Thread: "French" horn in chamber music suggestions?

I'm interested in collecting some chamber works that feature or include horn combined with strings or piano -- or woodwind chamber is okay too, but sometimes I think that sound is too mono-timbral, if that is a word.

I love the sound of the muted horn especially and I'm not sure why there are so few well known chamber pieces featuring it. Why does it always have to be strings or a wind ensemble and never the twain shall meet. Is it a balancing problem?

Anyway, do you have any suggestions or favorite chamber pieces with horn? My tastes run from Renaissance through post-modern, so fire away.

I also had moment in which I decided to look for works of this kind. It turned out that most composers prefered natural horn to french one. I can't say there is some huge difference between them but you you can hear some.

From major composers only Beethoven comes to mind but his sonata for horn and piano isn't his best work.

UMC UMC UMC I FORGOT

There is short, but fine piece by Scriabin, romance for horn and piano:



If you are interested in natural horn thing try Brahms trio.

Originally Posted by Aramis

There is short, but fine piece by Scriabin, romance for horn and piano:
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Nice! Thank you.

I know a thing or two about this subject,being a former horn player who has performed some of these.

You definitely want the Brahms trio for horn,violin and piano, and the one on Decca with Barry Tuckwell,Perlman and Ashkenazy is the one to get

Plus the Mozart quintet for horn and one violin,two violas and cello, again with Tuckwell,

The Beethoven horn sonata , the Poulenc Elegie,written in response to the tragically untimely demise of Dennis Brain, the Dohnanyi sextet, which also features clarinet and strings, the Schubert octet for horn,clarinet,and strings,
the Hindemith horn sonata, the Nielsen woodwind quintet, the Poulenc quintet for winds and piano, Nielsen's Canto Serioso for horn and piano, and the Vilanelle for horn and piano by Paul Dukas,also orchestrated,just for starters.

I recall one more work that you might be interested with. Beethoven's sextet (op. 81b). It icludes string quartet and two french horns. Most of the time the double each other. It's not bad work, maybe not truely beethovenian but if you don't have alergy for more classical sounding works of Ludwig Van then you might really like this one.

Brahms Horn Trio
Draeseke Adagio for Horn and Piano, and Little English Suite for Horn and Piano.

Herzogenberg wrote a Trio for Clarinet, Horn and Piano.

Poulenc wrote a Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone. The unorthodoxy of the instrumental combination alone should hopefully make you want to seek it out! As mentioned in a previous post Poulenc also wrote a piece called Elegie (for horn and piano). Both works are about 10 minutes long and are worth investigating.

Oh, almost forgot Tippett's Sonata for 4 Horns.