Recent Horn Ensemble and Chamber Work Purchases

At the recent Mid-South Horn Workshop I did my part to keep the vendors in business and purchased a number of items, primarily mouthpieces and horn ensemble and chamber works (and a couple of CDs). While this post will not be a formal review of any of these items, it is a view on what items caught my eye.

Trios

Starting with horn trios, I purchased two: Shepherd’s Call by Mark Watkins and Meadowland by Don Abernathy. We have a horn trio at ASU that I have been coaching and these I really look forward to them reading. They were both purchased from Solid Wood Publishing.

I also purchased two mixed trios, Night Fantasies for horn, tuba, and piano by Kenneth Friedrich and Parting Shot, Op. 144 for horn, trombone, and tuba by C. D. Wiggins. The latter is available from Solid Wood as well. Both are chamber combinations that have a great sound I enjoy.

Trios plus one

In my second post on the workshop I mentioned one very interesting new publication for three horns and piano, Hornsongs Vol. 3 (music of Mozart) by Verne Reynolds. This is available from Prairie Dawg Press. More from them in a moment

Quintet

Also from Solid Wood I purchased Fire in the Hole by Mark Watkins for five horns. This I heard performed by one of the horn choirs at the event and it seems to be a work that will be getting some play over the coming years. (You thought I purchased a brass quintet? I have not for a few years, but you can find plenty at a horn workshop).

Octets

Here is where I get to my main purchases. I LOVE octets that are set up as double quartets and always have my eyes peeled for music written in this manner. So I was first quite excited to see the published version of Cantos V, music of Schubert arranged by Verne Reynolds from Prairie Dawg Press. I first performed these when I was a student at Eastman and have used a manuscript copy that I purchased from Reynolds with groups for years and years; these are GREAT arrangements that every horn teacher with a horn choir should buy!

That said, I also purchased four other similar works. First I would mention an original work for octet that I don’t recall ever running into before, the French Suite by Vaclav Nehlybel. It is published by Cimarron Music Press.  Finally I also purchased three arrangements by Christopher Jones from the Solid Wood table, Handel For Unto Us a Child is Born, Handel Royal Fireworks Overture, and the fourth movement of the Schumann Symphony No. 3. All look like they should work well and will be read sometime soon by the ASU horn studio.

This of course only scratches the surface of what music was at the event for sale. Yet another reason to go to a horn workshop, as you can actually see the works you are thinking about buying and can get an idea if they might be suited for the concerts you are planning.