Fall - quintet for horn and string quartet (2020)

duration 23 minutes

1. Distant, Hazy - Suddenly Wild, Unrestrained || 2. Very Fast, Hesitant, Jittery || 3. Very Simply || 4. With Driving Urgency

My old teacher and now friend Robin Holloway wrote a quintet for horn and string quartet (unlike the Mozart formation, using two violins rather than two violas) for our mutual horn playing champion Ondrej Vrabec. He suggested I wrote one, too, potentially to partner Robin's on a CD or in concert. Never being shy to write a work for such a great player, I accepted the challenge.

Fall was inspired by a print by my wife (Marcelle Seabourne). She had developed an original form of monoprinting, using it to produce a series of turbulent abstracts relating to Tennyson's Ring Out, Wild Bells (part of In Memoriam, written on the death of his sister's fiancé). One of these prints was redolent of Renaissance and Baroque portrayals of the Last Judgement and the Casting out of the Fallen Angels - the heavens open and bolt of luminescence floods downwards, with flying forms illuminated as they pass in and out of the beam.

Taking this image I created a four movement work which is characterised by flux and tumult. The opening movement juxaposes quasi-Brucknerian passages of tremolandi-accompanied "mystery-horn" with faster moving clarion calls against a swirling heterophonic ferment. An uneasy conclusion is reached, uncertain of resolution or mood. A scherzo is placed second, full of jittery nervousness and instability. The third movement is a song of farewell (my wife gradually fading away during this time) - tender and melancholy, interrupted twice by a chill breeze (a little reminiscent of Schubert's Der Lindenbaum from Winterreise - incidentally, the poet, Müller's original title was Poems from the posthumous papers of a travelling horn-player). The finale is a driving night-journey, the rider in race to reach safety. This he appears to find, but Fate has other ideas and the movement ends in a heavy-footed, stabbing dance of depair.

Live performance of this work is not allowed until the premiere in Prague's Rudolfinum in October 2024, however, the composer welcomes interest thereafter - obviously preparation can take place in advance. Recording is, however, permitted at any time.

PLEASE READ: THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC DOMAIN WORK.. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. PRINTED COPIES ARE FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY 

SCORE horn, violin 1, violin 2, viola, 'cello

Ondřej Vrabec with Pavel Bořkovec Quartet from Sheva Contemporary CD SH281

1. Distant, Hazy - Suddenly Wild, Unrestrained

2. Very Fast, Hesitant, Jittery  

3. Very Simply  

4. With Driving Urgency