Paul Basler: Bagatelles for Horn, Bassoon, and Piano

Performed April 13th, 2023 (4/13/23) for my Master's basoon recital at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, studying with Gabriel Beavers

Paul Basler (1963-): Bagatelles for Horn, Bassoon, and Piano (1998)
Ethan Shuler (bassoon)
Philip Shuler (horn)
Oleksii Ivanchenko (piano)

I. March (00:00)
II. Aria (1:36)
III. Gamelan (3:42)
IV. Mirage (5:08)
V. Polka (7:25)

Paul Basler has served as the French horn professor at the University of Florida faculty since 1993. In addition to being a successful horn performer and pedagogue, Basler has composed works that have been performed all over the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Festival Internacional de Música de Cantonigròs, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, the Kennedy Center, the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center, and by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Basler’s composition teachers have been John Boda, John Downey, Bülent Arel, John Lessard, and Billy Jim Layton.
Composed in 1998, the Bagatelles for Horn, Bassoon, and Piano were written for and commissioned by Dr. William Dietz, now retired bassoon professor at the University of Arizona. Each movement highlights a contrasting musical style indicated by the movement title, and utilizes the inherent qualities of the three instruments to bring out essential stylistic characteristics. The horn and bassoon are often playing matching rhythms in a similar range, purposefully blending their sounds such that differentiation of the two becomes ambiguous. An avid fan of musical theater, Balser based one of the themes in this piece off of a melody from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

#bassoon #frenchhorn #horn