February 6, 2014

First on the program and a world premiere, Counterpoint was written by our horn player Yoni Kahn who studied composition with Lee Hyla at Northwestern in addition to horn and physics. The opening trumpet figure which becomes the fugue subject contains all twelve chromatic notes, but similar to the row in Berg’s Violin Concerto still gravitates toward various tonal centers. The counterpoint of the title, in addition to this fugue and various canons is also worked out rhythmically.

Yoni is also a deft natural horn player and co-founded the period-instrument group Grand Harmonie which has a concert this Friday featuring music for natural, keyed, and slide brass instruments.