PDF version
Composer:
Lockwood, Normand
Year Composed:
1999
Availability:
Commercial
Publisher:
Emerson Editions
Year Published:
1999 Catalogue Number:
EHE 8019
Sheet Music Format:
A4, Score (47) & parts (8x4=32, plus snare drum, 2, and going 2, total=34)
Additional Instruments:
Snare durm, gong (optional) Approximate Duration:
10
Technical Difficulty:
Difficult
Structure/Movements:
4 movements:
I Overture
II The call
III Chorale
IV Conclusion
Clefs:
Treble, bass
Key signatures:
None
Meters:
4/4, 2/2
Range:
Horn 1A: d1 - c3
Horn 2A: g - g#2
Horn 3A: a - c3
Horn 4A: A - eb2
Horn 2A: g - g#2
Horn 3A: a - c3
Horn 4A: A - eb2
Horn 1B: db1 - c3
Horn 2B: g - e2
Horn 3B: c1 - a2
Horn 4B: A - d2
Horn 2B: g - e2
Horn 3B: c1 - a2
Horn 4B: A - d2
Creator's Comments:
Performance Notes:
From The Horn Call / May 2000 – V.T.
Yet another demanding horn choir composition has been dedicated to the hardy men and women of the Rocky Mountain Horn Ensemble. Lockwood’s suite consists of Overture, The Call, Chorale, and Conclusion.
The opening of the Overture is a rhythmically punctuated prolongation of bi-tonal major triads a step apart (written D major and E major), but voiced over two and a half octaves. What follows is a constantly changing palette of contrasts In texture: a very sparsely contrapuntal melodic material in only a few parts at a time, fragmented throughout the eight parts; clusters undulating in unison rhythm; a dialogue between two horns; and other features all contrasted as well with various mood changes through dynamics, articulations, and tempo changes.
The Call begins with a rather abstract solo call, and it virtually never offers more than one or two hardly independent lines at a time (sometimes doubled) until the end, which features a different kind of call – a four-part imitation of a train whistle. The score includes a quite from Walt Whitman, “… whistles of the great trains going west, lonely at night…”
The Chorale is relatively straightforward. Its melodic source is the beginning of a Medieval Latin hymn (later known as “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden”). The thematic material for The Conclusion is the dies irae, though the first statement of it is somewhat masked by its provocative contrasts in texture, and between consonance and dissonance.
The most demanding technical aspects of this work are the independence of the eight parts (which sometimes functions as two groups of four), and the tessitura of Horn 1A, which never exceeds c’’’, but does spend almost the entire piece in the top octave. Fortunately, because of the texture changes, there appears to be a significant amount of rest in that part.
I believe this suite is a fine contribution to the eight-part horn choir repertoire because it is a multi-movement original work of a serious nature that will appeal to both the players and their audiences.
Credits:
Access to review score: Nancy Joy (NMSU)