Horn 1: f - a2
Horn 2: f - g2
Horn 3: g - a2
Horn 4: c - f2
Creator's Comments
The title “Chaste Fugue” has nothing to do with the morality, but is a play on the words “cor de chasse”, the original French name for the horn. Also, in Latin, the word “fuga” refers to “flight” or “chase”. My thought was that the motif of the fugue seemed somehow reminiscent of early hunting calls. There is also a reference in the coda to another famous chase, clearly documented over the years in a well known nursery rhyme.
The “Chaste Fugue” was written as an assignment for a composition class at California State University at Long Beach.
Performance Notes
As noted in the comments above, this is a combination of a hunting call (6/8) and a fugue (the shifted entry of the parts in the tonic and a relative key, in this case the dominant). In other words, it’s a hunting call in fugal style. Being a composition assignment, there are more fugal elements present (e.g. the stretched out theme in horn 5 in bar 59) – to find them, if wanted, is up the interested performer.
This is a very interesting combination of two popular styles for the horn quartet, and ensemble in general, and for the price it should not be missed.