HORN QUARTET No.1 (score & parts)

From the Publisher's website: Horn Quartet No. 1 was composed in 2015 on a commission from John Hargreaves, a horn player from New Mexico. He requested a three-movement work that could stand alongside the Hindemith horn quartet (not in style necessarily, but in heft). The first movement is tightly constructed and features with a slow adagio section that is contrasted with a quick march-like allegro. The piece begins with a tone row that is not treated serially but is instead immediately harmonized with recognizable chords. After a short melodic interjection from the fourth horn, the row is presented in retrograde and re-harmonized. The contrasting fast section is made up of a rising dotted-rhythm arpeggio that then descends via melismatic sextuplets. This figure is handed around the ensemble, inverted, segmented, and shifted up or down. The tone row returns at various points, presented in augmentation and harmonized by short motivic fragments from the allegro section. The writing requires virtuosic playing from all of the performers, especially the fourth horn who is required to play fast sixteenth note passages fairly low in the register. Overall, the range of the piece extends from a low D in the fourth horn, to a high C# in the first horn.

The second movement, “Andante,” is written in a ternary form with a flowing lyrical melody that bookends a spooky march in a minor key. The lyrical melodies on either end are written purely for beauty and to highlight the expressive and romantic quality of the horn’s sound.

​The final movement, “Variations on Ich Schell Mein Horn,” is an homage to Hindemith who used this tune for the third movement of his Sonata for Four Horns. Like Hindemith’s form, this movement is a theme and variations in which each horn player is featured on a particular variation. The movement begins with all four horns in a cascading, non-literal version of the four-note theme (Ich Schell Mein Horn!), which is followed by a variation featuring the fourth horn in the low register. After a heroic flourish, the music segues into a flowing, compound meter variation that highlights the third horn. The first horn is featured in a section that is accompanied by driving, muted 16th notes and later becomes a flurry of mixed-meter excitement. A march features the second horn, which turns into a polyphony of fanfares trading off calls of the four-note motif. The piece ends with a chorale that provides a settled finality to the whole composition.

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