CD32

American Horn Music
of the 40's & 50's

Released: c.2012

This CD proves that what may have sounded weird sixty years ago
now sounds normal and often beautiful.

Release date: February 11, 2013

Wendell Otey Symphonic Sketches For a Quartet of Horns (1942)

Henry Cowell Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 4 for Three Unspecified Instruments (1944)

Henry Cowell Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 12 for Three Horns (1957-58)

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Choral And Variations For Horn Quartet, Op. 162 (1956)

Clifton Williams Twenty Four Duo-Studies (1945)

Gunther Schuller Five Pieces for Five Horns (1952)

Program Notes:

If I were to sum up this CD in a one-liner, I would have to say “This CD proves that what may have sounded weird sixty years ago now sounds normal and often beautiful.”

I often fondly think back to the bus stop where I used to wait in Berkeley California. I often took the bus to youth orchestra rehearsals in the 1970’s. This is where I met natural horn players Lowell Greer and R. J. Kelly. Berkeley Music House was just next to this bus stop, and being an enthusiastic young French horn player, I would often run into the music store to see what was in the back bin. From this bin of the less expensive sheet music I learned of many lesser-known 20th century composers, and started my collection of obscure sheet music.

The Alan Hovhaness piece was hard to get, as it was published by its
dedicatee Morris Secon, who died in 2009. Mr. Hovhaness wrote this horn quartet on May 8, 1954. I know of only one other major horn work written in one day, the Beethoven’s Horn Sonata.

Henry Cowell is one of my heros; a composer who wrote in many styles and had a major influence on music of the 20th century. I am thankful that he wrote this horn trio, and the other Hymn and Fuging Tune for unspecified instruments. Cowells Hymn and Fuging Tunes are based on a 19th century Southern Baptist spiritual music form, and they are considered to be an important part of Henry Cowell’s compositional output. I don’t know of other recordings of these two trios.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Guitar works seem to have become part of the standard repertoire but other than those guitar works, he is eclipsed by his very famous students: Henri Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Andre Previn, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams. Tedesco was a very prolific composer having written 220 opuses and numerous unnumbered works including hundreds of film scores. The Los Angeles Horn Club commissioned this work and it was published in 1956, but to my knowledge never recorded.

Two of the duets by Clifton Williams are published in a popular horn
etude book, but the complete set, again was quite hard to find. These are very pleasant works and they are the earliest recordings I did for this
CD. Late winter of 2012, I purchased and old Schmidt horn, which I love,
and these duets we my first project with that instrument. This whole CD is recorded using that Schmidt, and I feel that it has a beautiful classic warm sound.

I rounded out this recording with the music of Gunther Schuller. His
works are in an expressionistic style. This music from 1956 explores a few different techniques on the horn that expands its range of expression: Muted, stopping the bell with the hand to make a harsh sound, flutter tonguing and pitch bending with the hand in the bell. His works in a way are more like sculptures than anything else on the CD, but again I have to say, they really don’t sound weird, just expressive.

Hi Richard,

The 40's and 50's horn music CD is awesome!

First off, what a great selection of composers.  Hovaness' spirituality is a comfort.  But it was great to be introduced to these other composers. I was quite moved by the Cowell.  And the Schuller contains some very intense moments -especially final movement which races along in unisons.  I'll have to research these two composers to see what else they have written.  Any trios, I wonder?

Great production value from your get-up in the basement.  Quite a range of different timbres throughout the disc.  At times dry and woody, other times brassy with edge.  And superb intonation in all registers.

Is it me our did you attempt to replicate 40's and 50's period recording conventions with your use of reverberation and microphone placement? Anyway, the horn(s) sounds very present, creating a very intimate experience for the listener.

And how you manage to multi-track with such rhythmic precision is mystery to me.  This music is not click-track friendly.

Thanks again for this wonderful musical gift.

 

About the Recording:

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About the Performer:

Richard Burdick as a musician:
French hornist: Richard O. Burdick is the first horn of Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Regina Symphony Chamber Players in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is a prolific composer.

His move to Canada in 2003, with his wife Rebecca and his two boys, marked the start of the fourth major period in his musical Career.

In the 1980’s Richard was first Horn of Napa Symphony, a member of a San Francisco based theater orchestra and played lots of chamber music as manager of Trinity Chamber Concerts, a chamber music series in Berkeley California.

Starting in 1990 he played fourth Horn full-time for Sacramento Symphony, which went bankrupt in 1996. He then won auditions for Fresno Philharmonic, Napa & North State Symphonies and played in Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera.

He is a prolific composer and has many self produced CD’s of his own compositions, Bach, his classical natural horn playing and multi-track performances of many of his favorite pieces.

He performs on a variety of horns, a baroque natural horn (1720), a classical era natural horn (1800), a romantic era (1840's) natural horn, a single F horn from the 1880's, his main symphony horn is a Brendan Model Finke triple horn.

He has also done many music related jobs such as arranger for Sacramento Symphony, librarian and personal manager for Sacramento Philharmonic, and manager of Trinity Chamber Concerts (chamber music series) in Berkeley, California for 19 years starting in 1984.

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Tracks List:

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Bar codes:

738435140304

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