Category Archives: French Horn Solo

Dawn Interlude

RM744e Dawn Interlude Stanhope FRENCH HORN
RM744e Dawn Interlude Stanhope FRENCH HORN
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Composer: Paul Stanhope
Composed: 1999 Duration: 2 mins.
Instrumentation: French Horn Solo
ISMN: 979-0-720109-15-2 Catalogue: RM744
Level: C Country: Australia

Dawn Interlude is a short French horn solo extracted my song cycle Songs for the Shadowland (for soprano, winds and piano). This piece is not only a commentary on Oodgeroo Noonucal’s poem Dawn Wail for the Dead but also, in its own way, a personal gesture of sorrow for past wrongs perpetrated against Indigenous Australians.

The use of descending glissandi, the use of stopped notes and a ‘natural horn’ quarter-tone harmonic emphasize the mournful nature of the piece.