Details page

Title
Ein Heldenklobber for 8 horns, harp & stringed bass
Original Title
Composer
Hyde, George W.
Year
1992
Editor
Arranger
Year Arranged
Original Instrumentation
Publisher
Cortett Music
Year Published
1992
Catalogue Number
Sheet Music Format
A4, Score (20, wide) & parts (8x4=32, plus harp, 11 & bass, 4, total=47)
Horns
8
Additional Equipment
Straight mutes
Others
Other Instruments
Duration
7
Structure / Movements
One movement.
Clefs
Treble, bass
Meters
C, 4/4, 3/4, ¢, 3/2
Key signatures
None
Range
Horn 1: d - c3 Horn 2: Bb - f#2 Horn 3: Bb - a2 Horn 4: G - g2 Horn A: Bb - a2 Horn B: Bb - g2 Horn C: Bb - a2 Horn D: F# - f2
Creator's Comments
Ein Heldenklobber – (having met with great success at the Horn Society’s Tallahassee Workshop) – an irreverent setting (for 2 four-horn sections, harp and stringed bass) of several “heroic” quotations from the symphonic horn literature, - a piece, while verging upon sacrilege, s alive with unbridled humor and surprising wit, as it entertains both performers and audience alike… (- as introduced at the 1993 Tallahassee Horn Workshop): I suppose we’ve all had dreams where familiar things and happenings in our lives have returned to us in some sort of distorted, twisted, even grotesque, form… Suppose this happened to a famous horn player, - one who had spent 35 or 40 years as principal horn of several great symphony or opera orchestras; - he’s played all the great and familiar horn solos in the literature. And suddenly in this dream his career comes back to him; and, in reminiscing, some of these solos return to him, but in a strange and even weird shape. He starts, for example, to play a very famous Tchaikovsky solo, - but before he can play, it suddenly becomes Ein Heldenleben and Don Juan, - in the form of Bassa Nova! – Or, as he plays the Siegfired Idyll solo, he discovers it’s suddenly a jazz waltz, - and sounds very much like an old pop tune titled “Exactly Like You”. And, as he tries the Siegfried Horn Call, it comes back as an upside-down fugue of some kind; - even Till Eulenspiegel is taken over abruptly by the harpist (the harpist who had always insisted on “correcting” his missed notes.) -And so on and so on… “When,” he asks, “will this nightmare end?” - stay tuned…
Performance Notes
There is little to add to the above. Has to be heard to be believed.
Credits
Access to review score: Nancy Joy (NMSU)
Sound
Score