3 movements:
I Poco allegro
II Larghetto espressivo
III Presto
Clefs
Treble, bass
Meters
4/4, 6/4
Key signatures
None
Range
Horn 1: A - c3
Horn 2: a - bb2
Horn 3: d - g2
Horn 4: F - d2
Creator's Comments
I wrote the piece for my students with the idea of practical educational use in mind. The work is suitable for medium to advanced players. It has many technical challenges, but these are equally distributed and organized to be accessible of approached in a systematic way. Range, register changes and endurance are written for the characteristics of the horn. Although there are no frequent meter changes, many themes start at the beginning, middle, or end of a bar creating an impression of such changes. Rhythms, while not difficult, do require fine coordination from all players. Harmonically and musically, I wanted to create an interesting and stimulating piece for young payers. The musical language contains shades of jazz while keeping the style within the established norms of classical performance.
Performance Notes
To add some more technical demands to the list made by the composer:
- steady tempo while note lengths change
- changing slurs over similar looking passages
- highlight difference between staccato and legato
- quick dynamic changes
- quick crescendo
- unusual scale patterns over 3 octaves
- note pitching (e.g. ab2 after an A)
- hand stopping
- quick change between open and hand stopped notes
- triplets vs. semiquavers (sixteenth notes)
- mute
- glissandi into the top register
- hemioles
- soft high attacks
- loud register change
- fast, unusual arpeggio figures
- chromatic scales
- reading accidentals, some of them unusual (e#, etc.)
Definitely worth checking out!