by Marty Schlenker

Dear Fellow Amateurs,

Recently, I wrote that I bought a horn, a one-owner 700,000-series Conn 8D from the mid-1950s. The owner was Jim Tyson, a lifelong music teacher in central Pennsylvania, who taught my wife and her two brothers 40-50 years ago. 

I had been motivated to add an Elkhart 8D or similar horn to my roster ever since I borrowed a friend’s excellent Hoyer Kruspe copy years ago. In my circle of community bands, Holton and 8D players are the majority. It would be helpful for timbre matching if I had a large bore nickel horn too. Finally, opportunity and motivation intersected. 

Overall, I was pleased. The price was fair. The valves and corpus are in fine shape. The bell needs a little straightening. I was able to achieve the classic 8D mellowness, and there were no bad notes. But the 8D is far less centered than my 28D or, as I recall, my friend’s Hoyer. Lip slurs, especially at first, were frustratingly random, and overall, the 8D seemed to require a lot more effort. To use a baseball analogy, it seemed like swinging a bat with a weight on it. So, I use the 8D when I’m in sections where that timbre prevails.

In early July, I hit the road with the 28D. Every year, the First Coast Wind Symphony of Jacksonville, FL, takes a tour, and partners up with a community band for a joint concert in its chosen destination. Even though I don’t live in Florida and am not a FCWS member, I get invited by my wife’s brother who organizes the tours. This year, FCWS was hosted by the Burlington Concert Band of Burlington, VT which has been in near-continuous operation since 1851. The combined band played July 3 in Burlington’s Battery Park Music Shell, with beautiful weather and one of the best fireworks displays I can remember. Here are a few highlight photos:

Battery Park, with Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks in the background, and the 28D

Four family members: brothers-in-law Larry and Alan, my wife Lucy, and me

The combined section: Benny (Burlington), Ann (First Coast), Noah (Burlington), Bobbie (First Coast), Marcela (Burlington), and me (Have-horn-will-travel)

As patriotic programs sometimes do, this concert got LOUD, and Marcela is a very strong player. It was all I could do to keep up with her to balance 4th horn to her 3rd. Two days later, I noticed that my whole rib cage ached. But guess what? I don’t mind playing the 8D one bit now. All I needed was a real workout.

Please write with your how-I-stay-in-shape stories, where-my-horn-has-been stories, or anything else from your amateur horn world! marty.schlenker@cavaliers.org.

Your servant and kindred spirit,
Marty Schlenker, Amateur Hornist

Those attending this year’s IHS 56-Horns on the Horizon Symposium in Ft. Collins, Colorado, USA, are invited to the program The International Horn Society Composition Contest, Decades of New Music for Hornists: A Heritage of New Music for the Horn.

Hornists Allison DeMeulle, Bernardo Silva, Emma Brown, James Boldin, Jennifer Sholtis, Johanna Lundy, Ken Pope, Lisa Bontrager, Lucca Zambonini, Michelle Stebleton, Monica Martinez, Peter Luff, Radegundis Feitosa, Randy Gardner, Richard Todd, and Andrew Pelletier will perform outstanding compositions from the Heritage of the Composition Contest, including the following works:

(2016) The Final Battle Cry for Solo Horn, by Alexis Carrier
(1985) Four Bagatelles for Horn and Piano, by Michael Jacques
(1999) Night Song for Horn and Piano, by Andrew Boysen
(2020) Legacy: Concerto for Horn, by Aaron Jay Kernis
(1982) Suite for Eight Horns, by Gordon Ring
(1981) Sextuor-Mars 1981, by Charles Deschamps
(1979) Horn Player’s Retreat and Pumping Song, by David Stanhope

The very first International Horn Society Composition Contest took place in 1979 with Dr. Gayle Chesebro as the Coordinator. In the announcement of the first contest, the composer and then-President Douglas Hill defined the purposes of the Composition Project in the following three points:

1. to provide new and successful repertoire for all levels of the horn playing/teaching community;
2. to encourage emerging composers to feature the horn, with all of its versatility, in new works; and
3. to encourage all horn players and horn teachers to investigate and perform new repertoire.

Since the very first contest in 1979, 27 Composition Contests have been held, hundreds of compositions for the horn have been submitted, and many of these have been featured in performances at Symposia as well as at other venues and on recordings. 

Since the 2014 Composition Contest, there have been two different divisions: the Featured Division and the Virtuoso Division. 

In the Featured Division, the difficulty level of the compositions is moderate. Featured Division compositions must be playable by the entire spectrum of IHS members (student, amateurs, professionals). Works in this division should have musical content that would have the integrity to honor the professional hornists, yet within the pitch and technical range of the panorama of student and amateur players. 

In the Virtuoso Division, there is no difficulty limitation.

The instrumentation of works for these divisions rotates with each contest.

For the 2024 Contest, the instrumentation of the Divisions is as follows:

FEATURED DIVISION:

• Compositions for Solo Horn (alone/unaccompanied)

VIRTUOSO DIVISION:

• Compositions for Solo Horn with Vocal Ensemble
• Compositions for Horn Ensemble (two or more players, all horns)
• Compositions for solo horn and keyboard instrument. (Keyboard instruments may include piano, harpsichord, organ, electronic keyboard, or mallet percussion.)
• Compositions featuring Horn with chamber ensemble of three or more players (one horn part only) (The chamber ensemble may include any combination of electronic instruments, acoustic instruments and/or voices. Electronic instruments may be live or pre-recorded. Acoustic instruments may include Wagner Tuben.)
• Compositions featuring Solo Horn featured with large ensemble. (The large ensemble may include any group of electronic, acoustic instruments and/or voices. Electronic instruments may be live or pre-recorded. Acoustic instruments may include Wagner Tuben.)

In the Composition Contest, a composer submits a composition of appropriate instrumentation according to the following application rules.

I. Application Rules include/require the following:

1. Scores in PDF Format. Personal name must be removed from the score.
2. MP3 recordings of the composition. Personal information (such as embedded composer's name) should be removed from the file. Maximum size is 30MB. Hornists are encouraged to collaborate with composers in making the best possible recording of the composition to be submitted. Although electronically generated sound files may be submitted, collaboration between living hornists and living composers is encouraged.
3. A brief description of the work in MS-Word.doc format.
4. An on-line application, which will include the name of composition, entered as well as contact information of the composer (full name, address, phone number and email address).
   • Composer's name and address must not appear on the scores, recording file or description file. All works are assigned a number to guarantee anonymity during judging.
   • Entry fee of $25.00 U.S.D. for each composition must be paid at the time of submission via the Horn Society website.
   • Entries must be received no later than December 1, 2024. Incomplete entries or entries submitted in an incorrect format will not be considered.
   • No more than one composition per division per composer is allowed.
   • Works submitted must have been composed during the past four years, and any composition that has received support from the International Horn Society Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund is not eligible. Also ineligible are Officers and Staff of the International Horn Society—as well as the most recent winners of the Composition Contest.

II. Files will not be returned and will become the property of the International Horn Society. Intellectual rights remain the property of the composer.

III. The panel of judges may withhold the awards if the works submitted are deemed unqualified to receive such distinction. Judges may assign Honorable Mention status to compositions not selected for a monetary award.

IV. Contestants may expect to receive the results of the contest by February 15, 2025. Results of the contest, including a description of the winning compositions and composers' biographies will appear in an issue of The Horn Call, the journal of the International Horn Society (circulation: over 3,000 members from 55 countries).

V. The winner of each division will receive a prize of $1250.00 U.S.D. The winning compositions will be performed or featured, if possible, at an International Horn Society Workshop. The winning composers will have the option of having the work published by the IHS Online Music Sales.

VI. Entrance into this competition constitutes acceptance of Application Rules.

The application portal may be found at:

https://www.hornsociety.org/about-the-ihs/composition-projects/composition-contest

by Caiti Beth McKinney

Hi everyone!

In honor of the 56th International Horn Symposium, I wanted to write about a composer I adore—and, coincidentally, whose music I will be performing at IHS 56—Barbara York. While perhaps known more as a proponent of low brass chamber music, her works for horn are both challenging and rewarding.

Born in Canada in 1949, York studied both cello and piano as a child, demonstrating such skill and dedication that she began her bachelor’s degree at McGill University at age 16 and graduated by the age of 20. Barbara spent early periods of her career working in musical theater, elementary music education, and, perhaps most importantly, collaborative piano. Upon accompanying a tuba player, Michael Fischer, at his recital at Pittsburg State University, York was inspired by the dulcet tones of solo tuba playing and requested to write a piece for Fischer; thus began a long and fruitful career of over forty works for tuba or euphonium.

One of my favorites among York’s works is her trio for horn (or euphonium), tuba, and piano entitled Dancing with Myself, which the composer describes as a bit of “Bohemian Barbara,” reminding herself of her youthful days in Montréal. Clearly inspired by dance styles including jazz, tango, and polka, the piece interweaves all three instruments to great effect, creating a conversation between the performers, while also being deeply introspective and personal. Barbara spoke about the piece in an interview, discussing her thoughts on the work and its reflection of a past relationship, stating, “…then I realized that he didn’t want to have a discussion with me. He wanted to instruct me. I was trying to talk to him, but he wasn’t talking back. I was just really talking to myself, which was interesting…. There was no two-way communication going on. He wasn’t having any kind of discussion. When I did the story about going home at night by myself dancing because I wasn’t dancing with myself, I also thought about the fact that when you’re young, you’re so concerned with finding who you are and your own self-image. Figuring out who you are.”

York also composed several brass quintets, a suite for horn, euphonium, and piano, and an outstanding sonata for horn which is well worth a listen. Wishing everyone a fabulous August—and thank you for reading the Horn and More Composer Spotlight!

by Josué E. Jocop Siney, FECOGUA Representative

Dear readers, the purpose of this article is to tell the story of a group of musicians, my colleagues and friends, who have decided not to remain silent as concern—generated as the institutions in charge of promoting music in Guatemala have suffered due to socio-political difficulties—grows. But before introducing our solution, I feel the need to first present some background information to put it in context.

Guatemala is a country located in Central America, long known for being the cradle of the Mayan civilization, for its lakes, volcanoes, mountains, jungles, and rainforests. In addition, Guatemala is a multicultural and multilingual country; four peoples coexist: Maya, Xinca, Garífuna, and Ladino (Mestizo). The nation’s history has had episodes as bloody as both the Conquest and the terrible internal armed conflict that subjugated its greatest treasure, its people, for 36 long years. It is incredible, then, to observe how colorful and artistic the towns in Guatemala are; you can hear the notes of the marimba everywhere, playing the rhythms of sones, danzones, waltzes, and many other genres that live on in the imaginations of Guatemalans. It seems that there are no economic, social, or political obstacles that prevent our people from expressing themselves in this most sincere, creative, and human way.

Guatemala has seen the birth of musicians and composers among whom I will mention: Eulalio Samayoa, one of the first symphonists in the Americas and founder of the Guatemalan Philharmonic Association in 1813; Jesús Castillo, ethnomusicologist, and author of the book La Música Maya Quiché which rescues, classifies, and studies the memories of pre-Hispanic music in Guatemala; and Maestro Joaquín Orellana, composer of contemporary music whose most notable contributions are the creation of his own musical notation system and of his “Sound Tools,” instruments he built, derived from the marimba and other elements.

After having broadly presented Guatemala and its people, I can tell you that the Horn Festival in Guatemala “FECOGUA” was born from the need of musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Marcial Symphonic Band, to create a platform which allows players to connect with each other and with the world to improve all aspects concerning the horn. In this process, collaborative efforts were made with institutions dedicated to teaching, as well as with music lovers, students, and international professors to bring together the largest possible number of instrumentalists in one place, teach classes, and create space for ensembles and concerts in which everyone may participate.

In 2018, the first Horn Festival was held, thanks to the support of the Spanish teacher Samuel Pérez. This was our first attempt to organize an activity of this nature. Teamwork with well-defined roles helped us realize that we could have a positive impact on and contribute to the comprehensive development of new generations of horn players in the country. The second Festival welcomed Mexican teachers as guests: Ernesto Miramontes and Esmeralda Pazos, both academics from the Universidad Veracruzana. This was very motivating for the participants because it broke, in some ways, with the model of the teacher as a being who knows everything, who makes no mistakes, and who remains distant. On the contrary, the teacher's role was that of a friend who makes it easier for you to get to know him or her and gives you tools to work on bettering yourself.

Against all odds, the year 2020 was very productive for our organization, despite the fact that the world faced the covid pandemic. Over the course of three months, 18 conferences were held with teachers such as Lucca Benucci (ITA), Keith Eitzen (USA), Edward Brown (USA), Luis Murillo (CR), João Gaspar (PORT), and Joel Arias (VEN), among others. It was very useful to have contact with so many professors, to learn their life stories, including the adversities they faced throughout their careers, and to receive valuable information in their masterclasses.

In 2023, the Festival was held with Joel Arias, representative of the region for the International Horn Society. Maestro Arias is an important figure for our festival since he has a lot of experience in pedagogy and interpretation. In 2023, the first student performance competition was held, and the winner performed Mozart's Concerto No. 3 with orchestra, the first time such an event was held in our country.

The primary purpose of this organization is to provide participants with the opportunity to attend masterclasses where they can receive the guidance needed to master the instrument, develop interpretation, and perform a piece accompanied by a pianist or an orchestra. This process offers a total of 30 hours of study which includes warm-ups, individual and group lessons, conferences, recitals, and collegiality. It should be noted that the Horn Festival in Guatemala is a non-profit organization and that all activities are carried out through negotiations with government institutions, donations from altruistic people, and now also with the support of the IHS.