Kathrine Rudzik, Horn

Emily Judd, Horn

Heather Langs, Piano
Sunday, March 16, 2014
6:00 PM
Rehearsal Hall

Program

Laudatio Bernhard Krol

Kathrine Rudzik (19202013)

Concerto for Horn and Strings Gordon Jacob

I. Allegro moderato (18951984)
II. Adagio molto
III. Allegro con spirit, quasi presto
Emily Judd

Sonata for Horn and Piano Margaret Brouwer

I. Hymn (b. 1940)
II. Riding to Higher Clouds
Kathrine Rudzik

Des Canyons aux toiles Olivier Messiaen

VI. Appel Interstellaire (19081992)
Emily Judd

Calls for Two Horns Verne Reynolds

(19262011)

* * *

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 -Program Notes-
Laudatio
Bernhard Krol was born in Berlin, Germany on June 24, 1920. He started his musical studies in horn and
composition in Berlin before he moved to Vienna to complete his studies with Josef Rufer. Krol was a horn player
with the Staatskapelle in Berlin from 1945 until 1962, the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1961 to 1962, and finally
with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra until 1967. Bernhard Krols compositions use the tonal system,
reflecting upon the works of Max Reger and Paul Hindemith. Bernhard Krol passed away in April of 2013.

Laudatio, which translated means praise, was written for the horn player Hermann Baumann. The piece opens
with a motif thought to represent a spiritual question. This motif reappears frequently throughout the piece as the
listener is taken on a spiritual journey. The beginning of the piece is very reflective of Gregorian chant, helping to
assimilate the spiritual feeling of the piece. The only authentic cadence of the piece is found at the very end,
bringing about a sense of an answer to this question that was first presented in the beginning. This piece is among
the first unaccompanied works many horn students study and perform, and it is also a frequently required
competition piece.

Concerto for Horn and Strings

Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob was the seventh son and tenth child in his family. Although he showed musical
talent from a young age, his musical opportunities were hindered somewhat due to his cleft palate and a later injury
that severed a tendon in his hand. Although he still played piano, these physical limitations caused him to focus
more on composition. As a young man, Jacob served as an active serviceman in World War I and was taken
prisoner. After the war, Jacob studied at the Royal College of Music in London. His compositional output fell into
many genres, ranging from full symphonies to instrumental concertos. The style of his works falls generally into the
Baroque or Classical realm, rather than the more Romantic style of his contemporaries.

The Concerto for Horn and Strings was written in 1951 specifically for Dennis Brain, a British horn player. Brain
premiered the work for A Festival of Britain with the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra, which was conducted by
Kathleen Riddick.

The first movement showcases the technical capabilities of the horn, including a two-octave chromatic run up to the
high C. The technical sections are interrupted by lyrical interludes before returning to the fast tempo. Toward the
end of the movement, a cadenza appears, interweaving smooth lines with furious climaxes. The piece finishes with a
phrase that ends on the high C. This ending lick was explicitly requested by Brain to showcase his high range.

The second movement is beautiful, with soaring lines and a melody to exhibit the lyrical abilities of the horn. The
movement ends with two held chords in the strings that lead directly into the third movement. The third movement
is a race to the finish, starting out with almost constant sixteenth notes at a spirited tempo. Some calmer, lyrical
sections are interspersed, but the majority of the piece is rapidly paced. The mood of the middle section changes to
a jovial style. A key change also differentiates this section from the rest of the movement. The tempo picks up again
with a recapitulation of the first theme in the original key. After a dramatically slow line, the coda takes off, played
as fast as possible. Like the first movement, this movement ends on a glorious high C on the horn.

Sonata for Horn and Piano

Margaret Brouwer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 8, 1940. Brouwer graduated from Oberlin College
in 1962 before earning her masters degree from Michigan State University. Brouwer started her musical career as a
violinist but went on to earn her DMA in composition from Indiana University. Her teachers included Donald Erb,
Harvey Soilberger, Frederick A. Fox, and George Crumb. Brouwer served as head of the composition department
and holder of the Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1996 to 2008.
Margaret Brouwer is currently professor emeritus at CIM. Margaret Brouwers music has been programed by many
of the countrys most distinguished ensembles located in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington D.C.,
Boston, and Cleveland.

Sonata for Horn and Piano was commissioned in 1996 by the Horn Consortium Commissioning Group. After a
century of atonality, Brouwer was eager to find paths in new harmonic directions. Sonata for Horn and Piano was an
exploration towards personal expression for Brouwer. It was a personal expression of searching that was prompted
by the deaths of two of her loved ones within a years time.

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The first movement, Hymn, expresses the feelings of grief and faith. The movement is generally very
straightforward and melodic. The second movement, Riding to Higher Clouds, deals with the complex struggle
between the conflicting emotions of loss, hope, and understanding. This movement is more rhythmically complex
and faster moving than the first movement.

Des Canyons aux toiles

Des Canyons aux toiles, or From the Canyons to the Stars, was inspired by Olivier Messiaens visit to Bryce
Canyon in Utah. The piece was written to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States of America. Scored for
chamber orchestra and solo piano, the instrumentation is atypical. The work contains twelve movements, moving
from depicting the sparse desert lands to the lush haven of Zion National Park in Utah. Several movements imitate
birdcalls, a common trait for which Messiaen was known.

Appel Interstellaire, or Interstellar Call, was written for solo horn. Although now included as movement six within
Des Canyons Aux toiles, Messiaen wrote Appel Interstellaire separately and planned to publish it as an
independent piece. As Appel Interstellaire was incorporated into the larger work, Messiaen originally requested that
the horn solo not be performed outside the context of the whole piece. Besides the ideas from his tour of Utah,
Messiaen took inspiration from two passages in the Bible. The piece shows both anger toward God and acceptance
of aspects of life that cannot be understood through human reason.

This movement uses several unusual horn techniques. One of these is flutter tonguing, which is rolling the tongue
while playing. A second is stop muting on a trill, in which the performer is rapidly alternating two pitches (the trill)
while covering the bell opening with the hand to produce a harsh, brassy tone (the stop mute). Another technique is
up to personal interpretation, with the given directions for oscillation of pitch on a long unreal sound while
playing with the valves halfway depressed. Messiaen also plays with the history of the horn, going back to the time
of the hunting horn, or trompe de chasse. Since these instruments did not have valves, the only available notes
followed the harmonic series. After a hunting call, a two-octave glissando covers almost all the playable notes on
that specific harmonic series.

Calls for Two Horns

Verne Reynolds was born in 1926 in Lyons, Kansas. At age eight, Reynolds began studying piano with Arvid
Wallin, a person Reynolds considered to be his most influential teacher. Reynolds started playing horn at the age of
thirteen with private instruction from his high school band director.

After high school, Reynolds joined the Navy to play piano in a dance band and horn in a military band. Reynolds
performed with the Cincinnati Symphony from 1947 to 1950, starting at just twenty years of age. Reynolds
completed his composition degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory in 1950, where he also studied horn under
Gustav Albrecht. He finished his masters degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1951 and then attended the
Royal College of Music in London on a Fulbright grant. While in London, he studied horn with Frank Probyn with
occasional tutelage from Dennis Brain, a prominent horn soloist. Reynolds also performed in the American
Woodwind Quintet and in the Rochester Philharmonic as principal horn from 1959 to 1968. Reynolds was the horn
professor at the Eastman School of Music for thirty-six years and was a founding member of the Eastman Brass
Quintet. He also taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory, University of Wisconsin, and Indiana University.

Verne Reynolds is most famous for his technical proficiency on horn as well as his many publications. He published
over sixty works and received many awards and commissions throughout his lifetime. His compositional styles fall
into the following three categories: inspiration from Hindemith, twelve-tone serialism, and a final free period in
which every technique he knew was used.

Calls for Two Horns was composed in 1975 as the first of a series of pieces that evoke traditional uses of brass
instruments. In this piece, the two players start the beginning of the piece offstage, moving onstage during the
middle of the piece, only to finish the piece offstage again. Calls for Two Horns is an atonal piece consisting of few
sections where the two horn parts align.

Series XLIV Steinway is the official piano of the UCF Music Department Program 0
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