Mixed Chamber Ensemble
Theodore Presser, Carl Fischer, Boelke-Bomart/Schott/Mobart, Songs of Peer, and Warner-Chappell are distributors for Katherine's music.
Theodore Presser, Carl Fischer, Boelke-Bomart/Schott/Mobart, Songs of Peer, and Warner-Chappell are distributors for Katherine's music.
A short melodic piece, 'Aria' was written in 1982 as the middle movement of a Serenade for clarinet and string quartet. This piece was originally intended for adult amateurs, and its simplicity and lyricism have proved perfect for the cello.
In 1985 a cellist friend requested a companion piece, so I added the Allegro giocoso. It is a light, quick movement with bantering between the two instruments, and a few effects that only a cello can make.
This piece was inspired by a book called The Flute Player, a simple and beautifully illustrated retelling of an Apache folktale by Michael Lacapa. It is the story of two young Apaches from different areas of a large canyon, where the streams ripple and the wind sings in the cottonwoods. They meet at a Hoop Dance, and dance only with each other. The next day, as the girl works up on the side of the canyon in her father's fields, the boy sits below by a stream and plays his flute for her (flute-playing was a common manner of courtship). She puts a leaf in the stream which flows down to him, so he knows she hears. This continues for a time, until the boy is woken one morning and told he is of age to join the hunt - a journey of some weeks, leaving momentarily. The girl still listens each day for the flute until, feeling abandoned, she falls ill and dies. When the boy returns, he runs to play for her - but there is no leaf. When he learns of her death, he disappears into the hills, and his flute still echos when the breezes blow through the cottonwoods, and the streams ripple in the canyon.
Leslie Gerber, Classical Pulse, Jan. 1997
...a heart-stoppingly beautiful piece: Kokopeli by Katherine Hoover, four and a half minutes of magic capturing Indian legend and the vast spaces of the Southwest.
Inspired in large part by the Grand Canyon of the American Southwest, Hoover envisioned an ancient time when natives first came across this geological wonder. For this vision, she sought to combine a Native flute with the modern silver flute, native music with “western” music, and bringing forth natural sounds through music notation. From Hoover's notes: “In my mind's eye I saw a band of native ancestors searching for a home, finding a canyon and moving in. In the third movement their calls echo across the canyon. There is a celebration, and the piece ends with dusk settling in, with chirps and murmurs, bats, and memories.
Make Music New York.
Performed at the National Flute Association's Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 14 of the same year by a large group of attendees, with movement choreographed by Zara Lawler.
Clowning Around, nfaonline.org Fall 2012 The Flutist Quarterly
Premiered in Central Park June 2011 and performed at theNational Flute Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2011, this piece can be performed by four flutists or by any larger group. Alto flute and percussion parts are optional, as the alto part simply doubles the lower lines. Hoover suggests a suspended bell for the percussion part, but adds (smiling wryly, I imagine), “I think a tap-dancer would be quite as effective as a percussionist.” Light-hearted, with steady rhythm (cut-time), and in our beloved key of C, the music does suggest its title, and one smiles (unfortunate for embouchures) even while playing. A nice addition to amateur flute choir libraries, for high school flutists, or for anyone just looking for a romp. Thanks, Ms. Hoover! You’ve struck again.
This piece has to do with the way various images - or themes - are changed in the process of thinking. The first movement is concerned with two very distinct ideas that eventually interact and affect each other. The second movement is a set of six variations on a somewhat somber American colonial hymn, "God of my Justice". Each of the variations relates back to the original theme rather than to each other, as is traditional. The third movement begins with similar themes which diverge and eventually agree to a separation. It also contains hints of a Gershwin tune that reveals itself at the very end.
I chose to write a substantial piece with more emphasis on melody than much of the music being written at that time, hence the name. The long first movement has two main ideas; one energetic and rhythmic, the other lyric. Most of the movement concerns the interweaving of these ideas, with two dream-like interpolations. The second movement is a melodious serenade. Each instrument has its own solo to sing, and then these are brought together toward the end of the movement. The third is a perpetual motion with overtones of jazz, odd sounds, and references to the first movement.
Michael Redmond, The Star Ledger (Newark)
Katherine Hoover is a leading contemporary composer by anyone's definition, and her Lyric Trio is a particularly attractive example of her work. This well-crafted trio, apparently inspired by the neo-classical tradition, is as remarkable for its accessibility as for its gracious solo writing.
A single movement, combining a slow and fast dance.
Summer Night was completed in July, 1985, and premiered by the New York Concerto Orchestra outdoors in Lincoln Center the following September. It was published by Theodore Presser, with a piano reduction, in 1986. The flute and horn are a rather mismatched pair in many ways. To let their individual qualities sound, I began with a short soliloquy for each. This is followed by a slow dance which grows out of the soliloquies, and then a lively one, as the instruments (or characters, or thoughts) meet and interact.
Audio
SUMMER NIGHT is an apt description of what Katherine Hoover evokes in her lyrical, bucolic work that spotlights the horn and flute. It is engaging and thoroughly accessible.
Thomas Putnam, American Record Guide
This is a really good American piece, and its sound is open and pleasing.
Gabriel Faure was born May 12, 1845, Pamiers, Ariege, France and died Nov. 4, 1924 in Paris.
My two short preludes are self-explanatory:Uptown(Flute and Marimba)is energetic and up-tempo, andOut of Town(Flute and Vibraphone)is pastoral, were commissioned by Lawler and Fadoul.
