Jean-Baptiste Arban: Carnival of Venice (1864), arr. by Eric Ruske
“Carnival of Venice” composed by French composer Jean-Baptiste Arban. He is famous composer in 19th century and he wrote the Arban Method for brass instruments. Carnival of Venice was originally written for solo cornet as a show off piece that contain virtuoso displays of double and triple tonguing, flexibility and fast tempo. It’s quite difficult to play on french horn because horn player do not practice the same techniques as the trumpet player. So, it’s challenges me to practice hard and improve my technique. That is why I put this piece on my recital and I proudly present The Carnival of Venice on french horn.
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances (1915), arr. by Natthapat Kirawiroj
Béla Bartók one of the most famous composers of the 20th century. He is perhaps most famous for expertly combining folk material with classical music. Romanian Folk Dances is a suite of six short piano pieces based on Romanian tune from Transylvania. Unfortunate, I never saw this piece arranged for horn, flute and piano before. Probably because it’s hard to orchestrate in this combination. I decided to make an arrangement for this combination to play with my close friend, Wasin Kosonrat, Flutist. This is our first time playing together and we can’t wait to present these beautiful folk dances for you.
Claude Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin (1909 - 1910), arr. by Natthapat Kirawiroj
“La fille aux cheveux de lin,” or “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,”is a piano prelude by the French composer Claude Debussy. It is the one of twelve pieces in first book of Preludes. This piece was inspired by Leconte de Lisle’s poem. The poem describe a girl who was beautiful and how the poet admires her. The original poem was written in French and this is a translation in English.
“On the lucerne midst flowers in bloom,
Who sings praises to morning?
It is the girl with golden hair,
The beauty with lips of cherry.
For, love, in clear summer sunlight,
Has soared with the lark and sung now.
Your mouth has such colours divine,
My dear, so tempting to kisses.
On grass in bloom, talk to me, please,
Girl with fine curls and long lashes.
For, love, in clear summer sunlight,
Has soared with the lark and sung now.
Do not say no, cruel maiden.
Do not say yes. Better to know
The long lasting gaze of your eyes
And your rosy lips, oh, my belle.
For, love, in clear summer sunlight,
Has soared with the lark and sung now.
Farewell, you deer, farewell you hares
And the red partridge. I want
To stroke the gold of your tresses
Smothering lips with my kisses.
For, love, in clear summer sunlight,
Has soared with the lark and sung now.”
On the french horn horn, the original key is quite difficult and not comfortable in the high register but I still transcribed this piece in the original key Because I want to improve my register range and I think changing the key in this piece is not necessary because each key has different character and I do not want to change what composer desire because just easy to play.
Michel Colombier: Emmanuel (1970), arr. by Thanapak Poonpol
“Emmanuel” is a beautiful piece by the French composer Michel Colombier. Colombier dedicated this piece to his son who died at age five and he recorded this piece with his friends in album called “Wings” I heard this piece for the first time in a live recording of the transcription for Trumpet, violin and orchestra led by Chris Botti and Lucia Micarelli. (https://youtu.be/m8NN4fpdm40)
My senior friend Thanapak Poonpol arranged this piece for two horns and piano based on Botti’s version. The horn part is pretty difficult because of the problem of the register. The range it’s quite wide and there are many ornaments. However, I would like to present this beautiful piece, as arranged by Thanapak, in my recital.
Richard Bissill: Song of a New World (2014)
In my program it is many transcription because I like to play piece have many different challenges. But this just the one piece was written for horn in my program. It is like musicians in the past, who plays transcription in the concert. They do not just play transcription but they play music was written for own instrument. I choose this because special technique challenge and especially it has elements of jazz. This is challenge to me, how classical musician to play like jazz and I can not reject this piece is many challenge and interesting like another piece in my program. This piece composed by Richard Bissill, principal horn of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, for Sarah Willis, member of the horn section of the Berlin Philharmonic. It was composed specifically for her recording “Horn Discoveries.” This bluesy piece is difficult for the horn player. If you are looking to find some good pieces for low horn, this is one of the best. It is able to help you to improve your skills and you will be impressed by Bissill’s works, like me.
