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- John McCabe
Horn Quintet (2010)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the Rodewald Concert Society, Liverpool
Programme Note
Throughout my musical life I have found the horn one of the most evocative and beautiful of all instruments, and it is no surprise that I have written a number of works for it, including a concerto, a trio with violin and piano, and a triptych of concert works for horn and piano. Writing a work for horn and string quartet has long been an ambition, therefore, fuelled not only by my love of the instrument but also by the astonishingly small repertoire of horn quintets.
This work was commissioned by the Rodewald Concert Society, Liverpool, who gave me an invaluable education in the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire at their concerts, which I attended regularly during my schooldays. The quintet is dedicated to Nancy and Douglas Brady, two of my oldest and closest friends from Liverpool. It was written in 2010/11 and is continuous. There are, however, three main “movements”: an opening quick one, which is interrupted twice by brief slow interludes referring to the motto heard at the start, a substantial slow movement which also contains two short scherzando sections (much as Brahms’s A major Violin Sonata has two quick trio sections in its slow movement), and a fast finale, a descendant of the Beethoven one‐in‐a‐bar scherzo. At the end of the work, the furious activity of this gives way to an elegiac conclusion, which I feel was greatly influenced by events in the world outside at the time of composition, the music descending to a quiet, sustained C on horn and cello.
Programme note © Copyright 2011 by John McCabe
This work was commissioned by the Rodewald Concert Society, Liverpool, who gave me an invaluable education in the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire at their concerts, which I attended regularly during my schooldays. The quintet is dedicated to Nancy and Douglas Brady, two of my oldest and closest friends from Liverpool. It was written in 2010/11 and is continuous. There are, however, three main “movements”: an opening quick one, which is interrupted twice by brief slow interludes referring to the motto heard at the start, a substantial slow movement which also contains two short scherzando sections (much as Brahms’s A major Violin Sonata has two quick trio sections in its slow movement), and a fast finale, a descendant of the Beethoven one‐in‐a‐bar scherzo. At the end of the work, the furious activity of this gives way to an elegiac conclusion, which I feel was greatly influenced by events in the world outside at the time of composition, the music descending to a quiet, sustained C on horn and cello.
Programme note © Copyright 2011 by John McCabe
Scores
Score Sample
Reviews
The composer having wanred us that the work is a bit of a challenge, it turned out to be disarmingly listenable and engaging, balancing the power of the horn with the deftest and most-subtle string-quartet textures.
McCabe suggested there is a Midsummer Night's Dream programme to the two rather ghostly, quicksilver scherzos that burst out of the extended slow movement. Furious activity ensues with a return of earlier motor rhythms with the horn galloping in an almost traditional hunting role. The tally-ho subsides giving way to a magical, ethereal ending, the horn and cello descending to a quiet held unison C, an elegiac and effective ending to this stunning new piece - surely soon to be in all horn-players' saddle bags.
It presents the listener with an ideal balance of challenge and fulfillment, dissonance and euphony, which is John McCabe at his best.
Read the full review here.
McCabe suggested there is a Midsummer Night's Dream programme to the two rather ghostly, quicksilver scherzos that burst out of the extended slow movement. Furious activity ensues with a return of earlier motor rhythms with the horn galloping in an almost traditional hunting role. The tally-ho subsides giving way to a magical, ethereal ending, the horn and cello descending to a quiet held unison C, an elegiac and effective ending to this stunning new piece - surely soon to be in all horn-players' saddle bags.
It presents the listener with an ideal balance of challenge and fulfillment, dissonance and euphony, which is John McCabe at his best.
Read the full review here.
12th October 2011