore, in order to perform the works I have composed,
I have made improvements in my playing.” 99 Faust believes that the process of composition
also makes one a more complete musician: “We experience music in various ways: listening,
performing, and composing. Almost everyone does some listening; the next stage is performing
as a singer or instrumentalist; and finally creating music completes the circle and gives one a
more complete picture of the musical experience–from conception and creation to final
realization.” 100
Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media consists of a horn soloist interacting with a
delayed echo of his or her own performance. This echo is presented in its pure form at a threesecond delay during the first third of the piece. Because the meter is 3/4 and the tempo is
marked at sixty beats per minute, the three-second delay results in an echo that follows exactly
one measure behind the solo horn. The opening measures set up this relationship, which
continues throughout the first twenty-four measures of the work. In this score the top staff
shows the solo horn part, while the lower staff shows the sounds produced by the electronic
media.
98
Alan Mattingly, “A Performance Guide to the Horn Works of Randall Edward Faust” (D.M. thesis, The
Florida State University, 1998); James Alan Criswell, “The Horn in Mixed Media Compositions Through 1991”
(D.M.A. thesis, The University of Maryland, 1995).
99
Faust, questionnaire.
100
Ibid.
65
Figure 30. Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, mm. 1–6.
In the middle section, the delay is manipulated electronically by the ring modulator to
create a distorted version of the performer’s sound.
Figure 31. Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, mm. 40–45.
In the final section of this work, the distortions are gradually eliminated until only the
soloist and the pure echo remain. This final section is a retrograde presentation of the opening
material. The final open fifth interval is repeated several times to provide closure.
66
Figure 32. Randall Faust, Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media, mm. 63–80.
In addition to the collaborative texture of the performer and his/her echo, Faust created
an unusual timbre by highlighting the contrast of open and stopped sounds on the horn.
Although the performer would require a modern horn to play this work, the first section is
composed as though for the natural horn. Instead of using valves, Faust indicates that the Fhorn harmonics should be played open (including the flat seventh and sharp eleventh
harmonics), and all other notes should be achieved by means of the hand in the bell.
Horn Call employs both the oldest and the newest ways of processing the horn’s sound:
Hand-stopping and Electronic Processing. The exposition could be performed on a
natural horn. However, because of the palindrome in the compositional structure of the
work, I haven’t used one in performances. This interaction between the old and the
67
new–as well as the open/stopped, processed and unprocessed sounds is part of the
compositional tension and musical drama. 101
Many of Faust’s works reveal an interest in the horn’s natural harmonics. Other solo
horn works by Faust that explore the horn’s natural harmonics and hand-stopping include
Prelude for horn (1977), Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble (1987), Dances for Natural
Horn and Percussion (1992), Harmonielehre (1996), and Declamation for Horn and
Harpsichord (2004). In addition to horn solo compositions, Quartet for Four Horns (1994),
Gallery Music for Brass Quintet (1976), and Concerto for Mallet Percussion and Brass Quintet
(2003) also explore the juxtaposition of open and muted tones. Furthermore, Faust has
published an instructional DVD on stopped horn. 102
The largest obstacle to overcome in the performance of Horn Call for Horn and
Electronic Media is familiarity with the technology needed to perform it. Many hornists are
unfamiliar with the equipment that one would need to accomplish the digital delay. However,
the publication includes detailed instructions regarding the equipment required and how it
should be employed. In performance, an additional person is needed to operate the electronic
media. By engaging the help of a recording engineer in this role, even a technologically
challenged performer could attempt this work.
The specified equipment required to perform this work includes
A good unidirectional microphone,
A mixer,
Two stereo tape recorders (or the equivalent digital delay system),
A synthesizer that includes
A preamp,
A sine wave oscillator,
101
Faust, questionnaire.
102
Randall Faust, How to Stop a Horn (University Television: Western Illinois University, 2007), DVD.
68
A ring modulator,
A voltage-controlled filter/resonator,
A voltage-controlled amplifier,
An envelope follower,
A lag processor,
An output mixer, and
A reverb unit,
Power amplifiers, and
Monitor speakers. 103
Because of advances in technology since the composition of this piece, today’s performers will
probably prefer to substitute a digital delay system for the tape delay system. Faust also uses a
custom ring modulator made by Robert Moog instead of a synthesizer.
Paul Basler–Dance, Fool, Dance!
Paul Basler currently serves as professor of horn and composition at the University of
Florida. As a horn performer he has made appearances at numerous festivals worldwide and
has premiered over 120 works. His orchestral experience has included appointments with the
Brevard, Charleston, Valdosta, Greenville, Asheville, Tallahassee, and Gainesville Symphonies.
Besides championing new music, Basler has composed many new works that feature the horn,
many choral works, and an assortment of works for wind ensemble, marching band, and many
different chamber ensembles. 104 Basler’s compositional training included study with John Boda
at Florida State University and Bülent Arel, Billy Jim Layton, and John Lessard at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook. He has composed many works of a sacred nature and
frequently draws inspiration from colleagues and from international experiences. His
103
Randall Faust, program notes for Horn Call (Auburn, IL: Faust, 1976).
104
For a selected list of Basler’s compositions, see Lynn Lanham’s “Man of Many Talents: Paul Basler,”
The Horn Call: Journal of the International Horn Society 37, No. 3 (May 2007): 89–91.
69
compositions have received many awards and been performed in premier halls across the world.
Among his awards for composing and teaching, Basler received the Fulbright Senior Lecturer in
Music to Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya in 1993.
Like many of his colleagues, Basler encourages horn performers to experiment with
composition. “I believe all performers should try to create original works. This helps them
understand the complexities and rewards of the creative process.” 105 Basler maintains that
experience as a performer is an asset to a composer as well. “Active performing composers are
at a great advantage when it comes to the drama and timing of a composition.” 106 And as a
performer who also composes, Basler believes he possesses additional insight into the works he
performs. “I believe that I am able to perform other’s compositions in a more analytical and
deeper manner.” 107
Basler’s Dance, Fool, Dance! is an entertaining three-movement work for horn and
synthesized accompaniment dedicated to Thomas Bacon. The movements are entitled Bump,
Spin, and Grind, and all three movements move at a rapid tempo and convey an attitude that
Basler describes as “exuberant playfulness.” 108 This work is Basler’s second horn solo to
feature a synthesized accompaniment. He composed an earlier work for horn and synthesizer,
The Sun Shining, in 1990. Although Dance, Fool, Dance! incorporates a few extended
techniques, including flutter-tongued notes and instances where the hornist is instructed to play
an erratic glissando to an unspecified high note in imitation of the synthesizer, the biggest
105
Paul Basler, questionnaire by author, electronic mail, 24 September 2007.
106
Ibid.
107
Ibid.
108
Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance! (Tallahassee, FL: RM Williams Publishing, 1998).
70
challenge is maintaining the tempos in order to synchronize with the recorded accompaniment.
Meter changes and irregular rhythms provide additional complexity. The accompaniment,
though complex, is consistent from one performance to the next. While the performer may have
to spend a long time coordinating the solo with the accompaniment, he/she may take comfort in
the fact that the CD recording will never vary.
Throughout this work, Basler takes advantage of the synthesizer’s ability to create
sounds that would be extremely difficult for a live performer. Wide intervals, register shifts,
and disjunct melodic lines that feature dissonant intervals such as sevenths and seconds
characterize much of the accompaniment. The rapid tempos, erratic meter changes, and
perpetual motion create a texture that would present many challenges to a good keyboardist but
cause no problems in a synthesized accompaniment. The following example shows one fastpaced sequences of wide intervals that would be difficult for a human performer.
Figure 33. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 79–80.
The solo horn part in these movements comments freely on the accompaniment motives,
while remaining within an accessible range. The solo horn part is not easy to play, but adequate
rests and narrower intervals reveal the influence of an experienced hornist on this work.
71
The first movement, Bump, is composed of two main accompaniment motives that are
juxtaposed with a freely wandering solo horn part. The first is presented at the outset and recurs
in various guises four more times during the movement. Each presentation presents the same
material in a different octave displacement in the upper voice. The lower voice mimics the
upper voice during the first presentations but later appears at a different pitch level, a
juxtaposition that features the tritone. The sections all begin with the same material, clearly
stated, before they amble in different directions. While the repeated material is clearly evident
in the accompaniment, the solo part does not follow the same pattern but comments freely on
the accompaniment material. The following two excerpts show two occurrences of the first
accompaniment passage.
Figure 34. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 1–4.
72
Figure 35. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 40–43.
The second motive consists of a single repeated note interjected with major sevenths and thirds.
Rapid repetition of a single note and the major seventh intervals in these sections are idiomatic
for the synthesizer, whereas they would probably present a challenge to a human performer.
Figure 36. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Bump, mm. 36–39.
The second movement, Spin, resembles the first in its prevalent use of sevenths and
seconds. A recurring accompaniment pattern provides structure to the movement. The
catapulting sequence of sevenths in 3/4 meter provides a sense of spinning and forward motion,
which presumably inspired the movement’s title.
73
Figure 37. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 1–7.
As in the previous movement, the horn part responds freely to the more structured
accompaniment. In several instances the hornist is instructed to play something between a
glissando, a rip, and a growl, in imitation of the synthesizer.
Figure 38. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 80–91.
74
Basler manipulated the opening sequence in several ways during the course of the
movement. At measure 64 the catapulting sevenths are inverted to create a descending sequence
of seconds, using the same pitch material.
Figure 39. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 61–67.
At measure 95 the same material returns one whole step higher than before. The accompaniment
modulates back to the original pitch level before the end of the movement.
Figure 40. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Spin, mm. 92–98.
In the final movement, Grind, meter changes and erratic accents deny the listener a
sense of metrical orientation. The movement changes frequently between 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4,
75
3/8, and 5/8 meters. The horn part is slightly more challenging in this movement. The part
ventures frequently into the high range, requiring the hornist to enter several times on a high A.
The following excerpt shows the changing meters, shifting accents, and range demands of the
third movement.
Figure 41. Paul Basler, Dance, Fool, Dance!, Grind, mm. 13–17.
The combination of range demands and unpredictable rhythms in this movement are sure to keep
the hornist on his/her toes and the listener guessing!
Douglas Hill–Thoughtful Wanderings
Thoughtful Wanderings resulted from a grant that enabled Douglas Hill to explore the
music of Native Americans. Initially scored for solo natural horn and percussion, Thoughtful
Wanderings is also available for solo natural horn with prerecorded accompaniment. The
recorded compact disc includes the percussion parts (featuring such instruments as an Indian
drum, wind chimes, Indian ankle bells, and a deer hoof rattle) as well as recorded nature sounds
(such as wind, rain, insects, and birds). Although coordination is simpler with a live
percussionist, the recorded compact disc accompaniment enables the addition of nature sounds to
the original version and eliminates the need for an additional performer or for acquiring
specialized percussion instruments. Hill states that he added the recorded accompaniment after
76
hearing several performances with alternative percussion instruments. 109 By listening to the CD,
performers can hear the desired percussion sounds. If percussion instruments with the correct
timbres cannot be located, the performer should use the CD recording accompaniment instead.
About his explorations into Native American music, Hill writes the following:
This music might superficially be thought of as some of the world’s least substantive;
however, when taken within the social, poetic and spiritual contexts from which it comes,
one perceives a further message. The solo music of the American Indian flute, for
example, is of a profound simplicity. It has at once a reverent meditative quality and a
naïve romantic mirth. The dances of the Indians express their depth of feelings
emotionally, spiritually, and physically toward their fellows, present and past, and toward
Mother Earth and Father Sky and all of their inhabitants. 110
Thoughtful Wanderings is organized in four movements entitled Eagle at Ease in the Sky,
Six-legged Dance, Woodland Trail, and Spring Dance. The hornist is instructed to use only the
horn’s open harmonics in these movements and to not try to correct intonation at all with the
hand. These harmonics, Hill writes, represent “nature’s scale” and closely resemble the scale of
the six-holed Indian flute. 111 In fact, all of the movements are composed in a manner idiomatic
for the Native American flute, and the colors and sounds of the flute provide a valuable resource
for interpreting this work. 112 The final result is a series of musical tableaux that paint a picture
of nature. Despite the restrictions on the number of pitches available from the open natural horn,
Hill managed to make these four movements vastly different.
Although the order of crooks used in these movements (E-flat, F, E, F) follows a
sequence that leads toward the key of F, Hill states that different crooks may be used in order to
109
Hill, interview with author, 12 July 2007.
110
Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings (Columbia, MO: International Horn Society Manuscript Press,
1990), program notes.
111
Ibid.
112
Douglas Hill, interview with author, 12 July 2007.
77
make the range more accessible for the performer. However, the movements should not all be
performed in the same key. 113 Considering that the natural horn is limited to a small number of
open tones, four movements with the same crook could become rather monotonous for the
listener.
The first movement, “Eagle at Ease in the Sky,” possesses a very free approach to
rhythm. The Indian drum establishes a dotted-quarter-note pulse at the beginning, which
remains steady throughout the movement. The horn’s melodic phrases float above the drum
beat. The phrase lengths are inconsistent, however, and no sense of meter is ever established.
The subdivisions change frequently even within the steady pulse. Hill alters the expected triple
subdivision of the dotted quarter note to include duple and quadruple subdivisions, as well as
instances where the horn line accelerates through a figure within the context of the underlying
steady pulse.
Figure 42. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Eagle at Ease in the Sky,” mm. 4–5.
This rhythmic freedom provides a sense of floating through the air.
The range of the entire movement is just larger than an octave and remains in the midto-high range. This choice of tessitura creates a musical image of an eagle soaring and gradually
113
Ibid.
78
rising through the sky. The harmonics in this range are close together and not triadic or
representative of a specific key. This harmonic disorientation adds to the sense of flying through
a great unmeasured expanse. A repeated chirping motive consists of a series of lightly
articulated grace notes.
Figure 43. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Eagle at Ease in the Sky,” m. 17.
The “Six-legged Dance” takes advantage of a small number of gestures, which are
repeated many times to imitate a chorus of insects. Like the first movement, this dance features
a steady pulse but no clear metrical organization. The meter changes frequently from simple to
compound, and the percussion part, which calls for sticks in this movement, underlines
downbeats or offbeats, depending on the moment. The horn part is not melodic, but consists of a
handful of short motives. The primary motive in this movement is an octave figure that is
rhythmically manipulated and repeated in slightly altered versions.
Figure 44. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Six-legged Dance,” mm. 3–7.
79
The dynamic level is forte from the horn’s first entrance until the final measures. This emulates
the steady drone of insects. While the horn part is relatively straightforward throughout, Hill
does indicate a couple of special techniques. The performer is instructed to “squeel” on two
separate occasions and once to play the highest note possible (indicated by the stem with the
upward-pointing arrow on top in m. 23).
Figure 45. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Six-legged Dance,” mm. 22–28.
The third movement, “Woodland Trail,” calls upon more nature and bird imagery. Not
only does the movement open with bird sounds on the tape, but the horn part echos the gently
articulated grace note figure presented in the first movement. More obvious are the moments
when the hornist is asked to imitate the call of a thrush.
80
Figure 46. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Woodland Trail,” m. 33.
In addition to the bird sounds, Hill used wind chimes in this movement to provide a sense of the
wind on the trail.
While the outer sections of “Woodland Trail” are nonmetrical like the first movement, a
middle section plods along at a steady eighth-note pace, as if the listener were sauntering along
the trail, pausing occasionally to take in the world around him. This section, beginning at
rehearsal number 23, employs a rhythmic device inspired by Native American music. The drum
beat follows the horn at a sixteenth-note delay. While this can be challenging for the hornist to
feel, the introductory measure can be counted as an 11/16 bar to allow the hornist to accurately
place the downbeat of the following measure.
81
Figure 47. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Woodland Trail,” mm. 19–27.
The final movement, “Spring Dance,” alludes to the ceremonial function of music in Native
American communities. The movement is essentially a Rain Dance, opening with a call to the
ceremony and continuing with an exuberant celebration of nature. An Indian drum, Indian ankle
bells, and deer hoof rattle emphasize the ceremonial qualities of the movement. The horn
imitates an Indian “yelp” several times during this dance. This notation indicates that the hornist
should glissando up to an unspecified high note and then down to an unspecified lower note
(although not lower than the printed E).
Figure 48. Douglas Hill, Thoughtful Wanderings, “Spring Dance,” m. 31–33.
82
Coordination is always a consideration when performing with a recording, but
Thoughtful Wanderings is not terribly challenging to play with the tape. Percussion cues are
clearly marked throughout the horn part, and an adequate introduction is always provided before
the horn enters. Where time is notated in seconds instead of note values (usually at the
beginnings and ends of movements), the percussion enters and establishes the tempo clearly for
the hornist. Only “Woodland Trail” provides a bit of a challenge in this regard because of its
slow tempo and sparse accompaniment. The performer may keep a silent metronome on the
stand during the opening of the work if he or she is having difficulty internalizing a steady pulse.
Also, because the entire work consists of open harmonics, this piece could be a perfect
introduction to the natural horn for a student who was already a skilled valved-horn performer.
The student would be able to become comfortable with the open harmonics of the natural horn
before moving on to more traditional repertoire that demands hand-horn technique.
83
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSIONS
The contributions of horn performers to the solo horn repertoire since 1970 have been
vast and significant. Dozens of talented performers have contributed more than two hundred
solo works that exploit the horn’s many capabilities. These artists have also introduced new
ideas to the horn repertoire, making previously foreign concepts part of every professional horn
player’s experience. This relatively new repertoire is an excellent source to discover recent
trends in compositions for the horn. As a performer, study of this repertoire prepares one for
the challenges present in today’s orchestral and chamber compositions, as well as for the
compositions that will inevitably ensue as a result of the prolific output of performers who are
familiar with the horn’s capabilities. Although this document discussed only a handful of the
innovative works that horn performers have composed during recent decades, the following
catalog will provide those interested with many more works that fall into this category. The
author hopes that these works will provide opportunities for rewarding study and performance
and that future hornists will continue to add valuable works to the horn’s repertoire.
84
PREFACE TO THE CATALOG
To the author’s knowledge, the following catalog lists every work for solo horn
(accompanied or unaccompanied) that was composed by a professional hornist between 1970
and 2005. A WorldCat list of every solo work for horn published between 1970 and 2005 served
as a point of departure for this project. The author’s experience, combined with internet sources
and input from several of the composers discussed in this volume, determined which of the
composers were also horn performers. The results of this procedure were supplemented by
information found on publishers’ websites, within existing horn bibliographies, and in new music
reviews from The Horn Call: Journal of the International Horn Society. Findings were verified
by library catalogs or the composers themselves.
The composers listed in this catalog represent a wide variation in performance careers.
Horn players including Vitaly Buyanovksy, Bernhard Krol, Verne Reynolds, Gunther Schuller,
Kerry Turner, and those that have been previously discussed are well known as performers and
professors of the horn. Hornist-composers including Tom Bacon, Vincent Chancey, John Clark,
Adam Unsworth, and Tom Varner have excelled as jazz musicians. Some hornists, including
Richard Bissill, Randy Gardner, Eric Terwilliger, and Robert Ward, are best known for their
orchestral prowess but have contributed occasionally to our solo repertoire. Several artists,
including Jan Bach, Pamela Marshall, and John Rimmer, are first and foremost composers, but
their works are nonetheless influenced by experience on the horn. In this catalog I have tried to
be inclusive, reasoning that even a short career in horn performance would provide a composer
with a thorough knowledge of the instrument.
Pieces that fall into the categories discussed in this volume (the use of jazz elements,
contemporary use of natural horn, and electronic accompaniments) are designated in the last
85
column. In addition to the trends already discussed, one other notable trend in the pieces listed
here is the frequent use of accompanying percussion instruments. This trend is characteristic of
music composed during the period 1970 to 2005 and is not unique to the output of hornistcomposers. However, those interested in incorporating new colors and timbres to their solo
performances can find a variety of interesting combinations for horn and percussion instruments
in the following list.
86
Catalog of Solo Horn Works Composed by Horn Performers (1970-2005)
Composer
Title
Instrumentation
Publisher
Agrell, Jeffrey
Romp (1996)
solo horn
Editions Marc Reift
Meditation (1997)
solo horn
Jomar Press
Night Sonata (2001)
Jomar Press
Repercussions (2001)
horn and piano (with optional
bass and percussion)
natural horn in E-flat and
piano
horn and piano
Mother Goose Suite (2001)
horn, narrator, and piano
Attitudes (2005)
solo horn
Haiku
horn and piano
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
unpublished
Toys in the Attic
horn and toy piano/piano
unpublished
Concerto for Horn and
Orchestra (1971)
Blues and Variations for Monk
(1991)
French Suite (1982)
horn and chamber orchestra
C. F. Peters
solo horn
C. F. Peters
solo horn
Meadow Music
Horn Concerto (1983)
horn and orchestra
NIU Music (Still Life with
Castle and Lagoon) (1999)
Listen Up! (2000)
horn and piano
Galaxy-Highgate
Music
Meadow Music
horn and piano
Lorna Doin' (2000)
horn and piano
Selected Songs (1988)
horn and piano
Cinq Pieces Poétiques (1974)
solo horn
Etudes classiques
solo horn
Fa 7
solo horn
Lectures et exercices
solo horn
Limites
solo horn and orchestra
Medium
horn and piano
Pièce pour Quentin
horn and piano
September Elegy (2001)
Amram, David
Bach, Jan
Bacon, Thomas
Barboteau,
Georges
Southern Music
Company
Southern Music
Company
Southern Music
Company
Editions Choudens
jazz elements
jazz elements
jazz elements
Editions Choudens
horn and piano
Saisons (4 pieces)
horn and chamber orchestra
and wind ensemble
solo horn
Edition Choudens
From the Hills and Valleys
(1984)
Three Hymn Tune Settings
(1997)
Dance Fool, Dance! (1998)
solo horn
unpublished
horn and piano
Southern Music
horn and synthesizer
Divertimento (1998)
horn and piano
Etudes for Horn (1998)
solo horn
Five Pieces (1998)
solo horn
Folk Songs (1998)
horn and piano
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
87
natural horn
unpublished
Saisons (4 pieces)
Vingt etudes concertantes
Basler, Paul
Jomar Press
Notes
electronic media
jazz elements
Baumann,
Hermann
Bissill, Richard
Bujanovski,
Vitali
Burdick, Richard
Marathon (1998)
solo horn
Serenade (1998)
horn and piano
Son of Till (1998)
solo horn
Warm-ups for Horn (2001)
solo horn
Triathlon (2003)
solo horn
Cantos (2003)
solo horn
Canciones (2004)
horn and piano
Elegia (1984)
solo natural horn
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
RM Williams
Publishing
Bote & Bock
Lone Call and Charge (1994)
solo horn
Warwick Music
Four Improvisations (from
Travelling Impressions)
Russian Song
solo horn
solo horn
Sonata “Baumann” (1974)
solo horn
McCoy's Horn
Library
McCoy's Horn
Library
Pizka
Sonata No. 2 “Finnish” (1984)
solo horn
Ed. Fazer, Helsinki
Ballade (1991)
solo natural horn
Bote & Bock
Sonata I, Op. 23
horn and piano
i-ching music
Horn Sonata No. 2, Op. 29
(1985)
The Planets (1986)
horn and piano
i-ching music
solo horn
Trinity Music
natural horn
natural horn
Andante “Victoria” (1987)
horn and organ
i-ching music
Sonata, Op. 42 (1988)
horn and organ
i-ching music
“Sculpture I-III” (1980)
solo (multiphonic) horn
i-ching music
“Moments when we see . . .”
(1987)
“Sculpture IV” (1988)
horn and tape
i-ching music
electronic media
solo (multiphonic) horn and
two slide projectors
solo horn
i-ching music
electronic media
i-ching music
horn and organ
i-ching music
i-ching music
Concerto, Op. 56b (1991)
horn and strings with timpani
and marimba
horn and band
i-ching music
“Astral Waves I” (1991)
horn and tape
i-ching music
Romance (1992)
horn and piano
i-ching music
“Mocking Bird Sonata” (1992)
horn and piano
i-ching music
Full Circle (1992)
horn and timpani
i-ching music
Concerto No. 2 (1993)
i-ching music
Mercury (1993)
horn (with clarinet, harp,
percussion, and strings)
horn and tape
i-ching music
Returning to the Source (1993)
solo natural horn
i-ching music
natural horn
Wailing (1994)
horn, piano, and computerrealized tape
solo horn with tape loop
i-ching music
electronic media
i-ching music
electronic media
i-ching music
electronic media
“Sculpture V ‘Dream in Light
Blue’” (1989)
The Hermit
Concerto, Op. 56a (1990)
Infinite (1995– )
The Tenor
Sinfonia IV
horn with three string quartets
(or Quintet for Horn, String
Quartet, and tape)
horn and piano
i-ching music
Sonata, Op. 117
horn and piano
i-ching music
88
electronic media
electronic media
Concerto (1999)
horn with brass quintet
i-ching music
Color Contrasts
solo horn
i-ching music
More than Sixty-Four Solos
Based on Richard Burdick's I
Ching Scales (2004)
Soliloquy (1994)
solo horn
i-ching music
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Elegy for Lennie (2000)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
L. M. (2000)
horn and piano
New York Nights (2000)
horn and piano
Civil, Alan
Serenade in F
hosepipe or horn
Southern Music
Company
Southern Music
Company
Broadbent and Dunn
Clark, Andrew
16 Etudes for valved horn or
hand-horn (1997)
Miradita (2000)
solo horn
Mitre Music
horn and piano
Sandy (2000)
horn and piano
Danner, Gregory
Five Miniatures
horn and piano
Southern Music
Company
Southern Music
Company
Medici Music Press
Davies, Alison
Four Studies (1994)
solo horn
Broadbent and Dunn
Durand, Philippe
Aybsses (2002)
horn and piano
Alphonse Leduc
Aurore Boreale (2005)
horn and piano
Ed. Du Petite Page
Ostinato (2005)
horn and piano
Ed. Du Petite Page
Petite musique de jour (2005)
horn and piano
Ed. Du Petite Page
Psychose (2005)
horn and piano
Ed. Du Petite Page
Rhapsodie paysanne (2005)
horn and piano
Ed. Du Petite Page
Sonatines No. 1 (2005)
horn and piano
Ed. Du Petite Page
Celebration for Horn and
Organ (1977)
Prelude for Horn (1977)
horn and organ
R. E. Faust Music
solo horn
R. E. Faust Music
horn and tape
R. E. Faust Music
Carr, Gordon
Chancey,
Vincent
Clark, John
Faust, Randall
jazz elements
jazz elements
jazz elements
jazz elements
Horn Call for Horn and
Electronic Media (1978)
Meditation for Horn and Organ
(1983)
Concerto (1987)
horn and organ
R. E. Faust Music
horn and wind ensemble
R. E. Faust Music
Mazasha (1989)
solo horn
R. E. Faust Music
Dances (1992)
natural horn and percussion
R. E. Faust Music
The Hornist’s Jokebook: A
Book of New Etudes for Horn
(1994)
Harmonielehre (1996)
solo horn
R. E. Faust Music
solo horn
R. E. Faust Music
Rondo (1997)
horn and piano
R. E. Faust Music
Call and Response (1997)
solo horn
R. E. Faust Music
Fantasy for Horn and Organ
(2001)
Festive Processional for Horn
and Organ (2001)
Interval Etudes (2001)
horn and organ
R. E. Faust Music
horn and organ
R. E. Faust Music
solo horn
R. E. Faust Music
horn and organ
R. E. Faust Music
natural horn, horn, and
harpsichord
horn and electronic media
R. E. Faust Music
R. E. Faust
electronic media
horn and electronic media
R. E. Faust
electronic media
Sesquicentennial Prelude for
Horn and Organ (2004)
Declamation for Horn and
Harpsichord (2004)
Concertpiece I: Prelude and
Dance
Concertpiece II: Calls of the
Night
89
electronic media
natural horn
Concertpiece III: Sequence
horn and electronic media
R. E. Faust
electronic media
solo natural horn
Bote & Bock
natural horn
solo horn
Baskerville Press
horn and piano
Baskerville Press
Gardner, Randy
The Dying Deer: An Elegy
(1990)
Soliloquy for unaccompanied
horn (1999)
Sonata for horn and piano
(2004)
Why?! (2002)
solo horn
Thompson Edition
Grabois, Daniel
The Spikenard (1997)
solo horn
Blue Bison Music
Greer, Lowell
Fopus (1978)
solo horn
L. Greer
Het Valkof (1991)
solo natural horn
L. Greer
The Crust Around Emptiness
solo horn
L. Greer
Francis, Alun
Funkhouser,
James
Grigorov,
Vladislav
Haddad, Don
Halstead,
Anthony
Henslee,
Kenneth C.
Hill, Douglas
Musical Portraits
solo horn
L. Greer
solo natural horn
L. Greer
natural horn
Scherzino of the Slip-Up (1995)
solo natural horn
L. Greer
natural horn
Piesi za waldkhorna ot
bulgarski kompozitori (1988)
Four Sketches (1975)
solo horn
Muzika
horn and piano
Seesaw Music Corp.
Air and Dance (1993)
horn and piano
Wingert-Jones Music
Sonata No. 2 for horn and piano
(1998)
Encore (1999)
horn and piano
Wingert-Jones Music
horn and piano
Wingert-Jones Music
Suite (1978)
solo horn
Dunster Music
Lament: for solo horn, opus 2
(1995)
Character Pieces (1973–4)
solo horn
K. C. Henslee
solo horn
Really Good Music
Jazz Soliloquies (1978)
solo horn
Really Good Music
solo horn and 8 horns
Really Good Music
Jazz Set (1982–4)
solo horn
Margun Music
jazz elements
Thoughtful Wanderings (1990)
natural horn, native American
percussion, and tape
solo horn
natural horn;
electronic media
Elegy for Horn Alone (1998)
solo horn
IHS Manuscript
Press
PP Music; Manduca
Music Publishers
PP Music; Manduca
Music Publishers
Really Good Music
Oddities (2004)
solo horn
Really Good Music
jazz elements
Greens/Blues/Reds (2005)
solo horn
Really Good Music
jazz elements
horn and piano
Sonata
horn and piano
Tritone Press
Hundemer,
Thomas
Gently Weep for Natural Horn
with Digital Delay (2004)
O for the Touch of a Vanish’d
Hand (2004)
Hornpiece (1971)
natural horn with digital delay
T. Hundemer
horn and strings (or horn and
piano)
horn and tape
T. Hundemer
Seesaw Music Corp.
Krol, Bernhard
jazz elements
Abstraction (1980)
Hughes, Mark
Johns, Terence
natural horn
Little Waldhorn Book (1991)
Reflections for Horn Alone
(1995)
Song Suite in Jazz Style (1996)
Hutchison,
Warner
jazz elements
Chorale Fantasy on an Advent
Tune (1973)
Holland Park (1994)
horn and organ
Seesaw Music Corp.
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
One Day (2000)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Concerto Barocco
horn and orchestra
Bote & Bock
Missa Muta: Five Miniatures
for Horn and Organ, op. 5
(1973)
horn and organ
Bote & Bock
90
jazz elements
natural horn;
electronic media
electronic media
Gratulation Impromptu fur
Rainer Russ (1979)
Three Pieces for Horn and
Piano, op. 72 (1983)
Ballade (1985)
horn and piano
Bote & Bock
horn and piano
Bote & Bock
horn and piano
A. Bohm & Sohn
Con sentimento: Zwei
Inventionen fur Horn in F und
Gitarre (1985)
Moment musical, op. 103
(1987)
Innsbrucker Konzert (1997)
horn and guitar
Joachim-TrekelVerlag
solo natural horn
Bote & Bock
horn and 25 wind instruments
Edition mf
Sospiri: Three Moments
Musicaux (2002)
Signals for Our Times (2000)
horn and piano
Wolfgang G. Haas
solo natural horn
Näckens Vänner
Three Fairy Tales (1993)
horn and piano
Southern Music Co.
Sonata for Horn and Piano
(2005)
Tva stamningar for walthorn
(1983)
Miniatures for Unaccompanied
Horn (c. 1973)
Colored Leaves (1994)
horn and piano
solo horn
RM Williams
Publishing
Libitum Musik
solo horn
Great River Music
solo horn
Spindrift Music Co.
Martin, Robert
Regulus (1998)
solo horn
Merion Music
Mishori, Yaacov
Prolonged Shofar Variations
(1981)
solo horn
Orval, Francis
Libre-free-frei (1982)
solo horn
Triptych (1987)
solo horn
Israel BrassWoodwind
Publications
McCoy's Horn
Library
Editions Marc Reift
Four Pieces (1985)
solo natural horn
Great River Music
Pastorale (1990)
solo horn
Great River Music
Penta-monologo (2002)
solo horn
Piles
La grande ecole: huit pieces
faciles (1987)
Voiles (1993)
horn and piano
G. Billaudot
solo horn
G. Billaudot
Scènes Paysannes (1994)
horn in F or E-flat and piano
Theodore Presser Co.
Lamb, John
David
Leclaire, Dennis
Lowe, Laurence
Lundberg,
Staffan
Marshall,
Pamela
Patterson,
Robert
Pitarch Zarzo,
Vicente
Proust, Pascal
J’apprends le cor (1994)
solo horn
Editions Combre
Cap Horn (1995)
horn and piano
Editions Combre
Sur un theme classique (1996)
horn and piano
G. Billaudot
Quinze pièces en forme d'etudes
(1996)
Pour une Aventure: petite suite
pour cor seul (1998)
Avenue Mozart (1999)
solo horn
Editions Combre
solo horn
Theodore Presser Co.
horn and piano
Editions Combre
Premiere Sonatine (2000)
horn and piano
G. Billaudot
25 Etudes sur des soli
d'orchestre (2002)
Gamins d’Paris (2002)
solo horn
Editions Combre
horn and piano
G. Billaudot
Les caprices de Pierrot (2003)
horn and piano
Editions Combre
Petit poème (2005)
horn and piano
Editions Combre
Cnossos (2004)
solo alphorn or natural horn
40 Etudes de style pour cor
(2004)
Vagabundo (2005)
solo horn
Editions Fertile
Plaine
Editions Combre
solo horn
Editions Fertile
Plaine
91
natural horn
natural horn
natural horn
natural horn
Randall,
Anthony
Reynolds, Verne
Rimmer, John
Lullaby (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Marching Tune (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Scherzo (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Nocturne (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
March (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Serenade (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Swings and Roundabouts
(1993)
Waltz (1993)
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
horn and piano
Broadbent and Dunn
Sonata (1971)
horn and piano
Southern Music
Elegy (1986)
solo horn
Horn Vibes: Three Duos for
Horn and Vibraphone (1986)
horn and vibraphone
Explorations-Discoveries
(1971)
Extro-Intro (1977)
horn and orchestra
Belwin-Mills,
Distributed by
Pictures Publications
Belwin-Mills,
Distributed by
Pictures Publications
Unpublished
Tides (1981)
horn and CD
Waiteata (An
Anthology of New
Zealand Graphic
Scores)
Catena Press
Tritones (1987)
horn and synthesizer
Unpublished
Hidden Treasures (2005)
horn and orchestra
SOUNZ
Rindt, Markus
Impressions in Jazz (1996)
horn and piano
Rosolino,
Richard
Salonen, EsaPekka
Variations on Amazing Grace
(1993)
Hornmusic No. 1 (1977)
solo horn
Friedrich Hofmeister
Musikverlag
Hidalgo Music
horn and piano
Seesaw Music
Concert etude (2000)
solo horn
Schmalz, Peter
Schuller,
Gunther
Sellers,
Jacquelyn
Shaw, Lowell
Snedeker,
Jeffrey
horn, ring modulator, digital
delay system
24 Etudes for Horn
solo horn
Chester Music,
Music Sales Limited
Phoebus Publications
Scherzo
horn and piano
Phoebus Publications
Subterranea
horn and piano
Phoebus Publications
Processional and Recessional
horn and organ
Phoebus Publications
Caduceus
horn and band
Phoebus Publications
Trois Hommages (1979)
horn(s) and piano
Margun Music
Concerto No. 2 (1980s)
horn and orchestra
Margun Music
Nocturne (1985)
horn and piano
Margun Music
Sonata (1989)
horn and piano
Margun Music
Fanfare and Interlude (1996)
solo horn
K.C. Henslee
Just Desserts (1999)
solo horn (with optional bass
part)
solo horn
The Hornists’ Nest
Jomar Press
solo natural horn
Suite for Unaccompanied Horn
(1995)
Goodbye to a Friend (1997)
jazz elements
electronic media
electronic media
electronic media
jazz elements
jazz elements
Birdalone Music
natural horn
solo natural horn
Birdalone Music
natural horn
Songer, Lewis
Two Solo Etudes for Natural
Horn (1997)
Le Mime (1982)
solo horn
Ko Ko Enterprises
Stacy, William
H*O*R*N* (1974)
solo horn
Ludwig Music
Publishing
92
Sturzenegger,
Christophe
Terwilliger, Eric
Thurlow,
Deborah
Turner, Kerry
Ballade (1998)
horn and piano
Editions Marc Reift
Cornicen (2002)
solo horn
Editions Marc Reift
Râ, dieu solaire (2005)
solo horn
Woodbrass Music
Till Eulenspiegels lustige
Streiche: for horn solo (1994)
Sacred Postlude (2000)
solo horn
C.F. Peters
D. Thurlow
The Creation (2003)
horn, shofar, tibetan singing
bowl, and tingha
horn and strings
Sonata (1992)
horn and piano
Twas a Dark and Stormy Night
(1993)
Sonata for Horn and Strings
(1993)
Characters for Solo French
Horn (1995)
Sonata (1995)
horn and organ
D. Thurlow
horn and chamber orchestra
Unsworth, Adam
Concerto for Low Horn in F
and Chamber Orchestra (1996)
Halfway There (2002)
MusicPress
Distributors
Phoenix Music
Publications
Phoenix Music
Publications
Phoenix Music
Publications
Phoenix Music
Publications
Editions Bim
solo horn
unpublished
jazz elements
Varner, Tom
Big George Blues (2000)
horn and piano
jazz elements
Hemoglobin (2000)
horn and piano
All Mortal Flesh (1997)
solo horn
Southern Music
Company
Southern Music
Company
Tom Varner Music
Ward, Robert
Serenade (2001)
horn and string trio
R. Ward
Weinstein,
Michael H.
Sonata (1985)
horn and piano
Micha Music
horn and strings
solo horn
horn and piano
93
jazz elements
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Miller, James. “The Life and Works of Jan Vaclav Stich (Giovanni Punto): A Check-list of 18th
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Smith, Karen Robertson. “An Annotated Bibliography of Works for Unaccompanied Horn,
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98
INTERVIEWS
Agrell, Jeffrey. Interview by author. University of Iowa, 27 July 2007.
Amram, David. Telephone interview by author. 22 September 2007.
Basler, Paul. Questionnaire by author. Sent by electronic mail. 24 September 2007.
Faust, Randall. Questionnaire by author. Sent by electronic mail. 15 January 2008.
Greer, Lowell. Interview by author, Toledo, OH, 8 July 2007.
Hill, Douglas. Interview by author, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 18 January 2007.
___________. Interview by author. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 12 July 2007.
Shaw, Lowell. Interview by author. Frankfurt, MI, 9 July 2007.
Snedeker, Jeffrey. Interview by author. University of Central Washington, 7 August 2007.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MUSICAL SCORES
Agrell, Jeffrey. September Elegy. Austin, TX: Jomar Press, 2001.
Amram, David. Blues and Variations for Monk. New York: C. F. Peters Corporation, 1991.
Basler, Paul. Dance Fool, Dance!. Tallahassee, FL: RM Williams Publishing, 1998.
Dauprat, Louis-François. Hornkonzert Nr. 5, op. 21. Leipzig: Robert Ostermeyer Musikedition, 2005.
Faust, Randall. Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media. Macomb, IL: Faust Music, 1978.
Greer, Lowell. Het Valkof. Toledo, OH: Lowell Greer, 1991.
Hill, Douglas. Jazz Set for Solo Horn. Newton Centre, MA: Margun Music, 1987.
_____________. Thoughtful Wanderings. Columbia, MO: IHS Manuscript Press, 1992.
Punto, Giovanni. Concerto No. 11 in E Major. Bellingham, WA: Medici Music Press, 1983.
Shaw, Lowell. Just Desserts–Frippery Style. Buffalo, NY: The Hornists’ Nest, 1999.
Snedeker, Jeffrey. Goodbye to a Friend. San Diego, CA: Birdalone Music, 1997.
99