New Music For Horns - The Horn Club Of Los Angeles

Nonet For Brass

New Music For Horns
The Horn Club Of Los Angeles
Producer: George Sponhaltz

Sound Engineer: Carson Taylor
Angel S-36036

From the back cover: Gunther Schuller was born November 22, 1925, in New York City, Where his father was a violinist with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. At 19 he joined the Metropolitan Opera orchestra as horn player, a position he occupied for 15 years. The prolific and distinguished composer and author has since 1967 been President of The New England Conservatory, in Boston, and a very substantial indication of both his prolificacy and distinction is the fact that he currently has 17 commissions for world to be completed in the next few years. His Lines and Contrasts was begun in the 1950s and completed in 1960 in New York. Of it, the composer writes:

Lines and Contrasts for 16 horns is in two movements. The first, Lines, is a twelve-part "fugue" whose theme is exposed initially by the seventh horn. As each new voice enters (third horn, twelfth, first, etc.), variants and embellishments of the theme are developed as accompanimental material in the "consequent" part. Inevitably, by this procedure, the texture thickens into a twelve-part polyphony. Thus at the height of this development several horns are simultaneously engaged in playing various various segments of the theme, while others supply supporting harmonic material and melodic ornamentations. At the greatest point of density, the 13th through 16th horns enter almost unnoticeably with a four-part chord, which gradually expands into other pitches (and horns), and eventually swallows up the fugal material. Other interjections, particularly boy the hand-stopped horns, tend to underline the gradual disintegration of the fugue. Thus what started as a linear polyphonic twelve-tone structure has been turned by the conclusion of the movement "on end," so to speak, into a chordal homophonic (twelve-tone) structure.

In the second movements, Contrasts, the ensemble is divided into one solo horn and three quintets, each of which performs certain discrete harmonic, rhythmic, timbral and spatial functions and contrast. These will be obvious to even the most casual listener, although the spatial effects inherent in a live performance cannot be fully duplicated in a recording. It should be pointed out that considerable use of quarter tones is made, as well as the obvious forms of writing available on the horn.

In general, as in my Five Pieces for Five Horns and other works for brass instruments, I have shied away from the traditional stereotypes of horn writing. Lines and Contrasts is best heard not as a "composition for horns," but rather as a concert piece of absolute music which happens to be for horns, and which makes use of the magnificent range of colors and expression natural to this instrument.

William Kraft, composer and timpanist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, was born in Chicago in 1923. His Games: Collage No. 1 was composed in 1969. He write of it:

Games: Collage No. 1 is based on games of skill, opposition and chance. Some are known games such as chess and poker, others are invented musical games. The conductor two separate choirs, often in independent meters. He also decides when new players are added in various "collages."

The orchestra consists of 26 players in two equal antiphonal groups of 13 each: 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 2 Wagner tubas (another version exists for 3 trombones), 1 tuba and 2 percussionists (In Choir I they play metalophones, chimes, erotales, bell plate, glockenspiel and large tam-tam. In Choir II they play membranophones: timpani and graduated drums, with the addition of one of more gongs used to signal changes in attack and defense positions in the chess game).

Game I is a fanfare announcing the games. In itself, it is a game of coordination between the groups, wherein they balance themselves against each other and engage in a brief tug-of-war to determine their relative strengths.

Game II is two games in one, creating the first collage. The first i a game of chance through choice played by percussionists of Choir II. Each percussionist has a large variety of cells which he may play in any order. The second game is one of opposition played by the brass choirs The conductor chooses the time to begin. Choir I is a agile group trying to outmaneuver Choir II. Choir II relies on weight and strength, and eventually throws Choir II into a state of panic. Since Choir I is lighter (muted) and less monolithic, it seems destined to lose – but the conductor can fix the game to permit them to win.

Game III is a shadow game played by the two percussionists of Choir I, playing glockenspiel and crotales. They attempt to stay together (within each other's shadow) in a unison cadenza (which the conductor can again control by variances in tempo).

Game IV is played by two percussionists of Choir I, this time playing glockenspiel and chimes. It is a game of choices. Each player has an ostinato of which the beginning is fixed but the continuation is chosen at random from a group of cells. Cells may be performed singly or in combination, after which the player refers back to the fixed beginning.

Game V is a chess game superimposed on Game IV, played by the percussionists of Choir II. A list of attacks is given, related to actual chess moves, e.g., the knight moves two spaces up on the staff and then down one. The responses from the other player are either identical of, in most cases, variants of the attack in any rhythm and any speed. The bishop functions diagonally on the staff, and the queen, naturally, is the most active. The king is one strong note. Should either player wish to exchange roles, he does so by striking a gong which is place between the two players.

Game VI is the third layer of this collage (Games IV - V - VI) and is played by the opposing brass choirs. It is a game of skill for the players and for the conductor as one choir (I) is in duple meter and the other is in triple meter.

Game VII takes the duple-triple relationship a bit further into an even more demanding four-against-three relationship: the coincidence of downbeats occurs only every four measures. The music here of Choir I is based on the chorale "Laude Sion Salvatorum" used by Hindemith in Mathis der Mahler.

Game VIII is a game of poker played by Choir I over Choir II's augmented variations of the opening of the piece. Each player involved in the game has two notes (Some have another for "standing pat") that he formulates into various poker hands, e.g., full house equals one note twice, the other thrice. Again, any speed.

Games: Collage No. 1 was commissioned by the Encounters Committee to celebrate the opening o the new Pasadena Art Museum and thus was premiered on the cold, wintry night of November 21, 1969, with the choirs placed on opposite sides of the entrance courtyard.

Alec Wilder was born in Rochester, N.Y., February 16, 1907, and he makes his home in New York City. His many hundreds of compositions range from the popular songs "I'll Be Around," "It's So Peaceful In The Country," "Who Can I Turn To?" and "While We're Young" to chamber works and orchestral pieces, often composed with specific players or ensembles in mind. Most celebrated, perhaps, among the latter were his Octets, written at the urging of Mitch Miller, in 1939 and 1940, and his pieces for Woodwind Octet, String Orchestra and Harpsichord, recorded with Frank Sinatra conducting in 1945. Alec Wilder has been called "one of the most lyrical melodists of our time." His Nonet For Brass was composed in the spring, 1969. Direct and to the point, it readily invites listening of the most pleasurable kind. It has been described as a spectacular tour de force for the instruments, including to "descant" (high B-flat) horns, two normal French horns, four Wagner tubas and bass tuba.

Roger Johnson was born November 12, 1941, in San Mateo, California and now lives in East Orange, N.J. Now a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, he obtained his Master's from Yale School of Music. He is presently working in a free, atonal style with some use of aleatoric techniques. He is also interested in electronic music and is working in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. He writes of his work:

Suite For Six Horns was written in 1960 which I was a first year under-graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle and was first performed by an ensemble from the School Of Music. It was then placed in the Library of the Los Angeles Horn Club and has since been performed many times by them and other groups. As a horn player myself, I have often written for this instrument, and my Suite represents the first of a number of works exploring its many tonal and compositional possibilities.

Lines And Contrasts For 16 Horns / Composed By – Gunther Schuller 10:22
Madrigal / Composed By – Roland de Lassus 1:22
O Che Splendor / Composed By – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 2:15
Nonet For Brass Composed By – Alec Wilder 8:39

Games: Collage No. 1 Composed By – William Kraft 8:12
Suite For Horns / Composed By – Roger Johnson (4) 6:57
Ave Maria / Composed By – Tomás Luis de Victoria 2:17
Fanfare De Chasse / Composed By – Gioacchino Rossini 2:36

Horns: Dan Ashe, Arthur Briegleb, Huntington Burdick, James Decker, Vincent DeRosa, Leon Donfray, David Duket, Arthur Frantz, Thomas Greer, William Hinshaw, George Hyde, Waldemar Linder, Sinclair Lott, James McGee, Richard Mackey, Hyman Markowitz, Todd Miller, Caswell Neal, Richard Perissi, George Price,  Ralph Pyle,  Alan Robinson, Gale Robinson, Irving Rosenthal, Harry Schmidt, Eugene Sherry & Victory Vener

Trumpets: Irving Bush, Robert DiVall, Donald Green, Malcolm McNab, Mario Guarneri & Thomas Stephens

Bass Tuba: Roger Bobo, Roger Culbertson & John Johnson

Percussion: Charles DeLancey, Mitchell Peters, Walter Goodwin & Barry Silverman

Bass Tuba – Roger Bobo, Roger Culbertson, John Johnson*
Horn –     ,  (2),   (3),    Victor Vener, Waldemar Linder,
Horn [Descant Horn] –
Horn [Natural Horn] –  (2)
Horn, Tuba [Wagner Tuba] –
Percussion –
Timpani – Barry Silverman
Trumpet –  (3),   *

Gunther Schuller / Lines and Contrasts for 16 horns conducted by the composer

William Kraft / Games: Collage No. 1 for 22 brass and 4 percussion soloist conducted by the composer

Alex Wilder / Nonet for Brass conducted by Gunther Schuller