Earth Names – Daniel Grabois

Daniel Grabois (horn), Phillip Bush (piano), Adam Grabois (cello): “Earth Names” contains incredible pieces of music for horn and piano in contemporary styles, two originals for unaccompanied horn and a duo for horn & cello. Rounding it out is Maurice Ravel’s “Sonata”, originally written for violin & piano. Daniel Grabois is a brilliant hornist, composer, arranger, and electronic musician.

GENRE: Classical/Horn/Chamber
COMPOSERS: Maurice Ravel, Daniel Grabois, Daniel Kessler, John Stevens, Su Lian Tan

This is the third of four recordings in Grabois’ “Names” series, following Air Names and Fire Names.

Grabois recorded Air Names with no thought to creating a tetralogy, but then it struck him that four recordings representing the four primal elements and showing four different areas of his engagement with the horn and with musical styles was a great idea. Air Names explored songwriting using (mostly) the horn sound effected and distorted electronically.

For Fire Names, Grabois created a much more long-form composition: a 45-minute work for horn and fixed media (otherwise known, to those of us who are older, as “tape”). In Fire Names, the horn sound was not transformed by effects, but the tape track was created entirely in his lab. The title Fire Names inspired the composition: He imagined some sort of prehistoric scenario involving the control and naming of fire, and composed accordingly.

When it came time to plan Earth Names, the title suggested a grounded quality, something down-to-earth. He had received from composers some incredible pieces of music for horn and piano in contemporary styles, and had written two pieces for unaccompanied horn and a duo for horn and cello. All of that had to go on this disk. To round it out, he added Maurice Ravel’s Sonata, originally written (in his teen years) for violin and piano. The violin part easily adapted to horn, and the piece makes a gorgeous horn sonata. And thus was the repertoire conceived.

Daniel Grabois is a hornist, composer, arranger, and electronic musician. He is Professor of Horn at the Mead Witter School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a member of the Meridian Arts Ensemble. He has engaged with new music since the beginning of his career, playing countless premieres. He has published numerous pieces of chamber and solo music featuring the horn.

REVIEW:

…This album is a fantastic addition to one’s musical library…(…masterful tone, effortless phrasing, and tonal color palette)…potential bedrock for recital programming and down to earth listening…

-The Horn Call