Robert “Bob” Stephenson, best known to many as long-time Utah Symphony Oboist, has also been composing original music for years. His surprisingly vast output includes a book of etudes entitled, “Forty Melodic and Technical Etudes,” in which he makes the technical fundamentals of playing the oboe fun for students.

We’ve all known you as principal Oboist for the Utah Symphony for many years. How long have you been writing music?

The first thing I ever wrote was because of my daughter Gretchen. She was playing the Suzuki variations (on Twinkle, Twinkle) at her violin lesson. So I could hear Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I was saying to myself, those variations are kind of, well, boring. I wonder if I could write some kind of music that might be a little bit more interesting for the oboe. I ended up writing my own Twinkle Variations, which had 29 different variations on the theme. I submitted it to two different publishers and one company, the Southern Music Company, accepted it. So that was my first publication. I was happy about that. It was recorded by a professor at the University of Iowa. Things got off to a good start. I like the idea that maybe the piece has something that you could whistle or sing more easily than something that does not have that quality.

I can relate to that. I’m a violinist, and usually play the melody line.

We’re used to playing the top line.

What do you have in mind for future compositions?

I was just in the process of finishing a quartet for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. I anticipated that I would be able to play it with our group, Three Fish and Scorpion. But the pandemic came along and the Sibelius (music writing) program that I used at the university became unavailable. So I’m just waiting for school to open up again. I look forward to finishing that particular piece. It’s a piece that uses American folksongs. I think I incorporated as many as 12 or 13 folksongs in the piece, which has three different movements. So I’m excited for that to happen.

I’m told you are writing a piece for oboe and marimba.

I always thought it would be interesting to have that kind of musical relationship between an instrument like the oboe and a percussion instrument. Something that, once again, was melodic and something that also was expansive in a way because the marimba can play 5 octaves, whereas the oboe is barely comfortable in two octaves. I have already made some good sketches for that piece. I’m excited about that.

You might also know that I have been working on this project with Etudes. I am just calling it “Etude Project.” Different colleagues are playing one of the etudes from 4 different etude books that I have for them to choose from. I’m getting some interesting combinations.

What might be interesting about this is that it can be recorded inside or outside. It might feature the musicians’ personal side to the videos. While the audio is going on from start to finish, there might be film footage of colleagues doing things that are not necessarily related to music. For instance, Utah Symphony flutist Lisa Byrnes is going to be filmed hiking and working in a ceramics studio and will probably be looking at a book about national parks. I’ll be filmed working outside in the yard, doing different projects, working at my desk…

Writing music.

(Laughing) Yes, finishing my compositions. It might be kind of fun for audiences to tune into something like that to get to know us a little bit more than how they see us on a Friday or a Saturday night.

As far as the performances go, all the etudes that are being played will become available online. I know that I’m playing a piece called the Birds I’ll actually be performing it on oboe d’amore and it will be outside. One of the things I’ve noticed whenever I go outside, especially in our backyard, is the sound of birds. You might hear a kind of duet that is quite unfamiliar in both the instrument I’m playing and the sound of nature.

Wonderful. That sounds great. I’m noticing a lot more animals and birds outside here too.

Yeah, that’s the case everywhere. I heard that that happened in some of the national parks. Because the people were gone, the animals took over…

Robert Stephenson’s latest composition is entitled Three Blind Mice Trio for Two Oboes and English Horn. He began writing it two years ago, and Jeanne Music Publications released it last month. It has been performed both in Utah and at the Sewanee Music Festival. It was an experiment in writing music derived from just three notes: A, G, and F. It was composed with young performers in mind with the hope that they would find it both challenging and fun. His own synopsis, included below, gives the audience insight into what they might expect.

-Lynn Rosen

 

Three Blind Mice

 

1. “Waltzing With a Sore Paw” – Interrupting the repeated rhythm we associate with
a typical waltz might just accommodate an exuberant four-legged creature with an
injured paw. This waltz soars with a collective intent before fading in the distance.

2. “They All Ran After…..” – Hidden in all these movements is the descending
pattern of “La-Sol-Fa” or “Three Blind Mice”. The performers are challenged to play
in 5,6,7 and more. Periods of flash happen. After all, we must remember to “see
how they run!”

3. “Crazy Mice-Go-Round” – The nursery rhyme “Three Blind Mice” has a familiar
rhythmic pattern that is repeatedly passed from one voice to another. This strident
and insane “round” encompasses the extreme range of the oboes and English horn
while being faithful to the canon’s original rhythm. The melody, however, is
anything but faithful. It screams and magnifies with dramatic possibilities.

4. “Spanish Mice” – This short movement outlines the La-Sol-Fa sequence and
throws in a taste of Spain. Imagine the Mouse Matador!

5. “Mice Determination” – Great energy and an exacting courage runs through this
movement and the mice themselves. It’s not hard to imagine that courage can reveal
itself in even the smallest of packages!

6. “Church Mice” – This is the story of a musician just trying to do some careful
practicing on an old organ in an old church. Three persistent mice repeatedly
interrupt the organist with sudden bursts of activity. Frustration reigns and it’s all a
virtual stalemate.

7. “The Successful Raid” – Marching and on a mission, these three mice go bravely in
search of their next meal. The outcome is apparent when we hear the triumphant
parade in their honor!

8. “Finale” – Beginning with echoes of Beethoven’s Trio for 2 Oboes and English
horn, the three competitive musicians begin a game of, “Anything you can do, I can
do better!” All of the action is centered around that now familiar A-G-F melody. 30
different quotations, from Bach to the Beatles, challenge the players before they
agree to work together, leading finally to a spirited conclusion in 9/8.

A special thanks goes out to the library staff at the School of Music on the campus of
the University of Utah, in particular Spencer Kellogg, a gifted musician and computer
expert.

You can order the music here

View Robert Stephenson’s bio here