Horn Music

This collection: Solo Studies for the Healthy Hornist contains ten solos of varying styles. Specifically written for the younger student in mind, the studies in this book will be interesting and challenging to more advanced players as well. When I retired from Western Illinois University in 2018, the focus of my teaching changed. No longer was I working with graduate students-or even undergraduate students who were doing more advanced projects on Wagner Tuba or the Natural Horn; many of my students, then, were in the younger years of high school or junior high school. So, even though I was older, I was spending more time with younger students. So, as I was spending more time teaching these younger students, I became more attuned to their activities in band, dance, and various athletic pursuits. As a result, let me give special thanks to these students who provided inspiration and test runs of these solo studies: Noah, Ernesto, Jack, Elena, Emily, Anabelle, Lorelei, Brooks, and Carter. Their energy and imagination have been an inspiration for these Solo Studies. Learn More

Grade: 5 Learn More

Variations on the Hymn--Amazing Grace. Composed for a presentation by John Heilman for the Auburn University Research Council, March 1997. University Division Solo Horn Selection, American Horn Competition, 2001

Grade: 5

Recorded by Andrew Pelletier on MSR Classics 1168: Celebration: Horn Music of Randall Faust

Recorded by David Griffin on compact disc: For You: Music for French Horn and Piano

Recorded by Randall Faust on Fantasies on American Themes

 Call and Response for Solo Horn-Randall Faust, horn

Andrew Pelletier, May 2018. Performance starts at 9:50.             

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Fleeting images of a Middle Eastern bazaar appear in muted colors that fade in and out. The morning begins slowly, as merchants get ready for the day ahead. Somewhere in the distance the bazaar begins and the marketplace builds in activity and excitement. The market activity peaks and gradually subsides, and the aftermath gives way to the evening. The dreamer is finally transported away from the Casbah with memories of the day's excitement trailing behind.  -Jeffrey Snedeker, November 2016

Grade: 4

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Composed for Douglas Campbell. A major new work for Solo Horn--exploiting the study of the harmonics of the horn as practiced by Dr. Douglas Campbell and the composer. First performance--Interlochen Center for the Arts--Summer, 1996
Recorded by Randall Faust on Fantasies on American Themes

Grade: 5-6 Harmonielehre for Solo Horn-Randall Faust, horn Learn More

Wonderful piece for horn and electronic media where the horn sound is echoed and the timbre manipulated through electronic media. Performed at The Electronic Music Plus Festival--The University of Maryland --1979. Subject of an article by the composer in THE HORN CALL--Fall of 1980. Recorded by Andrew Pelletier on MSR Classics 1168: Celebration: Horn Music of Randall Faust Grade: 5-6  Horn Call for Horn and Electronic Media-Andrew Pelletier, horn

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This work was inspired by the composer's study of the chants and dance rhythms of Native Americans. Performed by the composer at the International Horn Symposium in Munich in 1989. Grade: 5 Learn More

Reviewed in THE HORN CALL, October 1979.

Grade: 5

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Solo work that explores the technique of stopping the horn. Composed for Marvin Howe.

In 1972 THE HORN CALL published part of a short treatise by Marvin Howe on Stopped Horn (1968).  In this short treatise, Marvin Howe discussed an effective method for improving stopped horn technique. The essential statement was that closing the hand in the bell of the horn, lowers the pitch to a half-step above the next lowest partial in the harmonic series.”  The subsequent letters to the editor of THE HORN CALL became what was known as “The Great Stopped Horn Debate.”  Rather than write a letter to the editor, I chose to compose this Prelude—to illustrate the techniques discussed by Marvin Howe.  (REF)

Interestingly enough, the review of this composition also became an ongoing discussion between the reviewer-Dr. Gayle Chesebro, the Editor of the Horn Call-Paul Mansur, and Dr. Howe.   So, this composition, itself, also became part of “The Great Stopped Horn Debate”!

In many ways the composition is a dialog between the outdoor horn-with little fanfares on open notes of the harmonic series-and the indoor horn-with open-stopped glissandi-created by closing the right hand inside the horn.  In the end, regardless of whether one is projecting open notes or stopped notes, the harmonic series always wins the debate! Grade: 5 University Division Solo Horn Selection--American Horn Competition, 1991, 1994, 1997, & 2001.

Recorded by Randall Faust on Fantasies on American Themes. Prelude for Solo Horn-Randall Faust, horn

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This set of Variations is a comprehensive study of styles, rhythms, articulations, and techniques. When performed in its entirety is a major work for Solo Horn - equal in musical, dramatic, and technical challenge to many other works for Solo Horn—as well as works for orchestra and band - as performed by Professional and University Hornists. This work was commissioned by Nicholas Steffenhagen as a test composition for a research project for his Master's Degree at Illinois State University where he compared practice techniques of Professional and University Hornists. It is a set of variations for a virtuoso hornist - and could be used as a sequential set of studies for developing an advanced level of solo performance. I hope that all hornists enjoy studying and performing these Rhapsodic Variations! Grade: 5-6 Learn More

COMPOSED FOR ANDREW BAIN One of the highlights of the summer of 2020 was the opportunity to participate in a series of internet-based Warm-Up Classes presented by Andrew Bain-Principal Hornist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and co-hosted by Rupal Bain-of their INVESTED MUSICIAN program. Impressed by Andrew's regular presentation of horn studies in a comfortable and friendly atmosphere, I was inspired to write this piece by the fact that he candidly discussed some of his own personal technical challenges in playing the horn. This Scherzo is dedicated to Andrew Bain, his ongoing artistry, inspiration, and good humor.

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Written for Ricardo Matosinhos and premiered at the 55th International Horn Symposium, Kingsville, Texas, USA in 2022. SEQUENCES for Horn Solo—by Kazimierz Machala is a virtuoso composition that challenges the hornist and the listener to think beyond the theoretical definition of the term sequence (the repetition of a melodic or harmonic idea at a different tonal level). Throughout the four pages of this composition, he does not merely repeat the melodic ideas, but continually transforms them. As a result, Dr. Machala demonstrates the concepts of melodic development at the highest level. Learn More

This three movement work is a wonderfully colorful set of etudes for solo horn. Grade: 5-6

Battle Axe emphasizes large leaps (7ths and 9ths), often slurred, as well as ascending sixteenth-note patterns following the octatonic scale. The Bug and the Blue Light is an expressive journey through many different keys (all lydian), with slurred, disjunct melody lines that cover a large range. Vertigo Skipping, explores the alternation between 6/8 and 5/8 ideas, as well as slurs from beat to beat, with the ascending major 9th appearing prominently. Three Concert Etudes-Dr. Ashley Cumming, horn

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