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.
