untethered, for horn quartet by Erin Busch published on 2020-08-11T02:15:55Z untethered for horn quartet with prominent solo part Recording from virtual premiere by hornist Kevin Newton (knewhorn.com) as part of the 2020 Composers Conference. ------ Program Notes: The title untethered is taken from a poem written by a dear friend Rev. Kim Wildszewski, with whom I worked closely during my tenure as an accompanist at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing. In May of 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Kim and her wife, Tara, suddenly lost their young son, Malcolm. The unbelievable tragedy of losing their child was amplified by the complications of the pandemic, as those of us who loved Malcolm were unable to gather or grieve together. It was shortly after this time that I was asked to write a horn piece for the 2020 Composers Conference. Without consciously realizing that I was doing so, I processed much of what I was feeling in the wake of Malcolm’s death through writing this piece. It was only at the very end of the compositional process, when I came to the title untethered, that I realized this piece was for Malcolm. There are moments in the piece of near-emptiness and scarcity, and others that feel more like a reflection of Malcolm’s vibrant spirit: a joyous toddler who loved music. Genre Classical