Cheetah

From Wind Repertory Project
Karel Husa

Karel Husa


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


State Ratings

  • Georgia: VI
  • Michigan: Senior High AA


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

  • Husa, K. (2007). Cheetah [score]. Associated Music Publishers: New York.