{"id":1211,"date":"2018-02-05T13:31:09","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T18:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2018-02-10T13:08:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T18:08:49","slug":"horn-ensemble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2018\/02\/horn-ensemble.html","title":{"rendered":"Horn ensemble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The French horn presents composers with an interesting challenge.\u00a0 Inextricably tied to the heroic aspirations of the Romantic era, it often struggles to find a range of expression that lies outside of Wagnerian fantasies.\u00a0 I tried taking it in a direction that overlapped with but diverged from that Romantic world in my horn concerto Revenant<\/em>, a piece David Jolley premiered thirteen years ago.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how successful I was \u2013 I have mixed feelings about the results.<\/p>\n

The obvious solution is to create a work that develops extended horn techniques into a fresh language, and some composers have found success with that approach.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have any objection to going that route, but it\u2019s an avenue that doesn\u2019t really resonate \u2013 if you\u2019ll pardon the pun \u2013 with me. \u00a0As a teenager, I composed a number of pieces that were built on extended techniques.\u00a0\u00a0 When I contemplate doing that kind of thing now, I have a difficult time separating the technique from the adolescent who found it fascinating.\u00a0 Like many other things that occupied my attention at that stage of my life \u2013 cassettes, shaggy hair, dialing telephones \u2013 composing music based on extended techniques doesn\u2019t feel appropriate to who I am now.\u00a0 That\u2019s just my journey: people who come at those techniques with a different history can do perfectly well with them.<\/p>\n

One of the things I\u2019ve always loved about the horn is the impression it can give of being both nearby and far away. Something about the sound has both an immediate impact and a strong aftertaste. \u00a0A new work of mine for horn choir, Distance<\/em>, approaches the horn from that psychoacoustic perspective.\u00a0 The ensemble of ten horns allows an exploration of what I think of as the depth<\/u> of the horn tone — that nearness and farness.\u00a0 Harmonies are passed around the group, blurring into one another, briefly emerging with perfect clarity, then subsiding into amorphous texture.\u00a0 Powerful sforzandi<\/em> are answered by faint clusters.<\/p>\n

As I wrote on the title page:<\/p>\n

Distance holds many fascinations:\u00a0 the far horizon, the nighttime sky, memories from years ago, imaginings of a future well beyond our experience.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Distance also heals, as we discover time and again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Taken in the wrong measure, distance can be toxic, can lead to a lack of empathy or courage.<\/em><\/p>\n

But in just the right measure, there are few things more magnificent, more inspiring.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m conducting the premiere of Distance<\/em> this Friday night, details here<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 After that, I will no doubt reflect, reassess and ponder next steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The French horn presents composers with an interesting challenge.\u00a0 Inextricably tied to the heroic aspirations of the Romantic era, it often struggles to find a range of expression that lies outside of Wagnerian fantasies.\u00a0 I tried taking it in a direction that overlapped with but diverged from that Romantic world in my horn concerto Revenant, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1215,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions\/1215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}