The Music for Horn in F and Orchestra, op. 96b (1993) has the character of an instrumental ballad with rhapsodic elements, in which the soloist functions as a kind of narrator. The one-movement work is divided into seven sections with contrasting dynamic and rhythmic structures.
The piece opens with a fanning out eight-part sound, which is repeatedly used to structure the piece. A diatonic, lyrical theme in the solo instrument develops into an initial climax. The second section is an allegro over throbbing basses, which leads into an orchestral tutti. The Gregorian hymn "Pange, lingua, gloriosi" is quoted in the third section, only to be linked to the throbbing allegro of the second section in the fourth.

The entire material of the work is worked through in the following formal section - the beginning of which is made clear by the abrupt interruption of a climax - in short orchestral and soloistic episodes. A final climax leads to a cadenza by the soloist, which forms the penultimate section. In the coda, the chorale motif is altered in a jazzy manner; a 16-part sound is then built up, from which the horn makes its last musical statement - with a B flat-A-C-B motif that had already been heard several times before. A restrained E major sound with a fading upward glissando ends the work in extreme pianissimo.

Bertold Hummel