by Diana Ambache n As You Like It Shakespeare said, "The horn, the horn, the has used the short and simple Two Pieces by Sofia Gubaidulina
I lusty horn, is not a thing to laugh to scorn." No scorn here,
and possibly only a little laughter. Investigation has re vealed an amazing range of music for horn written by women. Much of this music is being discovered and enjoyed. Some per as an encore. D u e ts
The antiphonal fanfare duo of horn with trumpet Bells in
formances can be found on Spotify and YouTube, and scores the Air, by Cecilia McDowall, was commissioned by the Fibo in the public domain are on IMSLP (Petrucci Music Library). nacci Sequence in 2004. The score states that the two players The horn plays alone, with the piano and in other duets should be as far away as possible, so either side of a church with a remarkable variety of partners, in many different cham balcony would work well. It's a short, effective work, suitable ber music combinations, and as soloist with ensembles. for beginning a concert or the second half of a concert. Also S o lo (h o r n a lo n e ) with trumpet (and piano), Elizabeth Raum's The Bushwakker's Brewpub (2002) refers to the popular watering hole where mu Several solo works by European sicians often gather after concerts in Regina (Saskatchewan, and North American composers are Canada). available. Orizzonte (Horizon, 1981) Amy Beach arranged her Children's by the Swedish organist Carin Malm- Album, op. 36 for a pair of horns; it was orig lof-Forssling is described as among her inally for piano and comprises a Minuet, Ga important compositions. The small set votte, Waltz, March, and Polka. More recent of variations by Elizabeth Vercoe enti Americans writing for two horns include tled Corollaries was commissioned for Andrea Clearfield, Gina Gillie, television hornist Francis Massinon in 2007. Not composer Lynne Latham, and a Diverti withstanding the somewhat dry title mento by Karen Griebling. Amy Beach Text V, Olive . ,Vivienne r ■ , s piece Cann Malmlof-Forssling C h a m b e r m u s ic J ° describes a huge bull in the setting of a The horn combines well with a variety of other instru calm Outer Hebrides landscape. Horn- ments; the 1930 Trio with flute and piano Scenes de la Foret player and composer Lydia Lowery by Mel Bonis is a delightful sequence of pictures in sound; it Busier has written Appalachia (1992, par starts with a Nocturne, then dawn, and a catholic Invocation, ticularly appreciated in New England and finally a hunt in Pour Artemis. Somebody could have fun and described by Philadelphia Orches presenting this pictorial music by combining it with a painter tra principal horn Jennifer Montone as creating pictures at the same time! "evocative and thought provoking"); Peggy Glanville Hicks, one of the most international of r ,. , n , her Fanfare & Processional (2002) is often Australian composers, wrote a trio, ti Lydia Lowery Busier ,, J J used tor ceremonies. tled Sonata, for flute, harp, and horn H o r n a n d P ia n o in 1950. She wrote, "It is apparent that leisure and silence are absolute prereq The many compositions of horn with uisites for composers if they are to en piano include Ann Callaway's 1974-77 co gage fully the many forms of awareness lourful evocation Four Elements: Wind Fan involved in creative activity. This lei tasy, Water Portrait, Earth, Fire Music. Songs of sure and silence have become the great the Wolf by Andrea Clearfield was commis est luxuries in the modern world, and sioned by Froydis Ree Wekre; it conjures up composers less than any other group in mythology and the northern woods, along Peggy Glanville Hicks art or science are able to command it." with the spirit of the wolf. Jennifer Mon She has a combined melody-rhythm ap tone said it reminded her of Des Canyons aux proach to composing, particularly suited to the harp playing Andrea Clearfield Etoiles by Messiaen; perhaps nature touches both melody and rhythm at the same time. the eternal somewhere. Johanna Sender's Trio, op. 103 for horn with clarinet and The Sonata by Jane Vignery is successful piano, is in a late-romantic language. The scoring of the more in its use of horn effects (including stopping). recent Sally Beamish St. Andrew's Bones (with violin and piano Edith Borroff wrote her Horn Sonata in 1954, - 1997) might suggest it originated as a companion piece to and Gina Branscombe's 1956 descriptive the Brahms Trio, but it clearly inhabits another world. She said Pacific Sketches is actually in late-Roman- "St. Andrew's Bones draws on three elements - the 13th-cen tic style. Canadian composer Violet Archer tury hymn to St. Andrew, Vir Perfecte; the pitches of 9th-century wrote her Horn Sonata when she was about Scottish bronze bells; and the natural series of a medieval horn, 52, in 1965. British soloist Richard Watkins Violet Archer
42 T ’f.e pforn Caff - October 2018
Horn Repertoire by Women which opens the piece. In this context, the three instruments series of chords underpins the architecture of the music. Often begin to come together, creating for me a stark and poignant rich and sensuous, occasionally distantly fragile, strong and echo across the centuries - resonances of an ancient and pow dramatic at the end, the chord series is repeated ten times by erful devotion." the strings of the ensemble. The solo horn goes its own way, Fired up by Matthew Arnold, A Victorian Garland (1966, overlaying the string sequence with bright 'bell-like' melodies, two singers, horn, and piano) illustrates Phyllis Tate's plea but all the instruments come together in the simple contrapun sure in writing with verse. She said of tal lines of the short coda." this composition, "Using the poems as The prolific and spirited composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich a kind of silhouette and preserving the also wrote a Concerto with strings. The Zwilich Horn Con medium of the vocal duet popular in certo was co-commissioned by the Colorado Music Festival at Victorian times, I have tried to reflect Vail Beaver Creek, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Orpheus in today's musical terms the differing Chamber Orchestra, and David Jolley, to whom it is dedicated. moods of the words: the first song fer It was composed in 1993 and premiered that year in Vail at the vent yet controlled, the second lyrical, Bravo! Music Festival with David Jolley as soloist. The Roch the third evanescent and volatile." An ester paper commented, "Every turn reveals a new element in other, earlier, word-based piece of hers, the landscape: a change or character in the strings, a new color Songs of Sundry Natures (1945), is scored effect in the horn." Phyllis Tate for baritone with flute, clarinet, bassoon, The music of the redoubtable Dame horn, and harp. Ethel Smyth was championed by Sir Numerous wind quintets range from the beautiful minia Thomas Beecham and Sir Henry Wood; ture Pastorale by Beach, to more extended works by Bacewicz, the latter was the dedicatee of the Con Doreen Carwithen, Ruth Crawford, Jennifer Higdon, Cecilia certo for Violin and Horn and Orchestra. McDowall, Geraldine Mucha, and Priaulx Rainier. Occasionally her music is described as Among brass quintets are works Brahmsian - this is definitely not; it's in by Judith Bingham, Valerie Coleman, her own meaty and expansive late-ro Libby Larsen, Rhian Samuel, and Isi- mantic language. Written when she was dora Zebeljan. Vitezslava Kapralova, a nearly 70 in 1927, Smyth put her strong short-lived Czech, wrote Two Fanfares for and thoughtful character into the music. two horns, two trumpets, and timpani. Richard Watkins played it in a BBC It dates from 1939, when she was 24; Prom performance and said the slow movement (an Elegy In anyone performing or recording it now Memoriam) was marvellous. The last movement is playful and would probably be giving a modern humorous, including some (surprising) horn chords in the ca premiere. denza. The unusual combination of soloists attracts interest. Thea Musgrave's fascination with dramatic-abstract mu E n s e m b le s w it h s o lo in s tr u m e n ts sical ideas can been seen in her Horn Concerto (1971): she sta Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz was imaginative, and tions the orchestral horns around the concert hall. She said of her Incrustations for horn and chamber ensemble is a mature the work, "Here the dramatic idea concerns the relationship work (1965). It is a twin to her Trio for Oboe, Harp, and Percus of the solo horn to the orchestral brass (4 horns, 2 trumpets, sion; both works contain a quotation of the solo part of her 1955 1 trombone) which form a concertante group set against the Partita. It includes magical textures, with, perhaps, a slightly rest of the orchestra. When they play it is to interrupt, distort, impressionistic emphasis on atmosphere and tone colour, such and, as it were, to mock. Thus they break up the mood of the as a horn solo against deep percussion and harp ripples. opening Misterioso, come un sogno with their Parodia, con vi- British women composers who have written horn solos olenza and later overwhelm the Capriccioso section with wild include the prolific Elizabeth Lutyens, Phyllis Tate, and Thea fanfares. (The percussion spread around the back of the orches Musgrave. Musgrave's Night Music (1969) was a BBC commis tra also help to build this climax.) For this, the trumpets take sion; in it, the two horns are featured in a soloistic and dramatic up new positions. Later the orchestral horns explore greater way. More unusually, Musgrave's The Golden Echo is with either stereophonic possibilities, when, in the last section, they move 16 horns or tape. (Desmond Tutu once so as to surround the solo horn, who mostly directs how they said "How could you have a soccer team should play." The piece is dedicated to Barry Tuckwell. if all were goalkeepers? How would it be The Katherine Hoover Concerto for Flute, Horn, and an orchestra if all were French horns?" Strings was premiered by the New York Concerto Orchestra He should hear this piece.) The music outdoors at Lincoln Centre in 1986. She wrote, "The flute and explores stereophonic effects, with quite horn are a rather mismatched pair in many ways. To let their a thick sound; it was commissioned individual qualities sound, I began with a short soliloquy for by the International Horn Society and each. This is followed by a slow dance which grows out of the mixes lyrical and dramatic writing. soliloquies, and then a lively one, as the instruments (or char Diana Burrell describes her Chaconne: acters, or thoughts) meet and interact." "This little piece for horn and strings is Elizabeth Maconchy's Variazioni Concertante creates in Thea Musgrave a chaconne, a form in which a repeating terplay between the oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn soloists
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Horn Repertoire by Women (the same instrumentation as the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante has shown that audiences often remark afterwards on how for Winds. It was written for a BBC Prom commission in 1965 they enjoyed the "discovery." and she relished the business of concertante writing for four The physicist Albert Einstein has said that great spirits wind soloists. Despite a vigorous 5/8 finale, it actually ends have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. If quietly! it sometimes seems that prejudice and neglect are directed par As a horn player herself, it's not too surprising that Tansy ticularly at music by women, we should remember that there Davies has written Forest, a concerto for four horns. Commis are also a large number of generally unknown works by men; sioned by the (London) Philharmonia Orchestra in 2017, Rich in sheer numbers, through time, women composers have never ard Watkins took part in the premiere, and other performances. been as numerous as men. Some works are used in competi He described it as fearsomely difficult. The music includes tions, some get performed and recorded and get a longer life. hunting effects, unusual hand-stopping, and bending notes at Froydis Ree Wekre points out that if all performers who are fast speeds. Davies uses the horns as a group to counterbalance close to the composers in question include them in their pro the orchestra; she said it combines traditional writing with grammes, chances do increase for the best of all these works to "thunk." The music ranges from visceral and violent to dream surface and get more attention. like repose. The (London) Observer newspaper commented "It was as if the composer had put her head to the ground and Diana Ambache is a pianist who recreated the roars and crackles of the forest." founded the Ambache Chamber Orches Elizabeth Lutyens wrote Chamber tra and has been researching, perform Concerto IV for horn and small orches ing, recording, and publicising music by tra, Op. 8, No. 4 (1946) for Dennis Brain, women. See womenofnote.co.uk and am- who one American critic described as bachecharitabletrust.org/. Contact Diana "the only man who has the right to blow at diana@ambache.co.uk. his own horn." He championed a lot of new music; indeed, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings was composed at a request from him. He was notori ously careless and Britten autographed one score "For Dennis - in case he loses the other one." Frank Lloyd gave the premiere of Ruth Gipps's Concerto, op. 58 (written for her son Lance Baker in 1968). She had what's now called a "portfolio career," including also being an oboist, International Women's lecturer, teacher, and choral conductor. Her music had person Brass Conference ality and invention and has been well received; indeed, David Pyatt recorded this concerto for Lyrita Arizona State University and described it as both highly acces Tempe, Arizona sible and extremely difficult for the so loist (some very high, some very low, C a ll fo r presenters & p e rfo rm e rs: o p e n s 6 / 1 / 2 0 1 8 and some very fast music). It's a tonal work, warm-hearted and attractive, and includes a fresh and quick-think COMPETITIONS ing Scherzo. The finale includes some The International W omen's Brass Conference invites all genders to enter the competitions. Up to $ 4 0 K in prizes will be aw arded. inspired changes of texture and tempo, with a highly original duet for horn and Select past winners include: Ruth Gipps celeste, where time stands still. Hana Beloglavec James Miller Karin Bliznik Vanessa Fralick Benjamin Pierce JoAnn Lamolino P e rfo r m a n c e s Adam Frey Kristy Morrell Colin Williams
Quite often promoters are not keen to include music that
isn't in the standard repertoire. It can be difficult to introduce the horn in chamber music concerts. Indeed, programming For more info, visit myiwbc.org these lesser-known works isn't always easy; some composers have suffered from the prejudice about women's abilities. So, ® ¥ @iwbc_brass we have to believe in what we want people to hear and have f /intlwomensbrassconference the courage to persuade the organisers to include the "new" (often old) and unfamiliar. We also have a responsibility to ■> I f £ l I Arizona State University composers to represent them fully and characterfully; how we S ch o o l o f M u sic serve them affects the success of the whole venture. Experience m u s ic .a s u .e d u
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