Program Notes: Cor-antine Spring 2020

James Naigus

From Dr. Naigus’ website:

“Dr. James Naigus is Lecturer of Horn at the University of Georgia and hornist with the Georgia Brass Quintet. He is co-founder of the Cor Moto Horn Duo with Dr. Drew Phillips, and co-editor/contributor of the Creative Hornist and Technique Tips columns in the Horn Call, the journal of the International Horn Society.

He has played with the Wichita Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Gainesville Chamber Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, and Ocala Symphony Orchestra. He has toured Europe in 2017 & 2014 and South America in 2011 as a member of the American Chamber Winds. He has also performed on recitals at the 2014 MidNorth Horn Workshop, 2013 Midwest Horn Workshop, the 2018 and 2017 Midsouth Horn Workshops, the 2018, 2016, 2014 and 2013 Southeast Horn Workshops, and the 2018, 2015 and 2013 International Horn Symposiums.

As a member of staff at the prestigious Kendall Betts Horn Camp for the last four years, Naigus has designed and taught an aural harmony music theory course. Additional teaching interests include music theory, concert and commercial composition, and film music.

Naigus' compositions have been performed throughout the United States and beyond, with enthusiastic reception and rave review. In 2013 he was the Composer-in-Residence at the Southeast Horn Workshop in Richmond, VA. In 2009 he was awarded an honorable mention award in the International Horn Society Composition Contest. He has written commercial compositions for clients such as Google, University of Michigan, University of Florida, and University of Iowa. He is currently published by RM Williams Publishing and Veritas Musica Publishing.

He is a graduate of the University of Iowa (DMA) studying with Jeffrey Agrell, studied horn and composition with Paul Basler at the University of Florida during his masters degree, and while attending the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree studied with Soren Hermansson, Bryan Kennedy, and Adam Unsworth. Prior appointments include the University of Central Missouri and the University of Iowa.”

Zenith Fanfare is an energetic opener, with lines between all four horn parts driving forward and ascending as if to the heavens, before moving on to a rollicking melodic line that dances through a light motric accompaniment, with the initial ascending theme only ever seeming a breath away. This dance is transformed into a slower, chordal idea that seems to always be growing in an ethereal way, as if looking down at the beautiful world from an immensely high vantage point. This section swells with emotion, growing to the point of bursting before starting back at its lower point and swelling to even greater height. In a sudden shift, as though the ethereal altitude of the soaring harmonies cannot be sustained, the initial fanfare is back, and the music tears back down amongst the clouds, racing through earlier themes before finding itself at long last in its definitive conclusion.

Carl August Hänsel

Carl August Hänsel was born in 1799. A cellist in Dresden at the Saxon court chapel, he composed numerous works, primarily a mixture of marches and dances. 

Quartet Originaux pour Cors was published in April of 1859. The work, comprised of 7 different movements, is a definitive example of chamber music written for horn quartet in the mid-19^th Century. The quartet encompasses many ideas that were popular at the time, beginning with a fanfare, progressing through solemn hymn-like and amorous dance-like movements, to clear marches and concluding fanfares.

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a German composer, pianist, organist, and conductor. Born in Hamburg in 1809, during the time it was an independent city-state, Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons with his mother at the age of 6, and was quickly recognized as a musical prodigy. Although Felix’s older sister, Fanny, also displayed immense talent in music, to the extent that their father believed she would be the most musically talented of his children. The culture of the time was prohibitive to her pursuing a career as a musician, however, and she remained an active, though not professional, musician.

In spite of his immense success, Mendelssohn’s music and legacy were fraught with conflict. As a child, after his family’s bank assisted in the disruption of Napoleon’s Continental Blockade, Mendelssohn’s family fled Hamburg to seek refuge in Berlin. Upon establishing his own conservative musical style in strict counter to other of his revolutionary contemporaries, he was often viewed as old fashioned and inflexible by musicians who saw themselves as pushing boundaries and innovating in the musical sphere. Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner were among the composers of the day that gave Mendelssohn respect only grudgingly, and their relationship with him was fraught with tension both for their view of his works and Wagner’s particular inclination toward anti-Semitism. In spite of these struggles, Felix Mendelssohn’s works brought him appreciation and accolades within his lifetime in the 19^th Century , and have endured into the present day.

Symphony No. 4, also known as the Italian Symphony, was first performed in London on 13 May 1833. Mendelssohn drew the inspiration for this symphony from a trip through Italy from 1829-1831, during which time he wrote to his father “This is Italy! And now has begun what I have always thought... to be the supreme joy in life. And I am loving it. Today was so rich that now, in the evening, I must collect myself a little, and so I am writing to you to thank you, dear parents, for having given me all this happiness.” During the trip, he wrote to his sister Fanny, stating that the Fourth Symphony was “making great progress,” in spite of the fact that he had not yet determined what would be its slow movement. Felix declared to his sister that he would settle on this movement once he had experienced Naples, and that is exactly what he did. The second movement, Andante con moto, was inspired by a religious procession Mendelssohn witnessed during his time in Naples.



Kerry Turner

Kerry Turner, a native of San Antonio, Texas, has been writing music since he was ten years old. At the age of 11, he won the San Antonio Music Society Composition Competition and six years later was awarded Baylor University's first prize at its composition contest with a large scholarship to that institution. Composition however was not Kerry's passion at this time. He was also an accomplished horn player and chose to concentrate his studies there instead. He transferred to the Manhattan School of Music in New York in 1980 where he began his intensive horn studies. After completing graduation, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study with the world-renowned horn soloist, Hermann Baumann, who was teaching at the Stuttgart College of Performing Arts in Germany.

In 1985, Kerry Turner joined the American Horn Quartet. It was then that he decided to once again put pen to paper and compose for this ensemble. The horn quartet repertoire at that time was rather small and unchallenging to modern players. With this in mind, Kerry composed his Quartet Nr. 1, which subsequently won first prize in the International Horn Society's composition contest. Other big hits for horn quartet followed, such as the thrilling tone-poem, The Casbah of Tetouan, his second quartet subtitled "Americana" and then the Quartet Nr. 3, which once again was awarded a prize in the International Horn Society composition contest in 1996. Mr. Turner began by this time to receive commissions to compose for the horn in different chamber ensemble combinations. His dramatic Six Lives of Jack McBride (horn, violin, piano and tenor) was a commission by Mr. Charles Putnam and the IHS Meir Rimon Foundation. Following that, the Freden International Music Festival in Germany commissioned him to compose a brass quintet (Ricochet), which has since become one of Mr. Turner's most successful works. He has also been commissioned by the U.S. Air Force "Heritage of America" band (Postcards from Lucca), the Alexander Horn Ensemble Japan (Ghosts of Dublin), the Brass Ensemble of the Symphony Orchestra of Lyon (The Heros), and many more established ensembles.

Mr. Turner has been a guest lecturer in composition at several notable institutions of music, such as the Royal Academy of Oslo, the Academy of Fine Arts in Hong Kong, the Nero House of Music in Osaka, Japan, West Virginia State University and the Winterthur Hochschule für Musik in Switzerland. His works have been heard in major concert halls and colleges of music around the globe and have been recorded extensively not only by the American Horn Quartet, but by reputable soloists and chamber musicians worldwide. The music of Kerry Turner, which contains elements of folk music from the British Isles, an inherent Mexican influence combined with his own western American style, and the exotic sounds of North Africa and the Arab world, has been performed and recorded by chamber ensembles from the New York Philharmonic, The Berlin Philharmonic the Vienna Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

"When the muse comes, it flows like a deep, dark river. Nothing can stop it; not pseudo-intellectualism, or practicality, or technology, or pressure to conform to a certain style, nor the obligation to always find something "new." (Kerry Turner)

"My goal is to paint a musical picture, thought, impression as clearly as possible and then communicate it to the listener and the performer, that it might appear in their minds as vividly as if it were on a large movie screen." (Kerry Turner)

Fanfare for Barcs was composed in 1989, on the occasion of the American Horn Quartet’s success as prizewinners of the Phillip Jones International Brass Chamber Music Competition. The piece is lively and fast, utilizing much of the horn’s dynamic, articulative, and range capabilities. 



IAN BLEGEN

Ian Blegen is a horn performer, arranger, and teacher who is involved in expanding the repertoire available for the instrument, both in solo playing as well as in an ensemble setting. Since arriving at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to begin his pursuit of a BM degree in Performance, Ian has performed with several ensembles within the university, including the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, and Horn Choir. His time with these ensembles has led to domestic performances in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and New York, as well as a European tour encompassing concerts in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy. Ian was a member of the pit orchestra for UNCG’s American Prize winning 2018 production of Mozart’s die Zauberflöte and was featured on the Wind Ensemble’s 2015 recording of John Mackey’s Drum Music. Ian’s performance experience extends well beyond the realm of collegiate playing. He has performed with the North Carolina Opera, the Greensboro Opera, Steve Haines and the Third Floor Orchestra, the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, and the Durham Symphony Orchestra, for which he currently holds the second horn position.

​Ian began arranging music in high school, starting by writing out chorales to be used as marching band warm ups. When his first arrangements weren’t used for their original purpose however, he began arranging for horn quartet instead. He would then often record these smaller arrangements in a multi-track format, a hobby that nourished his love of writing music. Once he started college, Ian moved from quartets to full horn choir arrangements, several of which have been played by the UNCG Horn Choir, including his first original piece, entitled Stress Fracture and premiered in October 2019. Along with his love of horn chamber music, his high school hobby of mult-itrack recording also led to an interest in sound engineering, which he explored while teaching at a high school marching band in the area. He did the sound design for his band’s pre-show and, after getting his feet wet, went on to do the sound design for the school’s winter guard show later that fall. The show, entitled “Too Good at Goodbyes”, went on to win second place at the state championships that season.​

As part of his goal of expanding the well of repertoire for horn, Ian is currently (Fall 2019) playing in a faculty/student jazz nonet comprised of his colleagues at UNCG. Through their performance of charts from Miles Davis’ album, titled Birth of the Cool, he hopes to develop a greater understanding of jazz playing and how the horn can be used effectively in the genre.​

Ian’s non-music hobbies include watching football (namely the Pittsburgh Steelers,) all things Star Wars, SCUBA diving, and aviation. He intends to get his private pilot’s license after finishing his current degree.

WALTZING MATILDA

Waltzing Matilda is an Australian bush-ballad that has become popular enough to be dubbed “Australia’s unofficial national anthem.” The lyrics tell of a pedestrian traveler walking (waltzing) across the Australian outback, carrying his rucksack (swag) that he refers to as Matilda across his back and simply trying to make his way in the world. This traveling worker (swagman) catches a sheep (jumbuck) and sits by his fire to eat, when he is accosted by the jumbuck’s owner (squatter) and mounted police.

The original lyrics were written in 1895 by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, and were published as sheet music in 1903. In 2012, the Inaugural Waltzing Matilda Day was held in Winton, in the Queensland Outback, on April 6^th, the date of the song’s first performance and the location where Paterson penned the lyrics. The folk song is renowned the world over, and is also the official song of the United States’ 1^st Marine Division, commemorating the time the Division spent in Australia during World War II.

This particular arrangement, for 4 horns, imagines the folk tune in a jazzy setting, and was arranged by Joshua Davis for the Berlin Philharmonic horn section. The arrangement features a low horn solo, originally written for and performed by Sarah Willis, played here by our own Ian Blegen.