There is a frenzy of AHQ activity on the horizon. I will soon be meeting up with those curious lads at the IHS International Horn Symposium in Denver. We will be performing my work for horn quartet and orchestra (version for wind band) entitled "Introduction and Main Event". The AHQ will be guest soloists with the Hong Kong Academy of Music Wind Symphony with Mr. Joe Kirtley conducting. Immediately following this event, we are all flying down to Daytona Beach for the 2nd Annual AHQ Summer Horn Workshop which will take place from July 28 to August 3rd (see www.hornquartet.com for details). Then on August 11th, we once again board the plane and fly to South Korea and then on to Jeju Island for the Jeju Music Festival.

It`s Sunday morning. I rolled out of bed to get a big cup of java and get ready for church, when I noticed something on my lip. Splashing hot water on my face, I came to realize that it was not so much something "on" my lip, but rather something "wrong" with my lip. It appeared to be sticking straight up. And it was stiff as an over-starched shirt. Just behind these nasty feeling and not much better looking lips lurked a few aching teeth. Did I go a few rounds with Mike Tyson last night or what?

Then I remembered. Last night was the "Fete de la Musique" (Festival of Music) in the city of Luxembourg. And my colleagues in the Luxembourg Philharmonic and I had been booked to excitedly interpret (read: blast through) 2 solid hours of soundtracks from Hollywood blockbuster movies. Gast Waltzing was at the helm, and we had been granted three rehearsals for this hyperactive concert which was to be performed outdoors on the Place Guillaume. Each instrument received it`s own microphone in order to further amplify the bombastic spectacle. On the program were some of the most famous horn pieces from the recent movie soundtrack repertoire:

I just wanted to make it known that I finished my symphony today. It has been a huge endeavor that has taken me 2 years to complete. It is called "The Grail Symphony" and has the traditional 4 movements:
1. The Sword of St. Michael
2. The Tears of Charlemagne
3. Candles in the Darkness
4. Knight of Pentacles

It is by far the most complex thing I have ever written. The next incredibly tedious part of the project involves setting it onto computer, proofreading the score and organizing a CD-recording of the work.

Stay tuned!

Ich wollte nur mitteilen, dass ich heute, meine Sinfonie, fertig geschrieben habe. Es ist eine riesige Unternehmung gewesen, die über 2 Jahre gedauert hat. Es trägt den Titel "Sinfonie des Heiligen Graals" und beträgt, traditionsgemäss, 4 Sätze:

I would like to remind horn players around the world about the Second American Horn Quartet Workshop in Daytona Beach, Florida. Last year's event was highly successful, and I like to think that the participants went away feeling inspired. The dates are July 28 through August 3rd and the cost is around 800 US Dollars. Please check out the write-up about it on the AHQ website (www.hornquartet.com).

NOTE: There is now a reduction offered to anyone who signs up and brings a friend. Contact Heather Johnson at hephorn@yahoo.com.

Ich möchte Hornisten weltweit darauf aufmerksam machen, dass das "Second American Horn Quartet Workshop in Daytona Beach, Florida", vom 28 Juli bis 3 August, stattfinden wird. Letztes Jahr war das Workshop ein grosser Erfolg, und ich möchte meinen, dass die Teilnehmer, am Ende der Woche, ganz begeistert waren. Die Woche kostet so ungefähr 500 euro. Interessierten werden darum gebeten, das Website vom AHQ anzuschauen und den Anhang darüber zu lesen.

This past Thursday evening, May 8th, I had the pleasure of hearing the jazz vocal quartet called New York Voices. As a matter of fact, I was in the orchestra for this concert, and I must say, due to a pretty heavy first horn part, I was more than usually preoccupied with my own part in the production. I did however find time to ponder an interesting point. You see, the New York Voices are in every way a brilliantly professional, well organized, sophisticated ensemble. The arrangements of their a cappella vocal repertoire are superb to say the least. And the way I understand it (from the conductor of this particular program, Mr. Gast Waltzing), when asked what they could possibly do with orchestra, they offered us, the OPL, a plethora of songs for vocal quartet, their own combo and symphony orchestra. So their repertoire for this genre is quite on the cutting edge as well. I was informed by a friend who knew them well, that they had just come from Germany, where they had sung a concert of totally different songs accompanied only by their combo. And the day after our gig with them, they were off to perform with the well-known WDR Big Band in Cologne, presenting once again, a totally different program.

The other day we received an e-mail from Mr. Robert LaPorta at MSR Classics, our CD label in the States. He informed us that he was just about out of the Virtuoso Horn Duo CD (MS 1181). Luckily we still had a few in storage and so had them sent post haste to MSR. It gave us all cause to consider the possibility of a reprint on this album. The CD features myself and Kristina Mascher performing works for 2 horns and orchestra by Vivaldi, Haydn, Rosetti and your's truly ("Twas a Dark and Stormy Night). The recording has received rave reviews and has sold very well, particularly during the VHD and Friends Autumn Tour last year.

There has been some considerable interest lately in my "Concerto for Low Horn and Orchestra". Interestingly enough, I am presently in the process of organizing a CD recording of the work; it along with the "Introduction and Main Event" for horn quartet and orchestra, the "Concerto for Tuba" and the orchestral tone poem "Karankawa". This project has booked for January 2009.

Mostly the questions have been about various performances of the piece with the piano reduction. As a matter of fact, over the past year, I have coached many students on the "Concerto for Low Horn". And every time I have to alert them to the two major misprints in the horn part. I also have a few tips for the pianist. So I have therefore decided to list the misprints and suggestions on this blog as follows:

I have noticed over the past year that many people who would like to contact me do not do so due to the language barrier. So I would like to inform visitors to this website that they may write me in one of several languages: English, Deutsch, Francais, Italiano, Espagnol and Nederlands. I do prefer that you write in English or German, but if you really don't feel comfortable writing in these languages, please feel free to write in one of the others listed. I can read and write them. But please forgive any comical errors as I forgive yours.

(Deutsch)
Es ist mir, über das letzte Jahr aufgefallen, dass viele Leute, die mit mir, Kontakt aufnehmen möchten, schliesslich es nicht tun, hauptsächlich wegen Hemmungen mit der englischen Sprache. Also möchte ich alle Website-Besucher darüber informieren, dass sie mir in einer der folgenden Sprachen schreiben können: Englisch, Deutsch, Francais, Italiano, Espagnol und Nederlands. Es ist mir natürlich etwas lieber wenn es auf Englisch oder Deutsch wäre, aber wenn Sie sich, in einer diesen Sprachen, etwas zögernd fühlen, haben Sie nun eine Alternative. Ich kann diese Sprachen zwar lesen und schreiben. Ich bitte Sie nur darum, mir zu verzeihen, wenn komischen Fehler ab und zu mal vorkommen.

Back in October, 2005, I was commissioned by the Maritime Museum of Rotterdam to compose a piece for solo horn. It was to be a gift for the retiring curator of that fine museum, Mr. Coen Schimmelpinick van der Oye. After having finished his piece, which was entitled "Phantom Shanties" and is based on a few old dutch sea shanties, I was still feeling rather creative. So I began to write several more solo pieces, each one with a very different style than the others. These include "The Testament of Saladin", "Crossing Union Square", "Twelve-Tone Waltz" and "Echoes of Glastonbury". I had already composed a small piece for solo horn back about a year ago. This piece was called "Caprice". Then the horn player from France, Monsieur Herve Joulain, commissioned me to write an encore piece for him to use on his many solo engagements. Subsequently the piece "La Entrada de los Caballeros" was born. A few weeks thereafter, the trumpet player, Heather Madeira Ni, commissioned me to write a couple of pieces for her to perform at this year`s Chosen Vale International Trumpet Festival. Out came "The Hunt of the Cheetah" and "The Widow of Salamanca". I composed these pieces with an eye for their possible inclusion in the compendium which was already almost complete. Indeed they work very well for horn and I play them myself. This makes all together a volume of nine.

The new American Horn Quartet CD is now available for purchase. It is called "Myths and Legends" and features high quality and virtuoso horn quartet works by Eric Ewazen, Kazimierz Machala and myself. This CD truly captures the AHQ at the height of its musical and ensemble maturity. You can order it directly from the MSR website: www.msrcd.com and click on the catagory "brass and winds".

Die neue AHQ-CD ist jetzt endlich fertig und Sie können es bestellen. Der Titel der CD ist "Myths and Legends" und Hornquartett-Werke von höchster Qualität und virtuosität stehen auf dem Programm. Diese Aufnahme ist eine wahrhafte Darstellung des Gipfels der musikalischen und virtuosen Reife des Ensembles. Sie können es, direkt von der Website bestellen: www.msrcd.com und dann klicken auf "brass and winds".

Voila la lettre que j'avais distribuè en janvier afin d`organiser une tournèe europèen de l`AHQ. Si vous etes interessè de nous inviter pour jouer un concert et peut-etre donner une stage, s`il vous plait ne hèsitèz pas de etre en contact avec moi: kdturner@pt.lu.

Chers Messieurs:

Concernant la AHQ-Tournèe d`Europe, nous allons èssayer de fixer les concerts entre le 25 Mai et le 7 Juin, 2009. Je voudrais savoir de votre part si vous envisionez la possibilitè d`inviter l`AHQ à votre ècole ou votre ville. Je sais que il-y-a plusieurs de logistiques a considerer dans cette decision. Il faut cependant fixer les dates avant qu`ils sont dèjà pris. Ca se passe tres vite! Je vous remercierai si vous me pouvez informer:

If any of you have ever played a silent film "live" orchestral accompaniment by Carl Davis, you will know that they can be pretty hefty. We've been doing them you years here in "The Burg". And that's how this little playing marathon began. On March 3rd, we dove into rehearsals on the King Vidor film, "The Big Parade" and after a dress rehearsal two days later, performed the 137-minute WW1 epic twice, once on Friday and once on Saturday. By the way, of the 137 minutes of music, the first horn plays about 110 minutes! The following morning, Kristina and I threw our choral singing togs and music into the car and raced down to Genouilly in Burgundy. We were scheduled to perform with Intermedii at an all-weekend music festival. We were the Sunday afternoon show and we chose an hour program which was comprised of pieces by Tallis, Byrd, Nystedt, Di Lasso and Pitoni and Gershwin. The little show cut off quite splendidly and we all retired to the Vigar's abode to partake in our traditional post-Intermedii merriments . Chris and La Vigar, by the way, are members of Intermedii and have a marvelous country house near Genouilly.

It has been quite a number of years since I composed them. KARANKAWA for symphonic band was composed in 1993 and POSTCARDS FROM LUCCA in 2000. Both works were truly labors of love in the highest sense of the word. "Postcards" was a commission by the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band in Virginia. Karankawa was originally written for symphony orchestra and was reorchestrated for symphonic band shortly thereafter. You can read about each work on my website, under "Catalogue of Works" and then "Wind Ensemble". Click on the titles.

But the good news is- you can now rent the score and parts directly from me. Thanks to the generous help of many friends of mine, we have managed to put together useable parts and a full score of each work. Karankawa has a duration of about 9 minutes and "Postcards" is in three movements (La Fattoria a la Mattina, Portrait of Puccini, Lucca From the Sky) and lasts about 15 minutes. Both works are relatively challenging but are easily approachable by university level wind ensembles, semi-professional bands and military concert bands.

On the last AHQ tour of the USA, we did an interview at the Eastman School of Music. It was filmed and is now being broadcast on polyphonic.org. It is an up front, "tell it like it is" interview about the business of chamber music. CHECK IT OUT!

polyphonic.org

This morning in my mail box I found a small package from the United States Air Force Reserves. Upon opening it, I discovered a very polite letter with a CD inside. The United States Air Force Reserve Brass Quintet have recorded a very entertaining CD and my piece- RICOCHET- is included on it. I listened to it at breakfast and I have to say, I believe we have a new speed record for this work. The USAFR 5tet completes this difficult piece in 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Pretty astounding! Besides their obvious ability to deal with rapid fire technical passages, there is some really fine brass playing on this album and I am grateful to them for having included RICOCHET on their CD and in their repertoire.

Given the huge success of the last AHQ Summer Workshop in Daytona Beach, Florida, we have decided to go ahead and do it again this Summer! Here is some information about it:

2nd AHQ Summer Workshop at Daytona Beach Daytona Beach College/Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, July 28-August 3, 2008

Thank you for your interest in the 2nd AHQ Summer Workshop at Daytona Beach. Below you will find information about the course and coming to Daytona Beach. If you are interested in attending, please complete the application (application is displayed on the AHQ website-www.hornquartet.com) and return it before 30 June 2008 to ensure your participation!

This coming August, the American Horn Quartet will be performing at the prestigious 2008 Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival on the beautiful island at the southern tip of South Korea. There seems to be quite an impressive list of guest ensembles and I invite you to take a look at their website for more information: jiwef.org/english. This is what they say about their annual festival:

"We extend to you our congenial invitation to the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival to be held in Jeju, Korea, a premier tourists destination for Asians and people from around the world.

August every year, the musicians who love the wind music from around the world participate in the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival which will take place in Jeju, the fantastic tourists' island located in the south sea of Korea."

Over the past several months, I have received several e-mails from various people inquiring into the progress of the symphony I am currently composing. I say "currently composing", but in fact, I have been working on it off and on for about two years now. Composing a symphony is a daunting task and should not be taken lightly by composers! We have inherited an enormous wealth of symphonies composed by such masters as Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Bruckner, Shostakovitch, Tchaikovsky and Mahler. And these gentlemen have never compromised a single note in their artistic creations.

So how does one begin to compose such a mammoth work thereby fitting in with the precedent set by these masters? Being somewhat of a "neo-classicist", I have chosen to give the symphony four movements. Moreover, I felt moved to keep the work in the context of one major theme, The Four Stations of the Holy Grail. If you are not familiar with these stations and their meanings, don't feel bad. It is an extremely complex and deep subject. The Holy Grail story possesses, after all, several traditions, both oral and written, with three major branches: the Celtic Branch, the Chymical Branch and the Christian Branch. But is was the four "stations" of the Grail which I find to be rich in potential. They are: The Sword, The Paten, The Grail and The Spear. Now each of these stations or "hallows" also contains esoteric and alternative meanings from which one can explore deeper, more spiritual messages. For example, The Sword represents Air, Spring, Yellow, King Arthur and East. And the other three hallows have the same sort of representations. But I will let you, dear blog reader, do the research if you so desire to be further informed.

About one year ago, a young horn player here in Luxembourg came by for a lesson. He said he had exams coming up and was going to play the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra by John Williams; and could I help him with it. Now although I had read all about this new and challenging work for horn and orchestra, I had not yet seen the music and had certainly never heard it. Needless to say, I could not work in much detail with the lad. So I procured the music, pushed the cap forward atop my head and got to work on it. I was going to learn this new and masterful addition to our repertoire.

But hold on a minute. This Concerto for Horn and Orchestra by Mr. Williams is really hard! One does not simply read it off the page. Furthermore, one does not even learn the first movement after a week of practicing. And the second movement (there are five) is MUCH more difficult.

Several years ago, Phoenix Music Publications released the Hornist's Opera and Ballet Handbook by Arthur LaBar with performance notes by Howard T. Howard. The book sold quite well and there has been demand for some time for a second printing. After some tricky negotiations regarding copyrights, Phoenix Music has once again made this great book available. You can read more about it and order it directly from the publisher: www.phoenixmusic.nl.

I am delighted to announce that my work entitled "Rhapsody" for nonet has been awarded the "Special Mention" prize at the 2007 IBLA Grand Prize World Music Competition. The IBLA competition was founded in honor of the International Christopher Columbus Festival 1492-1992, "celebrating the Quincentennial of the Discovery of America and the United Nations 1993 Year of the Indigenous People". The competition is open not only to composers, but to all instrumentalists as well, both as soloists and in ensembles. The finals took place in Ragusa Ibla in Italy. Most of the competitors were pianists and violinists and the entries, several hundred(!)of them, came literally from all over the world. On the official website of the competition (www.ibla.org) it appears that "Rhapsody" was awarded the highest prize for a composer.

During the Christmas holidays, I had the chance to do a little cleaning up around the house. And I found some pretty interesting items, including these two rather historical photographs:

This photo was taken during the first rehearsal ever of my brass quintet, Ricochet. This work for brass quntet was commissioned back in 1993 by Herr Utz Köster and the Fredner Internationale Musiktage. The brass quintet that premiered it was comprised of members of the brass section of the Bodensee-Symphonie-Orchester (Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz). Andrew Hale was the hornist. Some may recognize Andrew as the “fifth man” who participated in the famed “Premier” recording of The Casbah of Tetouan with the American Horn Quartet (ebs 6008). He was also horn 5 on the AHQ recording of the J. S. Bach Toccata and Fugue in d-minor”(ebs 6050). It is undeniable that Ricochet was somewhat beyond the capabilities of this group. But it must be admitted that they surely rose to the occasion and certainly did justice to the work. In the end, it was a very successful World Premier indeed! In this photo one can see me looking on and rather leading the rehearsal. If I recall, there were a few last minute adjustmets to be be made. Ricochet went on to become easily my most successful work for brass quintet, and is without a doubt one of my best known compositions world-wide.Rehearsals for the world premiere of Ricochet, August 1993. Brass quintet from the Bodensee Symphony Orchestra (Andrew Hale, horn) with the composer looking on.

Das American Hornquartett – eine Erfolgsgeschichte

Seit mehr als 20 Jahren spielen, reisen und treten sie gemeinsam auf: David Johnson, Kerry Turner, Charles Putnam und Geoffrey Winter vom „American Hornquartett“. Seit der Gründung im Jahr 1982 feierten sie einen Erfolg nach dem anderen: Siege bei Wettbewerben, volle Konzertsäle, erfolgreiche Workshops. Sie haben schon auf allen Kontinenten gespielt, außer der Antarktis, aber die lassen sie wegen der Kälte vielleicht doch noch aus. Das American Hornquartett sprach über ihre Musik, ihre Wahlheimat Europa, Amerika und ihre Zusammenarbeit mit dem Sinfonischen Blasorchester Vorarlberg.

Well it has taken almost one full year, but finally the new American Horn Quartet CD recording, featuring works by Ewazen, Machala and "Yours Truly" is now available on the MSR Classics label. There is a link to that company on this website from which you can order a copy of the CD directly. I also wrote a lengthy blog about the recording sessions (see: AHQ Recording Project in Maastricht, January 22, 2007). So now is the time to order it. I know that many AHQ fans have been waiting quite a long time for this CD to appear. We are sorry it took so long. But you know? You can't rush great art!

It had once been my dream as a young man to tour the world, performing for enthusiastic audiences in the great concert halls. In my young and over-ambitious fantasy, I had an incredibly hectic and full touring schedule which never seemed to end. Ah, I was so young and naive.

However, this "over-ambitious" dream became reality this Autumn. Mind you, it`s not the first time I have experienced such an agenda, and I am by no means alone in such an accomplishment. Why even as I write this, hundreds of musicians- soloists, chamber groups and orchestras- are milling around in airports around the globe or delicately pacing out their day in a foreign city in order to be at peak performance by this evenings show (My wife, Kristina, has even just arrived in Hong Kong for her next project).

Horn players Lee Duke and Katie Albinski performed my fantasy work for two horns and string orchestra entitled "Twas a Dark and Stormy Night" on an extensive tour back in June and July, 2007. They played with the Long Island Youth Orchestra under the direction of Mr. Martin Dreiwitz. I have received several positive e-mails about the tour and thought it was worth mentioning here. This was the itinerary:

June 23: New York
June 30: Loutraki, Greece
July 3 : Katarini, Greece
July 5 : Serres, Greece
July 8 : Sofia, Bulgaria
July 11: Varna, Bulgaria (as part of the Varna International Festival of Music)

Tour Number One, in a series of three this Autumn, has proven to be quite a success. I made the journey down to Hörbranz in Austria, which is next to Bregenz for those who are familiar with that city‘s well-known opera festival on the lake, where I met up with the gentlemen of the American Horn Quartet. The occasion was a horn workshop organized by fellow horn player Andreas Schuchter. Mr. Schuchter teaches there at the regional music school and plays in the marvelous Symphonic Wind Orchestra of Vorarlberg. I call it marvelous, but this ensemble under the baton of Mr. Thomas Ludescher could hold its own against just about any wind band I have ever heard! And we were booked to play the Schumann Konzertstück with them (a very good arrangement, by the way). The band also performed the second movement of my work for wind orchestra entitled "Portrait of Puccini". Masterclasses were also on the weekend agenda as well as a run-out concert to Kufstein, Austria.

This past weekend, October 6 and 7, the AHQ worked with student horn quartets and performed a full recital in the South German town of Überlingen on Lake Constance. The students displayed enthusiasm and tackled some tough pieces. At the concert, the hall was packed and the atmosphere was electric! Good stuff! For those of you who can read german, you can click on this link:
http://www.suedkurier.de/region/ueberlingen/art2430,2839159

On September 1st, 1957, the great horn player, Dennis Brain, perished in an auto accident as he was driving over night from Edinburgh to London. Dennis Brain is of course well known to almost every horn player around the world, and is hailed as the single most important hornist of the 20th century. The members of the AHQ, as well as their horn player wives, and I all grew up listening to his spectacular recordings of the Mozart Concerti, the Strauss Concerti, as well as his remarkable rendition of the Dukas Villanelle and Schumann Adagio and Allegro.

Therefore it did indeed seem quite fitting that we should, in some way or another, pay tribute to this great artist. Luckily the opportunity arose when David Johnson met and spoke to Ursula Jones, the widow of the great brass guru, Philip Jones, well known to us all of course, because of the fantastic brass ensemble which bore his name. Mrs. Jones is a Swiss national and was very enthusiastic about getting involved in the project. In fact, she managed to convince Mrs. Yvonne Brain, Dennis Brain‘s widow, to fly down to Lugano, Switzerland where the momentous event was to take place.

Ah, back home at last! It was indeed a rather busy Summer vacation. In fact, it was only marginally a vacation at all. After about a week in my favorite city- New York- I flew down to Daytona Beach, Florida to teach, play at and generally participate in the 1st (what will now be) annual American Horn Quartet Summer Workshop. You know, it was truly a success. There were really great people there, horn players of all ages and levels, and it was a pleasure to coach them, listen to them play, and share any wisdom I may have acquired over my way-too-many-years of carrying a French horn around with me. There was a lot of my own music being played at this shin-dig, and that‘s always a cool thing. Yes indeed, a good time was had by all.