Details page

Title
Suite for horn octet (with optional snare drum & gong)
Original Title
Composer
Lockwood, Normand
Year
1999
Editor
Arranger
Year Arranged
Original Instrumentation
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)
Horns
8
Additional Equipment
Others
1
Other Instruments
Snare durm, gong (optional)
Duration
10
Structure / Movements
4 movements: I Overture II The call III Chorale IV Conclusion
Clefs
Treble, bass
Meters
4/4, 2/2
Key signatures
None
Range
Horn 1A: d1 - c3 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
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)
Sound
Score