Music For Horns

Every composer's dream. Ok, maybe not everybody's, but certainly one of most: to write one tune, one single tune that goes on to earn enough royalties so you never have to work again for the rest of your life. Jacob Gade (1879-1963), Danish violinist and composer wrote one such tune for the silent film Don Q, Son of Zorro, and through the subsequent use in over a hundred films was in the lucky position to choose what to do and not to do for the rest of his life. Admittedly, it is one catchy tune. Originally written for orchestra, it is a fusion of traditional Argentinean tango and (Western) light classical music. This arrangement is the first of Terzer's to make use of "ossia" parts, meaning he provides alternate parts for some of the most difficult passages (mainly the ones going up to top E). Of all the parts the first and fifth are the hardest (as usual), but there is nothing really unplayable.

The piece opens with a cadenza section (the first note is a top C), followed by the actual tango (played twice). Every player gets some phrases of the tune as well as one of the counter-melodies, the rest being one of several tango accompaniment rhythms used in this work. Uncharacteristically for Terzer's arrangements, the low parts are not required to play insane technical passages in the pedal register, which however does not mean the pedal register is not used.

So what is required for a performance of this work is a good first player comfortable in the top range, two low players with the occasional pedal E, and perhaps another good high player to match the first in the opening cadenza. Overall, a very accessible though challenging work, and most definitely a crowd pleaser.