Horn Call
Pedro de Alcántara · 2023
Abstract “Horn Call” is a thorough exploration of sound, vibration, and resonance. Its central archetype is reminiscent of hunting calls sounded by two horns playing together, a sonority used in numerous passages, movements, and compositions by many composers such as Scarlatti, Mozart, and Bruckner. The chapter presents exercises to enhance the pianist’s sensitivity to acoustic phenomena, to the relationship between gesture and sound, and to the influence of note groupings on gesture. Some of the exercises and compositions revisit the harmonic series, first studied in chapter 4. Compositions vary in length and style, some drawing indirect inspiration from Gustav Mahler and others offering a dialogue between raucous, loud sounds and the echo-like, consonant sonorities of the horn call. The chapter invites the pianist to string together a suite of pieces chosen from the chapter. Depending on which pieces the pianist choses, the suite may tell a heroic story of successful hunting, a troubling story of loss and loneliness, a story of obsession, and other stories still.