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Alec Wilder. Suite for Horn and Piano [1956].(Suite (Twelve Duets) for Horn and Tuba)

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Alec Wilder. Suite for Horn and Piano [1956]. Newton Centre, MA: Margun Music, c1964. [About the composer, 1 p.; score, p. 3-20; and part. Pub. no. MM111. Duration, 11 min. $16.]

Alec Wilder. Suite (Twelve Duets) for Horn and Tuba [1978]. Newton Centre, MA: Margun Music, c1996. [About the composer, 1 p.; score, p. 2-25; and 2d score. Pub. no. MM113. Duration, 10 min. $15.]

Robert Baksa. Horn Sonata [1983; rev. 1993]. Bryn Mawr, PA: Composers Library Editions; sole agent: Theodore Presser Co., c1996. [Score, 30 p.; and part. Pub. no. CLE-26; 494-02045. $21.65.]

Thomas Benjamin. Horn! for Horn in F and Piano. San Antonio, TX: Southern Music Co., c1997. [Performance notes, composer biography, 1 p.; score, p. 3-20; and part. Pub. no. SU343. $10.]

Margaret Brouwer. Sonata for Horn and Piano. New York: Pembroke Music Co., c2000. [Performance notes, 1 p.; score, p. 3-21; composer biography, p. 22; music of M. Brouwer, p. 23; and part. ISBN 0-8258-0767-0; pub. no. PCB139. Duration, 15 min. $19.95.]

The French horn holds an important place in orchestral and chamber music, where composers consistently exploit its particular expressive qualities to great effect. The solo repertoire for the horn, however, remains small and of generally un-even quality, with only a few works (notably by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Paul Hindemith) that engage musicians and audiences at large. In an aggressive attempt to increase the quality and quantity of solo horn writing, the International Horn Society (IHS) commissions works, maintains an assistance fund to help hornists fund their own commissions, and holds composition competitions. These initiatives, along with the more personal endeavors of a few enterprising composers, have greatly increased the number of high-quality works written...