CHAMBER MUSIC of WILLIAM HORNE, Vol. III
New Orleans-based composer William Horne, an award-winning educator who studied with avant-garde icon Krzysztof Penderecki and Pulitzer Prize recipient Yehudi Wyner, releases world-premiere recordings of three intimate new chamber works for winds and piano, written in his latter-day lyrical style.
“Horne’s music is immediately appealing yet sophisticated”— Fanfare
New Orleans-based composer William Horne, an award-winning educator who studied with avant-garde icon Krzysztof Penderecki and Pulitzer Prize recipient Yehudi Wyner, releases world-premiere recordings of three intimate new chamber works for winds and piano, written in his latter-day lyrical style.
The album comprises Horne’s Sonata for French Horn and Piano (2021), with hornist Mollie Pate and pianist Xiting Yang; Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2022), with saxophonist Walter Puyear and pianist Joonghun Cho; and Trio for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and Piano (2023), with flutist Brandon LePage, saxophonist Puyear, and pianist Cho.
The music, in the composer’s words, “is couched in traditional forms and embraces forthright lyricism. The clear textures and tonal organization . . . recall the Classical style, while their broadly expressive harmonic language and generous melodic gestures embrace, with restraint, more modern idioms.”
He composed the Sonata for French Horn and Piano in collaboration with Pate, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal horn, who performs it on this recording. “I think of the horn as a lyrical instrument,” he says.
Horne wrote his George Gershwin-influenced Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano out of a longstanding desire to feature the alto sax, with “its beautiful singing tone.” The sonata, he says, “has the flavor of Gershwin’s language, the scent of his music about it, in the context of a classical sonata.”
The expressive heart of the Trio for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and Piano is its second movement, which opens with a lyrical solo for the alto saxophone and concludes with “an extended coda of glowing warmth.”
Sonata for French Horn and Piano (2021)
Mollie Pate, French horn; Xiting Yang, piano
1. Passionately
2. Gently
3. Quick, energetic
Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2022)
Walter Puyear, alto saxophone; Joonghun Cho, piano
1. Not too fast
2. Slowly and gently
3. Moderately
Trio for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and Piano (2023)
Brandon LePage, flute; Walter Puyear, alto saxophone; Joonghun Cho, piano
1. Not too fast, amiably
2. Simply and reflectively
3. Playfully, but not too fast
