Product Description
This is a
brand new piece composed for French Horn without accompaniment. It has three
movements all connected by the opening material of the first movement. I am
publishing this piece as separate movements as well as a complete edition.
1st. Movement:
The opening movement is marked andante. It opens with a repeated tonic followed
by an arpeggiated 1/16th figure with a closing descending scale. These three
ideas form the basic musical material for the whole sonata. Throughout the
first movement these three ideas are transformed and manipulated, expanded and
contracted while maintaining a clear musical structure (basically Ternary
form). As with sonata form, the final reprise of the original ideas is
transformed by their 'journey'.
The style of the music is rather like a Bach partita for solo instrument.
The movement takes the player through most of the horn's range, but does not
require any extended techniques, so should be handleable by moderately skilled
players.
2nd. Movement:
This slow movement requires excellent breath control. It uses the repeated not
idea from the 1st movement to open, expanding the rhythm to create a rather
melancholy pattern. Later, the scalic 1/16th are utilised to link to the Più
mosso section where the arpeggio idea (this time descending) helps to create a
feeling of wide open space and emptiness. The player is in an empty universe,
drifting slowly away as the dynamics become ever quieter until the ending at ppp.
3rd. Movement:
This movement opens with a similar idea to the previous two, but at a fairly
quick Allegro (quarter = 132) and using arpeggios in triplets to drive the
music through.
The dotted half noes with crescs at the end of the phrase should really be
pushed into brassiness at the end of the cresc.
I ask the player to do rip glisses, some of them difficult to achieve, and also
gestopft and 'half stopped'. Although these are 'hand horn' techniques that
survive from before the invention of valves, they are still useful to create a
different effect than from standard mutes. Where these techniques are asked
for, a silvery, ethereal tone is required as a contrast to the brash 'hunting
horn' style of the outer sections of the movement.
The middle part of this movement is quasi a cadenza. The stopping instructions
are intended to have an effect on the tuning as well as the timbre of the
notes. The first pair of each group of three should be slurred smoothly.
The final section reprises the beginning of the movement, but at breakneck
speed. quarter = 144 is advisory only. The faster the better.
This movement again makes use of the extremes of the horn's range and makes
high demands on stamina and tonguing.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.