Guide to the Solo Horn Repertoire by Linda Dempf and Richard Seraphinoff

Abstract

Reviewed by: Guide to the Solo Horn Repertoire by Linda Dempf and Richard Seraphinoff Scott Stone Guide to the Solo Horn Repertoire. By Linda Dempf and Richard Seraphinoff. (Indiana Repertoire Guides.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016. [xiii, 603 p. ISBN 9780253019295 (hardback), $68; ISBN 9780253019356 (e-book), price varies.] Bibliography, index. This hefty volume, dedicated to the great horn virtuoso and pedagogue Philip Farkas, "is meant to serve as a comprehensive guide to the music for solo horn that is significant and available" (p. ix). Its scope is clearly defined to include only music originally written for the horn, thereby excluding arrangements, no matter how common they might be in the established repertoire (with the exception of piano reductions of select pieces originally written for horn and ensemble). Although several pieces were obtained directly from the composer, the vast majority of the works were either commonly available at American libraries or else commercially available for purchase at the time of this compilation. Because of this, potential users of this book should be able to hunt down the repertoire fairly easily and not be tantalized by potential works they would like to perform but cannot locate. The authors, Linda Dempf and Richard Seraphinoff (both of whom hold advanced degrees in horn performance) created this repertoire guide, [End Page 622] arranged as an extensive annotated bibliography, after consulting other previously existing bibliographies, guides, dissertations, and other types of publications. They divide the book into three main sections: "Music for Unaccompanied Horn," "Music for Horn and Keyboard: Piano, Organ, Harpsichord," and "Music for Horn and Ensemble: Orchestra, String Orchestra, Band, Wind Ensemble, or Other Instrumental Group." The guide also includes multiple indexes to help the reader more effectively access the vast amount of information in the main sections. Of special interest is the index of pieces for horn with large nonorchestral ensembles (i.e. band, wind ensemble, and brass ensemble) and the index of pieces for horn with small instrumental ensemble. Also noteworthy is a list that groups together by nationality the composers included in the guide, which could be a helpful tool for recital or recording projects of a certain bent. Each of the three main sections is comprised of entries that uniformly list the composers' birth years (and if applicable, death years), birth countries (and, if applicable, other countries in which they spent significant portions of their careers), titles of works and their years of composition, publishers and dates of publication of easily available editions, ranges required to play the pieces, and approximate durations. A few composer entries also include a bit of brief biographical information; however, it is unclear why some composers have this additional information and others do not. In a similar manner, biographical notes for composers who are listed in all three sections (e.g., Paul Basler) appear in a single entry (which makes sense to save space and reduce duplication), but this information seems to occur randomly in the volume, rather that with the composer's first mention. This volume is particularly valuable for the descriptive annotations that accompany most of the listings. In a few cases, especially when the authors were not able to examine the scores, these annotations are non-existent or limited to a single sentence. However, most provide a plethora of excellent information on each piece, including compositional history, notice of extended techniques, and the general style. Dempf and Seraphinoff purposefully chose not to create a grading system, but they do indicate the difficulty levels of most pieces and their appropriateness for high school or college students, a feature that could be extremely useful for horn teachers looking to explore different repertoire for their students. However, the lack of a graded index means that readers can only serendipitously discover pieces of particular levels as they peruse the entries in the volume. Because this guide is focuses on solo horn repertoire, the third section, "Music for Horn and Ensemble," only lists a piece "if the composer conceived the work as featuring the horn as a solo voice" (p. 337). Consequently, the vast majority of this section is comprised of works for horn and large ensemble (or their piano reductions), and only thirty-one of...