Wandl’ ich in dem Wald des Abends – Fanny Hensel, arr. James Boldin has been added to the IHS Online Music Sales.

Originally scored for two sopranos and alto on a text of Heinrich Heine, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Wandl’ ich in dem Wald des Abends (I wander in the evening forest...), depicts a melancholy reminiscence brought on by an evening stroll through the woods. Its chromatic harmonies and quasi-imitative texture are well suited to the brass trio medium.

Epilogue for Horn and Piano by Roger Jones has been added to the IHS Online Music Sales.

Epilogue for Horn and Piano was composed in 2011 for James Boldin, horn professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He and pianist Richard Seiler premièred the work in July of that year in that city. The work was inspired by a poem of the same name by Robert Lowell, the last poem in his last published collection (Day by Day). “But sometimes everything I write/ with the threadbare art of my eye/ seems a snapshot,/ lurid, rapid, garish, grouped,/ heightened from life,/ yet paralyzed by fact.” This excerpt seems key to the understanding of the poem and possibly his work in general. The music takes on that disquiet mindset, sometimes distant, withdrawn, other times tender or even bold, yet concluding with a fragile, unresolved passage. It is suggested that the poem be read before the performance of the work. “Epilogue for Horn and Piano” was created as a duo with both parts designed to convey the full range of emotions. Thus performance requires advanced artistry by both musicians.

Notes from Abe Kniaz on playing the horn, plus recordings of him playing excerpts, have been added on the Multimedia menu. The Table of Contents is on the right side of the screen, with access to any topic. You can download a pdf of the complete document from the Kniaz Home page.

Kniaz (1923-2007) was principal horn in the Columbus OH Symphony and for ten years in the National Symphony in Washington DC before teaching at Indiana University and Laval University in Quebec, Canada. He never published a method, but he wrote copious notes, which were collated by Thom Gustafson, a former student. Steven Ovitsky restored the recordings. Kniaz never thought he had the answers, but he asked questions and searched for the answers.

Chris Rozé's Changing Light has been added to the IHS Online Music Sales. Changing Light was written at the request of Kristy Morrell, hornist for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and a colleague at the USC Thornton School of Music. It was composed in the summer and fall of 2013 and premiered by Kristy and members of the Colburn School of Music faculty in November. The work was then revised in the winter of 2014.

Two new pieces by Robert Ward, Principal Horn of the San Francisco Symphony, for brass ensemble, organ and percussion have been added to the IHS Online Music Sales.

Ward, Robert – Sussex Carol Variations for brass ensemble, organ, and percussion
Sussex Carol Variations takes the traditional carol and transforms it six ways, ending in a triumphant “Alleluia” reminiscent of Hindemith’s Mathis Der Maler.

Dukas, Paul (arr. Ward) – Prélude Élégiaque for brass ensemble, organ, and percussion
The Dukas Prélude Élégiaque is an arrangement of the relatively unknown piano work published in 1910. Somewhat impressionistic, it is a gentle piece for brass, organ and percussion.