Tribute – A Suite for Horn and Strings

(24′ duration)

Tribute was intended to be a tribute to the horn, to the music, and to the performer. Dedicated to Andrew McAfee.

The title “Tribute” is intended to be a tribute to the horn, to the music, to the composer, and to the performer – and everything that the individual  player brings to the piece. It is a gift for all participants, especially for the performer, because it uniquely brings out the best qualities of the horn. 

– Pam McAfee

I’ve always thought the horn to be the noblest and most heroic of all the orchestral instruments, and also to be the most expressive and lyrical of the brass family. To me, the composers of the Romantic and Post-Romantic eras best utilized those qualities. Son in composing this piece, I wanted to pay tribute to that era and its composers, not in any specific style or form, but rather in tone and use of melody and harmony. Even then, I stray occasionally into different waters. 

– Terry Mizesko

I. This movement is in Sonata form, with a contrasting broad melodic middle section replacing the development.

II. Highland Air is just that, a melody reflecting Scots-Irish influences of the Appalachia.

III. An accompanied cadenza opens this movement, also in Sonata form, with contrasting, cool-jazz ruminations on the one hand and broad melodic contours on the other.

IV. “Lament” is in memorium to the late brother of Andrew McAfee. Mournful incantations by the horn surrond a setting of the hym tune, McAFEE, by Cleland Boyd McAfee, a distant relative of Andrew McAfee.