Dennis Leclaire's Quartet for Horns is great fun to play -- exciting, challenging, and rewarding. The music lies well on the horn, not surprising since Leclaire is a hornist as well as a professor of composition at Berklee College. As a member of the Boston Opera Horn Quartet, to whom the quartet is dedicated and who gave its premi<138>re in 1984, I speak from personal experience.
The Quartet opens with Fanfare, based on a four-note motive that is reiterated by one horn or another throughout the movement in various octaves and combinations. Meanwhile, a lively conversation in 16ths, weaving in and out, increases the rhythmic tension. The pressure is relieved, then begun anew muted. The movement closes with a true fanfare flourish.
Fugue has a 12-tone subject, the first four notes based on the Fanfare motive. After first four statements, the subject is repeated by horn I, followed canonically by horn III. Underneath, horn II alternates with horn IV in staccato 8th notes, giving the tempo a double-time feel. The climax is a clustered chord of the Fanfare motive, then the rhythm shifts with syncopation, meter changes, and half note versus eighth note triplets. All four horns state the subject, first four beats apart then condensed to one beat apart. The end is effectively haunting, with a muted cluster of the motive under horn I's subject.
Chase begins with a Lento doloroso introduction of tonal and rhythmic variations of the four note motive, now in bass clef (all four horns must have good low chops!). The 12/4 vivace chase has a classic 6/8 feel. Syncopation thickens the texture and the horns make a chromatic descent back to lento briefly then return to the chase, now muted. Later, horn II then horn IV have the solo line, intense and in the mid-low register. Cluster punctuations, stopped horn, and interwoven chromatic lines lead to another lento, giving a perception of the movement as a rondo by tempo as well as thematic material. A vivace code brings a more eminent return to the four note motive into a final, rather surprising finish.
This quartet is published by Southern Music Co. as part of the Complete Hornist Series edited by Thomas Bacon, horn professor at Arizona State and a member of Summit Brass. Bacon is joined by Gregory Hustis, Bill Caballero, and Erik Ralske for this quartet on a Summit CD, Dragons in the Sky. The performance is exciting, lively, and well-balanced. Both the high and low horn playing are impressive. Great care is given to clarity, dynamics, and rhythm, and to emphasis on the pressure points of the piece. This CD is recommended especially to those interested in contemporary horn writing.
The Leclaire quartet is a solid work, challenging for all four horns, and highly recommended.
Jim free-lances on both modern and natural horn, is on the faculty of the Longy School, a member of the Boston Opera Horn Quartet and the Brass Consortium, and a real estate consultant with Carole White Associates. The CD is available at Osmun Music