by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello horn friends!
This month, I’m introducing Canadian composer Violet Archer. Although her parents were Italian immigrants and her original last name was Balestreri, with the unrest of the 1940’s and the start of WWII, her family legally changed their last name to Archer. However, her compositional style was influenced by her heritage and a childhood spent in Italy. In fact, one of her brass quintets is entitled I va vari.
Archer began composing at age 16, and soon after, she attended McGill University where she studied piano and organ. Interestingly, upon her graduation she began performing with the Montréal Women’s Symphony Orchestra and then the New Haven Symphony Orchestra as a percussionist; but she regularly played the clarinet and various string instruments as well. In the summer of 1942, Archer traveled to New York City to take composition lessons with Belá Bartók. Through his instruction, Archer developed a lasting interest in the use of folk music in her compositions. Additionally, while completing a master’s in composition at Yale University from 1947 to 1949, her primary professor was Paul Hindemith.
Among her 330 compositions are several which feature the horn, including four brass quintets. The lengthiest of these is a twenty-minute, multi-movement work entitled Divertimento, which features a wide range of moods and colors. Archer also composed Sonata for Horn and Piano, a challenging work which (to my ear) is reminiscent of Hindemith’s tonal language. Enjoy Buffalo Jump, the first movement of her highly technical work for baritone, horn, and piano, Prairie Profiles (featuring hornist David Hoyt).
