Violin | Viola | Cello | String Bass
Music for Violin
Stephen Hill
If
(Poem by Rudyard Kipling)
Violin and Piano
SARAHTIM Music Publishing
If (An impression of the poem by Rudyard Kipling)
Violin and Piano / ca. 2:40 / 2007 / With energy and conviction q. = 80
Violin/Piano - Printed Score - $15.00
Violin/Piano - PDF Score - $12.00
Program Notes
​
Composed in 2007, If, was written at the request of Peter Alexander (Alexander Publishing)
and is part of a larger project of Solo Compositions written for each major instrument of the
Orchestra: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Violin, Viola,
Cello and Double Bass. The project consisted of composing music for specific poems chosen by
Peter that he felt reflected the character of each instrument. For the Solo Trombone, the poem
assigned was If by Rudyard Kipling.
If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, not talk too wise:
If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master; if you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run --
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, and -- which more -- you’ll be a Man, my Son!
Dr. Kenneth Meints - Trombone
Anne Madison - Piano
Stephen Hill
Scenes from West
Yellowstone Suite
Violin and Piano
SARAHTIM Music Publishing
Scenes from West Yellowstone Suite
Violin and Piano / ca. 9:20 / 2017 / Six Movements
Program Notes
​
Scenes from West Yellowstone was composed between June 10-12, 2017, while on a solo fly fishing and camping trip at Indian Creek Campground, West Yellowstone, Wyoming. This work was composed to be playable by each of the instruments of the Band and Orchestral families. The solo melodic material uses only the notes of a one-octave major scale, yet each movement intentionally increases in technical demands of the player. Each movement is reflective of actual encounters while on vacation in Yellowstone Park.
1st mvt. - Meadows along the Madison
(Walking through the meadows on the way down to fly fish along the banks of the Madison River)
2nd mvt. - Prairie Dogs
(Watching two prairie dogs scurrying nearby while fly fishing)
3rd mvt. - Snowfall at Indian Creek
(Yes, it actually snowed on me in the campground in June)
4th mvt. - Birds in the Meadow
(Watching the birds flitting about me as they suddenly turned about in all directions)
5th mvt. - A Deer in the Rain
(Watching the deer quietly walking near the river in a gentle rain)
6th mvt. - Fly Fishing for Browns on the Madison
(Casting the line back and forth, watching the “fly” gently land on the top of the water, t
hen the sudden splash of the beautiful brown trout as it takes the fly.)
Violin/Piano Printed Score - $18.00
Violin/Piano PDF Score - $15.00
Stephen Hill
"...when I am
gone away...
Violin and Piano
SARAHTIM Music Publishing
"...when I am gone away..."
Violin and Piano / ca. 6:20 / 2007 / With mournful repose
Program Notes
​
Composed in 2007, When I am gone away…, was written at the request of Peter Alexander (Alexander Publishing) and is part of a larger project of Solo Compositions written for each major instrument of the Orchestra: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. The project consisted of composing music for specific poems chosen by Peter that he felt reflected the character of each instrument. For the Solo Violin, the poem assigned was Remember by Christina Georgina Rossetti.
Remember by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Violin/Piano - Printed Score - $15.00
Violin/Piano - PDF Score - $12.00
When I Am Gone Away, Music-Stephen Hill
Violin- Treesa Gold
Piano - Dave Robbins
Classical Revolutions - Richmond, VA. 8/15/2021
https://www.classicalrevolutionrva.com/now-playing
Stephen Hill
A Cradle Song
Violin and Piano
SARAHTIM Music Publishing
A Cradle Song
Violin and Piano / ca. 3:30 / 2007 / With gentleness throughout
Program Notes
​
​
Composed in 2007, A Cradle Song, was written at the request of Peter Alexander (Alexander Publishing) and is part of a larger project of Solo Compositions written for each major instrument of the Orchestra: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. The project consisted of composing music for specific poems chosen by Peter that he felt reflected the character of each instrument. For the Solo Viola, the poem assigned was A Cradle Song by William Blake.
A Cradle Song by William Blake
Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.
Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,​
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.
As thy softest limbs I feel,
Smiles as of the morning steal
O’er thy cheek, and o’er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.
O the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep!
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful light shall break.
Violin/Piano - Printed Score - $12.00
Violin/Piano - PDF Score - $10.00
A Cradle Song - Music by Stephen Hill
Rehearsal - Frontier Strings
Ruth Meints, Director
Omaha Conservatory of Music 2016
Stephen Hill
The Prairie
Violin and Piano
SARAHTIM Music Publishing
The Prairie
Violin and Piano / ca. 3:30 / 2007 / With gentleness throughout
Program Notes
​
​
Composed in 2007, The Prairie was written at the request of Peter Alexander (Alexander Publishing) and is part of a larger project of Solo Compositions written for each major instrument of the Orchestra: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. The project consisted of composing music for specific poems chosen by Peter that he felt reflected the character of each instrument. For the Solo Tuba, the poem assigned was The Prairie by Rudyard Kipling. This setting for Violin was requested by Ruth Meints (Omaha Conservatory of Music.)
The Prairie by Rudyard Kipling
I see the grass shake in the sun for leagues on either hand,
I see a river loop and run about a treeless land --
An empty plain, a steely pond, a distance diamond-clear,
And low blue naked hills beyond. And what is that to fear?"
"Go softly by that river-side or, when you would depart,
You'll find its every winding tied and knotted round your heart.
Be wary as the seasons pass, or you may ne'er outrun
The wind that sets that yellowed grass a-shiver 'neath the Sun."
I hear the summer storm outblown -- the drip of the grateful wheat.
I hear the hard trail telephone a far-off horse's feet.
I hear the horns of Autumn blow to the wild-fowl overhead;
And I hear the hush before the snow. And what is that to dread?"
"Take heed what spell the lightning weaves -- what charm the echoes shape --
Or, bound among a million sheaves, your soul shall not escape.
Bar home the door of summer nights lest those high planets drown
The memory of near delights in all the longed-for town."
"What need have I to long or fear? Now, friendly, I behold
My faithful seasons robe the year in silver and in gold.
Now I possess and am possessed of the land where I would be,
And the curve of half Earth's generous breast shall soothe and ravish me!"