Dilettante

for French Horn

Daniel Wright
2020
 About Dilettante:
Having not written for solo French Horn before, it certainly felt like wading
into new territory at times. Throughout the writing process I was continually fixated
on the idea of perfection (or the presentation of perfection) and what it means for
music making. Inspired by the higher partials of the Horn’s harmonic series’; I
wanted to include intentional departures from our collective perfectionism of
intonation by utilizing these ‘out-of-tune’ notes as microtonal additions to the music.

Performance Notes:

Finger Trill: Indicates that the trill should be performed only

using fingerings.

Glissando: A straight line connecting one note head to the next

indicates a glissando in the music.

Lip Trill: Indicates that the trill should be performed only using
your embouchure.

Play + Sing: The downward-stemmed note is always the note to

be played on the horn – the upward-stemmed note is always the
voiced/sung note. Arrows indicate this for each occurrence. Sing
notes in any comfortable octave.

Sawtooth Graphic: Visually represents beating between

the played and sung note; follow the contour of the graphic.

Tuning: The performer should intentionally not correct their

tuning throughout, allowing the microtonal elements caused by
the alternate fingerings to be a central aspect of the piece.