15004 – Hungarian Dance for Horn Solo and Horn Quartet

by Roger Harvey (b 1949)

Difficulty: Medium (solo: Virtuoso)

Price: £20.00

Programme notes:

The Hungarian dance, often known as Csardas, derived from the traditional verbunkos. This was an 18th century dance used by the Hussars to recruit soldiers, the more impressive the performance, the greater the number of recruits! After 1849 the Austrian administration imposed conscription and the form began to die out. It was rescued, though, by the development of the czardas (literally: country inn), which formulated elements of the original into a popular salon dance. It normally consisted of a slow introduction (lassu) and a fast dance of several sections (frissu) sometimes including a slower trio (disz).

This piece, which conforms to the traditional pattern, was written for Frank Lloyd to perform at the International Horn Workshop in 1994.

Performance notes:

In the introduction allow the solo player to indulge in copious rubato.

At the allegro make sure the accompaniment has a good spiky rhythm.

In the trio, again allow the soloist to play with rubato as he wishes.

On the return of the allegro set a good lively tempo then follow the instructions to accelerate to the end.