A4, Score (29) & parts (12x2=24, plus timpani (1) & percussion (1), total=26)
Horns
12
Additional Equipment
Straight mutes
Others
2
Other Instruments
Percussion, timpani
Difficulty
2
Duration
9
Structure / Movements
One movement, containing several of the themes from Titanic.
Clefs
Treble, bass
Meters
3/4, 4/4, 6/4, 2/4
Key signatures
3#, 5b, 2#
Range
Horn 1: c1 - d3
Horn 2: f - a2
Horn 3: c1 - a2
Horn 4: f# - e2
Horn 5: a - a2
Horn 6: f - e2
Horn 7: g# - g2
Horn 8: g# - g2
Horn 9: c# - d2
Horn 10: B - d2
Horn 11: E - e1
Horn 12: C# - a
Creator's Comments
Performance Notes
What horn player (alive at the time and aware of its existence) will ever forget the first time putting The London Horn Sound CD into the stereo, not quite knowing what would come out of the speakers, but very well knowing that whatever it was going to be, it would be something to remember! And indeed, it has not only been remembered, but taken as an inspiration for many younger ensembles to form, and other recordings to follow. Cala Records does a great job summing up the content of the CD and its reception, so follow the link above and head over to their site to check it out.
The first work to meet the listener is Richard Bissill’s arrangement of James Horner’s film score for the 1997 super-mega-hit Titanic, a movie whose details will be omitted here. James Horner had at the time already written music for film such as Star Trek 2 and 3, Aliens, An American Tail, Glory, Legends of the Fall, Braveheart, Apollo 13, and still keeps a high profile, though he seems to have retired from large scale movies to concentrate on projects of a more artistic nature.
What everybody will remember about this arrangement is most likely the top D at the end, but that’s by far not everything this fantasy, or suite from Titanic has to offer. Bissill here arranges in a similar style to how much movie music is written: contrasting sections containing, on one side, chamber music-like melody-and-accompaniment-or-counterpoint passages, and on the other, full blown (horn-) orchestral grandeur with frequent doubling of the main part. This doubling happens a lot when the theme comes in its tutti form, and quite understandably so as there is a fairly large number of players involved.
In general much of the arrangement works in double parts (1+2, 3+4, etc), or sections (1-4, 5-8, 9-12). This improves intonation, ensemble playing, and is just what one is used to from orchestral playing. The part distribution approach is top to bottom, with the first four horns more prominent than the second four than the third four. Within this division it is more like a regular orchestral section, with odd parts high, and even ones low.
So how difficult is this one to play? Well, not quite as difficult as it sounds on the CD, but also not much easier. Due to the high quality of the arrangement, each part is very playable, almost at a medium difficulty, but with two exceptions: the first horn needs a good top D (and D flat), and the 12th horn needs an oxygen tank to hold all the pedal D’s. With that sorted, there is nothing in the way of your ensemble giving this one a go, as several performances on Youtube already demonstrate.