Quartet No. 3

The Quartet No. 3 was designed to be the main work of any horn quartet concert. Other than the quartets by Paul Hindemith, Michael Tippett and Kerry Turner, there is a def­nite need for major, multi-movement works in the quartet repertoire. In order to avoid taxing one solo player against 3 accompanying players, the composer preferred to render all voices absolutely equal, each voice being equally virtuose, solistic, and melodic.

There are 4 movements: The Sooners, The Homestead­rs, the Ghost Town Parade, and Finale. Each movement’s title is merely an accurate description of what the composer had in mind while composing, and is not meant to have a story or programmatic idée-fixe, although it is rather clear that the composer’s thoughts are in the American West sometime in the 19th century.