Masters Recital: New Music For Horn

Great Recital, Live and Thrilling.

     

Thank you to the ten composers and thirty performers who made this recital and recording possible. Every piece is a masterwork and deserves to be played many more times. This was an outstanding recital and is well worth any price. I know you will enjoy.

The original programs notes follow:

Central Lutheran Church Monday, 6:00 p.m.
Eugene, Oregon May 31, 2010

ABOUT THE COMPOSITIONS

Jeffrey Parola: Trio for Horn, Cello, and Piano. “For your dessert tonight: A buttery, creamy confection with a dusting of powdered sugar; this sweet waltz aims to delight and leave you with a smile. Bon appétit!”

Jodi French: Brown Branch Grey Sky. “This short piece in three sections moves through a few small moments of a winter morning: where I was, what I saw and heard, where I wished to be, and my return in gratitude. Looking out the window that day, I saw the depressingly ordinary sight of a bare brown branch over the cedar shed against a grey sky. This is expressed in the first few notes of the flute opening, then explored by all players, who try to lift it out of itself with speed, range and excitement; but all come back to ordinariness. A branch cracked and set two squirrels to frantic racing, which led to the sudden angular, chasing theme that follows. When the squirrels exhausted themselves, my thoughts drifted to where I had just been and wished still to be, a small and particular place in the British Isles. The small lyric theme feels a bit Scottish, using four notes from a very special concert I had just been part of. Eventually this led me home and to true gratitude for my brown branches, my family in all seasons, and my often ordinary life. I ended the piece with deep personal contentment. Thank you for playing it, thank you for hearing it.”

Damien J. Bradley: Song for My Father. “Not to be confused with Horace Silver's jazz standard, this piece is more "about" my father than "for" him. I have not talked to my father in several years, for personal reasons, and this piece is an attempt to articulate and convey my mixed emotions about him, as well as come to greater peace with the situation.”

Simon Hutchinson: Long Distance. “Growing up as a first-generation immigrant to the U.S., all of my relatives other than my nuclear family were overseas. Spending a lot of time on the phone long distance became a matter of course--talking with aunts, uncles, and grandparents through a grainy, imperfect connection. Perhaps fittingly, now, during our engagement, my fiancée is overseas, and though we are grateful for the technology, our daily conversations on Skype often lack something and lead to miscommunications."

Krista Abrahamson: Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano. “The movements of this Trio (Romanza, Scherzo, transformation/metamorphoses, Elegie, Epilogue) are meant to chronicle the arc of a relationship. Not with regard to any particular person, idea, or activity, but rather modeling the emotions which are universal to all of us.”

Ethan Gans-Morse: Elegy for Horn and Piano. “This is dedicated to my cousin Jared, who passed away tragically this year. Jared was born four weeks after I was, and I always felt that we would go through life together in some sense. I have heard it said that our grief is a gift of love that we offer to the deceased. This elegy is an expression of grief as an act of love and transformation. It is also a musical exploration of the meaning of elegy, evoking symbols of grief and mourning through the various timbres of the horn and piano.”

Seth Stewart: A Brother's Farewell. “This was composed early this year, when my youngest brother John was embarking on a two-year service mission to Hamburg, Germany. In the soft boldness of the horn melody, I hoped to depict some of the feelings of hope, optimism, and encouragement that I shared with my family at the onset of this important journey in my brother's life.”

Christopher Wicks: In Sickness and in Health. “The extra-musical inspiration for this piece comes from the perennial struggles of my older sister with a chronic pain and fatigue disorder. A unifying element throughout the piece is a four-measure phrase in the horn which is also a twelve-tone row. This represents my sister herself, as she journeys through these trials. At first, the piano part is harshly dissonant, and its pitch material is stringently determined by the various permutations of the twelve-tone row. However, as the piece continues, the manner of presenting material derived from the row becomes more and more free, like a soul being liberated from illness, and the pitch material becomes more and more consonant, until we reach a climax which is optimistic, indeed jubilant. Already it seems more and more that this is the direction which my sister's journey is taking, and it is my hope that this piece will be a reflection and foreshadowing further benefits for her.”

Mark Knippel: Two Miniatures (2010). “This piece began in 2004 as a commission of sorts for Dr. Rhett Bender and Jody Schmidt, but was relegated to the back burner. When John presented the opportunity to write a piece for him, this came to mind, albeit completed in a very different way than I had originally intended in 2004.”

i. (Waking to Smoking Delinquents Yelling at Each Other About Nothing) depicts the scene outside of my house on virtually any given morning. I live across from the Eugene Opportunity Center, and frequently see teenagers outside enjoying their last smoke before school. Teenagers being who they are, they frequently yell at each other for reasons not entirely clear… and this is not the most pleasant wake up call. This movement depicts my frustration with the "smoking delinquents.”

ii. (What One Might See in Dreams) is intended as a sort of dreamscape. Not referring to specific imagery but rather the impression of that dream that you just had which quickly faded from memory upon waking.