Maytudes

PROGRAM NOTES: As written on day 1 of the project, from composer Jim Stephenson:

It may be that one would expect me to come out of the blocks “horns-a-blazin'” for a project like this. However, as I and many others have recently experienced personal tragedies, I felt it appropriate to start in the way that I have.

My father – James M. Stephenson, Jr. – passed away on April 9, 2020. Just 3 weeks ago. He had had a stroke 9 months ago, and even though his condition was slowly deteriorating, we feel that this current coronavirus crisis is what finally took him more quickly than expected. A few months before he passed away, I had written the second movement of a guitar concerto, which I had dedicated to my father. The melody, which I am also using here, bases its rhythm on the Shakespeare sonnet “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”. The sonnet mentions the word May, which is appropriate, of course, because of the month for all of these etudes, but that is also the month in which my father was born (May 23, 1936). The asterisks in the etude mark where each of the four stanzas begin. The large slurs are phrasing indications, whereas the secondary slurs under some notes indicate where melismas occur. I hope that this etude allows for some opportunity to work on phrasing and clarity of slurred notes, some of which encompass wide intervals. There is also a rather wide overall range included, with an optional, but preferred, low note at the end.
It is customary for me to not be super obvious where I think the player should breathe.
In this case, this is most notable during the two slurred arpeggiated sections.
This is because I am a firm believer in the player organizing their breaths AROUND the music. The breaths should be musically prepared so that the listener feels a comfortable pace and flow to what they’re hearing. I therefore encourage a lot of personal expression during this and other subsequent etudes that I’ll be writing.

Make more music than you think; I promise – the composer won’t mind!