Koenig: Bed(post) Horn Galop

£28.00£33.00

Koenig’s piece has been playfully rebranded as ‘Bed(post) Horn Galop’ for this bassoon choir arrangement in reference to one of the bassoon’s nicknames.

  • Instruments : 8 Bsn.  C.Bsn. + optional Mini Bsns in F & G
  • Difficulty : A-D – approx. ABRSM Grade 2-6/7
  • Duration : 3’00”
  • ISMN : 979-0-708218-18-0
  • Portus Press reference : PPBC15
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Description

The Post Horn Galop was composed by German cornet virtuoso Herman Koenig (c.1815-70).   Koenig himself played the solo post horn part at the piece’s first performance in 1844 with the Drury Lane Orchestra in Covent Garden, London.  It is Koenig’s best-known work and is a popular brass band piece.  Since 1935 it has also been used as the walk-on music for Leicester City Football Club.

The post horn is a valveless, cylindrical brass instrument with a cupped mouthpiece.  It was used in the 18th and 19th centuries to signal the arrival or departure of a post rider or mail coach.  As a graphical symbol the post horn is still incorporated into the logos of many countries’ national post services.

In this arrangement for bassoon choir I have opted to modify the title of Koenig’s piece as the (Bed)post Horn Galop, as a tongue-in-cheek nod to one of the bassoon’s (rather unflattering!) nicknames – the’ farting bedpost’.  To enhance the antiphonal effects in this arrangement bassoons A1-A4 should sit together on one side of a semicircle (A1 outermost), and bassoons B1-B4 (B1 outermost) on the other, with the contra placed centrally. The two mini bassoon parts (in F and G) included are based on bassoon parts A4 and B4 and are optional.

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