THE CORNO D'AMORE - A BAROQUE TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT

Abstract

Throughout my musical career, I have always enjoyed Baroque music, especially in a church setting. I have had some opportunities to experience this first hand on the horn, but realized that the Baroque repertoire available to a horn player is incredibly limited. Furthermore, there became a realization that French horn music students do not interact enough with Baroque music. While undergraduate Music Education and Performance majors seek a complete education and experience in performing all genres of music, horn players are often left with a void of music and techniques from the Baroque Period.

It is also not common for students to own period instruments, nor is it common for university studios to own these instruments. The baroque horn also follows Baroque tuning A=415, which is far lower than the modern traditional tuning, which is A=440.

Therefore, I have created four Baroque transcriptions for Horn and Organ to add to the horn repertoire. Two transcriptions were taken from Oboe concertos and two from Oboe D’amore concertos. All of these works were originally accompanied with small string ensemble and continuo. I chose Oboe and Oboe D’amore because the melodies were accessible for the modern day horn player, where flute, violin, viola, and cello features brushed up against virtuosity. These melodies also embody four different types of baroque style and melodic mastery.

The project includes a professional recording, the sheet music of the transcriptions, and a CD cover with liner notes. The CD was recorded at Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church on November 10, 12, 17, and 25, 2019. The horn used was a Lukas Horn #4 with an Osmun Chicago cup and Geyer rim. The organ is a Rieger Tracker Organ designed by Josef von Glatter-Gotz in 1973-4, performed on by Julie Vidrick Evans. My engineer and producer was Neil Brown, through the recording company Arts Laureate. The arrangements were created using the music writing software, Sibelius. The cover photo is credited to Kyung Jung at Yellowhale Photography.