I Threw a Shoe at a Cat - Variations for Solo French Horn by Catherine Likhuta

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"I Threw a Shoe at a Cat (2017) is a humorous piece for solo French horn and is my 10th piece featuring this instrument. It was written as a gift for my dear friend and collaborator Peter Luff (Brisbane, Australia) and generously supported by a grant from Australia Council for the Arts. The title refers to the incident that occurred in September 2016 when Peter suffered a shoulder injury after throwing a shoe at a stray cat in an attempt to interrupt a fierce cat fight. The injury was so serious that Peter had to go through a surgery and a rather long recovery period. Normally a very active, full-of-life person, he had to tune it down while recovering, and everyone around him could sense that he could not wait to get back to his normal active lifestyle.

The piece was written in collaboration with Peter; together we decided that, though the circumstances that inspired it were traumatic, it would be best to make it somewhat humorous (as there was a certain portion of irony in the whole cat situation).

The piece is in four parts: Theme, Waltz, Yazz and Finale. The music in Theme mimics the cat's apologetic confession (shouldn't have fought). Waltz is a little dialogue between the cat and its injured human. Yazz (that's how Peter jokingly refers to jazz) has a steady and somewhat lazy ostinato as its base, with short sudden splashes of fast and energetic bits. Those represent the human's attempts to be active at the early stages of recovery, but he gets constantly reminded that he still needs to take it easy and hold back. In Finale, the human is back to being his witty, fun and energetic self, with a friendly little conversation with the cat towards the end, reflecting on their joint endeavour."

--Catherine Likhuta