by Sarah Willis, IHS 55 Featured Artist
Dear horn friends around the world,
I am so happy to let you know that the sheet music to Cuban Dances, the first ever Cuban concerto for horn, has just been published!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z8SW2ezO7uE
Following the success of our first album Mozart y Mambo, I decided to commission a new horn piece for album 2, and I found six talented young Cuban composers to write it for me. With Cuban Dances, we have created a musical map of Cuba and its musical heritage in six movements from six different parts of Cuba. The result is a fresh and modern adaptation of Cuba’s most well-known dances—and it is the first time any of the composers have written for French horn!
Preparing and playing these dances—Son, Danzón, Guaguancó, Bolero, Chachachá, and Changüí—has been one of my greatest challenges to date. It’s not just the tricky technical horn playing but also because my Cuban friends told me, “If you can’t dance them, you can’t play them.” So dance them I did! We spent a long time preparing the sheet music, because many of these rhythms are simply not usually notated by the Cubans—they just instinctively know how to play them. The composers had to learn not only how to write down these rhythms for horn but also what the horn is capable of…and what it isn’t!
Nothing would make me happier than knowing that horn players around the world, like you, will discover and fall in love with Cuban music through Cuban Dances like I did. These dances are SO much fun to play, both with string orchestra and also in the chamber music version, and you can play the whole suite or mix and match the movements however you want. The proceeds of the sheet music go to our Instruments for Cuba fund which helps support young Cuban musicians. Times are really tough in Cuba right now, so we are grateful for your support. You can purchase Cuban Dances from Köbl.
I would love to hear from you if you perform them anywhere, or simply if you are playing along with the recording in your practice room—I often finish a day’s practice by playing along to the "Sarah-chá" at home, it makes me smile every time!
Enjoy!
All the best from Berlin,
Sarah
For Horn Hangouts and more horn magic, visit www.sarah-willis.com.
