Description 5 :3 May 3, 2020 Version for french horn and double bass commissioned by Lisa Ford From “Maytudes” – a french horn etude project in consultation with Gail Williams, with one etude created every day during the month of May, 2020 from composer Jim Stephenson (from original Maytudes etude book): During my playing days, if I had opened up an etude book and seen this one, I would have just kept on turning to see what the next one might look like. All those flats?? 5/8 time? Why??! Well – here are two things that affect me greatly as a composer: 1) getting the hard things out of the way early on. 2) Giving myself rules and limits so that I am forced to create within those guidelines. In the case of the second item, I had been thinking about some of the things Gail Williams had been encouraging me to incorporate: mixed meter, wide leaps, and mid-to-low range. Combined with my attempts to make each etude relevant to each given day, I found myself wondering how I could include those in any kind of way while also creating a five against three (for May 3) pattern. In measure 1, and in many subsequent measures, the 5 notes that fall on each eighth-note beat, pitted against the bottom bass notes (Ebs), represent a five against three pattern. OK – but so what? Music based on math doesn’t mean anything unless it is musically and emotionally enjoyable to play and to listen to. Take a look at Bach, for example. Enough said. Which is why I did my best to accomplish that, creating worthwhile music, even with all the guidelines I placed upon myself. And, in case I didn’t, I made sure to incorporate some B-A-C-H, just to make sure I’d have his influence to keep me safe… (the top-notes Bb-A-C-Bn pattern in many measures musically spells “Bach”) And if you add my initials, it creates a “JS Bach”, which is close as I will ever get!! I would think there could be a wide variety of tempos used to make this etude successful, which is why I didn’t indicate any specific metronome marking. I do plan on making tomorrow’s a bit more fun, and easier, so if you feel like just turning the page, I’d understand.
