Cheetah
General Info
Year: 2007
Duration: c. 5:45
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Associated Music Publishers
Cost: Score and Parts - $95.00 | Score Only - $20.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo/Flute III
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III-IV
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:
- Bass Drum
- Chimes
- Crash Cymbals (small and large)
- Glockenspiel
- Gong (medium and large)
- Marimba
- Snare Drum
- Suspended Cymbal (large)
- Temple Blocks (5)
- Tom Toms (5)
- Vibraphone
- Xylophone
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Pulitzer Prize winner Karel Husa has created an impressive musical study of the fascinating cheetah. Through a variety of dramatic textures and skilled techniques, the music evokes the colors, movements, power, and speed of this magnificent wild animal
- Program Note from publisher
Karel Husa describes his composition Cheetah as “a portrait of a magnificent wild animal, now an endangered species -- its colors, movements, power, speed – and finally, exhaustion after an unsuccessful chase.”
The unique anatomical assets of the cheetah, particularly the spring-like spine and extraordinarily flexible shoulders and hips that enable strides of twenty feet and speeds of seventy-five mph, are evoked through a compositional framework perhaps inadvertently related to the Fibonacci sequence. This numerical series is fundamental to a vast array of structures, from the organization of petals on flowers to the dimensions of architectural masterworks. Its association with the proportions of the human body was illustrated most famously by Leonardo da Vinci as Vitruvian Man.
Husa has an uncanny ability to convey, through abstract harmonic language and carefully regulated rhythmic subdivision, the raw emotion and unmistakably organic qualities of living beings.
- Program Note by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Wind Ensemble concert program, 7 October 2015
Media
- Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
- Audio CD: Palmetto Concert Band (James K. Copenhaver, conductor) - 2008
- Audio CD: Univeraity of Texas Wind Ensemble (Jerry Junin, conductor) - 2013
State Ratings
- Georgia: VI
- Michigan: Senior High AA
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Louisville (Ky.) Wind Ensemble (Frederick Speck, conductor) – 23 July 2022 (WASBE Conference, Prague, Czech Republic)
- University of Louisville (Ky.) Wind Symphony (Fred Speck, conductor) - 20 February 2022
- University of Illinois (Champaign) Wind Orchestra (Beth Peterson, conductor) – 28 February 2020
- University of South Florida (Tampa) Wind Ensemble (Marc Sosnowchik, conductor) – 15 November 2018
- Eastman Wind Orchestra (Rochester, N.Y.) (William Talley, conductor) – 6 May 2018
- Ithaca (N.Y.) College Wind Symphony (Benjamin Rochford, conductor) – 26 April 2018
- State University of New York, Fredonia, Concert Band (Tiv Cumberbatch, conductor) – 20 April 2018
- Michigan State University (East Lansing) Symphony Band (David Thornton, conductor) – 20 March 2018
- Eastman School of Music (Rochester, N.Y.) Wind Orchestra (Mark Scatterday, conductor) – 1 February 2017
- University of Maryland (College Park) Wind Ensemble (Joseph P. Scott, conductor) – 28 October 2016
- University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Wind Ensemble (Carolyn Barber, conductor) – 7 October 2015
- University of Kentucky Symphonic Band – 20 November 2013
- Ithaca (N.Y.) College Wind Ensemble (Fred Allen, conductor) – March 3, 2011 (ABA 2011 Annual Convention (Norfolk, Virginia))
- 2010 CBDNA Intercollegiate Band (Reno, Nev.) (Thomas C. Duffy, conductor) – 13 March 2010 (CBDNA 2010 Western/Northwestern Division Conference (Reno, Nev.)
- Palmetto Concert Band (Columbia, S.C.) (James K. Copenhaver, conductor) – 20 December 2008 (2008 Midwest Clinic)
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Al Fresco (1973)
- American Te Deum (1976)
- Apotheosis of This Earth (1970)
- Cheetah (2007)
- Concertino for Piano and Wind Ensemble (1984)
- Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Concert Band (1967)
- Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble (1970)
- Concerto for Trumpet and Wind Orchestra (1973)
- Concerto for Wind Ensemble (1982)
- Divertimento for Brass and Percussion (1957)
- Divertimento for Symphonic Winds and Percussion (arr. Boyd) (1955/1995)
- Élégie from "Osm českých duet" (arr. Reynolds) (1955/2022)
- Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (1981)
- Festive Ode (1964)
- Les Couleurs Fauves (1996)
- Music for Prague 1968 (1968)
- Smetana Fanfare (1984)
Resources
- Husa, K. (2007). Cheetah [score]. Associated Music Publishers: New York.