Soliloquy for Horn

A piece kept short because it's probably tiring to play. It hits a top A only once but there are several Gs. Perhaps it could be longer if doing more in a lower register.

Comments would be sincerely appreciated and thank you if you can give it a listen. Like I said, it isn't a long piece.

This is quite varied in range and not particularly demanding (coming from someone who played horn for 8 years).  I like the use of flutter-tongue and the ascending rip you have at the end.  These are quite good horn samples that you're using.  It sounds like a kind of extended horn cadenza.  What I wish you would have included is a singable/hummable tune or theme that doesn't sound unmeasured.  You have many pauses throughout this that break the flow of ideas into sort of fragments.  Maybe you were trying to make sure that the player can take breaths in between the phrases but I think you could have done that even with well defined themes.  With the horns wide range you could have written a theme complete with a bass line interspersed throughout/in between the melody.  Just an idea.  Overall a nice job though.

The fragmented nature of it is somewhat intriguing as it recontextualizes certain processional choices into different harmonic areas forcing the listener to make a choice based on contour vs. tonality, which is an interesting dynamic. I would have appreciated a bit more long-scale transformation (at least that's immediately more clear) just because it's hard to ground oneself on a semitonal expanding -> thirds, etc. without context for the underlying sonic area. Overall though, this is pretty engaging.

Nice! I played horn in school too and I think this would have been a fun solo piece. 

I don't think you should be too concerned about the difficulty. It sounds challenging, but is certainly in the realm of possibility. And as far as range goes, yeah G and A above the staff are high, but their not that high. Most decent high school horn players could hit those notes, and professionals would have no problem. High C above the staff (written pitch for Horn in F) is kind of seen as the rule of thumb highest note, but higher notes are possible.

If you're interested here's a fun recording of something quite challenging, but still possible. They go above G and A plenty of times.

Thanks for sharing!

I would love to see a score if there is one... beautiful.

20 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

This is quite varied in range and not particularly demanding (coming from someone who played horn for 8 years).  I like the use of flutter-tongue and the ascending rip you have at the end.  These are quite good horn samples that you're using.  It sounds like a kind of extended horn cadenza.  What I wish you would have included is a singable/hummable tune or theme that doesn't sound unmeasured.  You have many pauses throughout this that break the flow of ideas into sort of fragments.  Maybe you were trying to make sure that the player can take breaths in between the phrases but I think you could have done that even with well defined themes.  With the horns wide range you could have written a theme complete with a bass line interspersed throughout/in between the melody.  Just an idea.  Overall a nice job though.

 

I still haven't got used to this weird site that doesn't respond to any BB code I know of and I don't want to spend the day working out how to do multiple quotes. So it's one-by-one.

Thank you for listening and your comments - much valued. So...yes, it probably isn't that demanding which is as I hoped. It's more of an improvisation based around motifs. Nice to have a comment from a horn player.

It was an attempt to do something more cheerful and light compared to other pieces I'd been working on that border on the atonal. Times, I just need a rest and write for a soloist. It's not the closest to tonal I've posted here but almost.  The paper score has no bar lines as they didn't seem right for the piece. 

So again, thank you.

Q

19 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

The fragmented nature of it is somewhat intriguing as it recontextualizes certain processional choices into different harmonic areas forcing the listener to make a choice based on contour vs. tonality, which is an interesting dynamic. I would have appreciated a bit more long-scale transformation (at least that's immediately more clear) just because it's hard to ground oneself on a semitonal expanding -> thirds, etc. without context for the underlying sonic area. Overall though, this is pretty engaging.

 

Hi, Monarcheon,

I suppose I call these solo pieces soliloquies as if they're the thoughts of a wandering mind interacting with an instrument. Not quite symbiosis but it takes the interaction to give aural life as it were. As a moderator you'll probably have glanced through some of my posts and know that my theory is iffy although I still apply basic CPP thoughts even to atonal work: lines have to hang together (contrapuntal ones resolving in some way at the end of phrases (which could be cadential substitutes)); notes have to end precisely; and it's rare to find unintentional forbidden consecutives in my efforts. But this is an area in which you're hugely more advanced than I.

So, thank you for your astute comments and listening through. Much appreciated.

18 hours ago, gmm said:

Nice! I played horn in school too and I think this would have been a fun solo piece. 

I don't think you should be too concerned about the difficulty. It sounds challenging, but is certainly in the realm of possibility. And as far as range goes, yeah G and A above the staff are high, but their not that high. Most decent high school horn players could hit those notes, and professionals would have no problem. High C above the staff (written pitch for Horn in F) is kind of seen as the rule of thumb highest note, but higher notes are possible.

If you're interested here's a fun recording of something quite challenging, but still possible. They go above G and A plenty of times.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for listening and taking time to comment. I hadn't wanted to write a challenge. I learned a lesson with my string writing about challenge as I have players accessible in ordinary, non-pandemic times. One response was 'Who do you think I am? Paganini?' At least we had a laugh about it. I talk to musicians a lot. Perhaps it's because of over-populated England most towns have a few musical activities. My town and an adjacent one 6 miles away have orchestras that aren't too shabby and we have a County orchestra that's played my stuff. They're a mix of amateurs of varying standard and ex-pros, retired or redundant and the like.

A concerto-quality horn player could manage my piece with ease, no doubt, but a run of the mill orchestral player? Exposed entries on top notes? Persistent lines on high G and above you'll soon get complaints or fluffed entries. It's ok for one of our locals who has a triple horn and a background in baroque but that's the only one I've seen in the vicinity.

Nice playing, the London Horn Sound. Like the Canadian Brass, they're obviously top class. Thanks for the link.

Again, thanks for the comment.

18 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

I would love to see a score if there is one... beautiful.

 

Thank you for your generous comment.

I do have a score but it's ink on paper as it has no bar lines. My DAW doesn't allow no time signature so its score is riddled with irrelevant bar lines and rests that simply clutter the thing. You'll know that a DAW produces a score precisely aligned to the midi editor. This piece is fairly rubato and transcribing it into the midi editor I 'humanised' it leaving pauses and adjusting the tempo as seemed fit. I could produce a clean-ish copy if that would do but the paper score would have to be scanned and turned into a pdf.

My apologies about that but if the daw-score would do, I'll format it.

Bests,

Quin.

1 hour ago, Quinn said:

Hi, Monarcheon,

I suppose I call these solo pieces soliloquies as if they're the thoughts of a wandering mind interacting with an instrument. Not quite symbiosis but it takes the interaction to give aural life as it were. As a moderator you'll probably have glanced through some of my posts and know that my theory is iffy although I still apply basic CPP thoughts even to atonal work: lines have to hang together (contrapuntal ones resolving in some way at the end of phrases (which could be cadential substitutes)); notes have to end precisely; and it's rare to find unintentional forbidden consecutives in my efforts. But this is an area in which you're hugely more advanced than I.

So, thank you for your astute comments and listening through. Much appreciated.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to overwhelm you (and if I didn't, I just wanted to make sure)! Just trying to explain how I interpreted it since that's what theory's mostly good for: for example, if your stacks of thirds, oftentimes the following phrase will be either tonally or gesturally related to it after the pause and the audience (or me) is put in a position where they have to decide where one motive ended and another began based on different criteria (contour of the moving line or harmonic relevance). 

Many thanks for the response, Monarcheon. I got the gist of what you were saying and thanks for the clarification. My problem is being past my sell-by date on theoretical terms. I did study CPP at school (up to Kitson Part 3 which was opening a Pandora's Box for me!) and Species Counterpoint extra-curriculum but the teacher must have thought I was worth the effort and, I have to admit, the knowledge has proved valuable in applying 'controlled' atonality but not down the serial route. It's more about shape, contour, motif and proportion. 

Now, as I write I tend to pick up new theoretical concepts as need dictates.

Again, thanks.