Stephen Estep, Composer (L-OH)

Music:

Member Since: 7/4/2007
Band Website: clarinetsonatas.com
Band Members: Stephen Estep, Patrick Hanudel, Jenni Glier, Rick Quantz
Influences: Dmitri Shostakovich, Christopher Rouse, Ludwig van Beethoven, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, John Corigliano, Edvard Grieg, Johann Sebastian Bach, Alexander Grechaninov, Sergei Rachmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev, John Adams, Paul Creston, John Luther Adams, Hugo Wolf, Charles Ives, William Byrd, John Harbison, Sir William Walton, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, Nikolai Kapustin, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel, Johannes Ockeghem, Guillaume Dufay, Rick Sowash
Sounds Like:
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Welcome to Stephen Estep's Classical Music MySpace /////////

I'm a pretty darn obscure classical composer, living in Xenia, Ohio, which is enough in itself to account for the obscurity. I have a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Piano Performance from Cedarville University (1997), and a mostly-done Master's of Music in the same from Miami University. I've been composing off and on since I was about 13. I studied composition privately at Miami with Dr C James Sheppard and Dr G Roger Davis. Other than that, I'm mostly self-taught, which may also account for my obscurity.

I haven't composed anything since 2001, but my friend Matthew Walton asked me to write a piece for his Master's recital at Wright State University (which will be sometime in the fall of 2007). So, "An Horror of a Great Darkness" is on its way. The score for that will be available sometime this year, after the performance. I'm looking forward to more composing in the upcoming years.

If you're interested in commissioning a piece, by all means, contact me. I'm more inclined to compose when I have a deadline and somebody to write for.

Thanks for the listens, and be sure to add me as a friend.

Eleventh Hour
Eleventh Hour is the third movement of my Sonata for Clarinet in A and Piano, Technical Difficulties. The sonata started life in 1994 as a theme and variations project, then morphed into a pretty lousy piano sonata in 1998. I rewrote it as a clarinet sonata in 1999 and 2000. The entire piece was premiered at Rice University in February, 2001, with Patrick Hanudel on clarinet and myself on the piano. This recording was made in 2000, before Patrick left Ohio to become the principal clarinet of the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra.

Eleventh Hour is the result of listening to too much Klezmer and Eastern European folk music (specifically Bulgarian) as a teenager.
The Ass and the Flute
The second of what is currently known as 3 Songs without Good Words, for soprano, clarinet and piano. The first song in the set needs taken out and shot, because there will soon be a much better replacement for it. The performance isn't that great - the soprano had a lot of trouble with the rhythm. But, alas, this is the only recording I have. It really could use a better performance, hint hint. The text comes from a Boston newspaper, issued in the 1840's. The third of this set of songs is a setting of a letter from Beethoven to his younger brother, and it's quite a tasty piece also.

From Beethoven to his Younger Brother
Another from the 3 Songs without Good Words. This is sung a little better. I've got two versions of this song that I need to conflate for one final one. This one doesn't have the lovable Alexander Nevsky quote that the first one does. Although, I only noticed today, six years after I wrote it, that the clarinet quotes the first movement of my own clarinet sonata. I don't look as dumb as I am, naw shucks!

For My Sister Shura
This is from a set of four songs for soprano and viola, on texts of Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, who drank himself to death in 1922. The songs have the most emotional depth of anything I've written so far. Once again, they're in need of a better performance. I also have to see about copyright clearance from the publishers before I can make the score available. One more project for this summer....

Passacaglia
This was originally written for clarinet and harp, but the harp player I wrote it for kind of wigged out on me. So it's only been played on piano. I composed this piece in 2000 for the International Clarinet Association composition competition. It didn't win, and rightfully so. It's a healthy, solid piece, if a little stodgy, but it's never going to draw any attention to itself. That said, it is still my child. Once again, Patrick Hanudel on clarinet and me on the piano.

Dmitri Shostakovich
Christopher Rouse
Ludwig van Beethoven
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Florence Foster Jenkins!!!
John Corigliano
Edvard Grieg
Johann Sebastian Bach
P.D.Q. Bach
Alexander Grechaninov
Sergei Rachmaninov
Sergei Prokofiev
John Adams
Paul Creston
John Luther Adams
Anna Russell
Hugo Wolf
Charles Ives
Meira Warshauer
William Byrd
Elly Ameling
John Harbison
Peter Schickele
Sir William Walton
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Robert Schumann
Claude Debussy
Nikolai Kapustin
Gustav Mahler
Franz Schubert
Maurice Ravel
Johannes Ockeghem
Guillaume Dufay
Rick Sowash

Sister Rosetta Tharpe
James Cleveland and the Angelic Singers
Mid South Boys
Sound Doctrine
The King's Messengers
The Abshire Family
The Dixie Hummingbirds
The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet
Blind Willie Johnson
Northern Bound
Mahaliah Jackson
Marion Williams
Hovie Lister and the Statesmen
The Song Masters
The Forbes Family
Marie Knight

Skip James
Blind Willie Johnson
Miles Davis
Nat "King" Cole
Robert Johnson
Tom Lehrer
Aretha Franklin
Reverend Gary Davis
Don Ellis
Holy Modal Rounders
Blind Boy Fuller
Spike Jones
Wilco
Art Tatum
Big Bill Broonzy
Bob Dylan
Van Dyke Parks
Tom Paxton
Vernon Dalhart
Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares
Varttina
Uncle Tupelo
Tannahill Weavers
Allan Sherman
The Beatles
Flying Burrito Brothers
Emmylou Harris
Janis Joplin
Bright Eyes
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Over the Rhine
Ben Ashman
Iron & Wine
Davy Spillane
Clannad
Chetes

King James Bible
(God)
A Walk Across America
(Peter Jenkins)
The Gulag Archipelago
(Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
Lolita
(Vladimir Nabokov)
St Petersburg
(Solomon Volkov)
Civility
(Stephen L. Carter)
Within the Context of No Context
(George W.S. Trow)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
(Alexandr Solzhenitsyn)
A Lexicon of Musical Invective
(Nicholas Slonimsky)
Parliament of Whores
(P.J. O'Rourke)
Escape from Freedom
(Erich Fromm)
The Act of Creation
(Arthur Koestler);
In a Sunburned Land
(Bill Bryson)
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
(John Gribbin)
The Innocents Abroad
(Mark Twain)
Travels
(Michael Crichton)
Roy Blakely books
(Percy Keese Fitzhugh)
Poetry
(Sergei Yesenin)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(Douglas Adams)
The Road to Serfdom
(Friedrich von Hayek)
War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
(Chris Hedges)
I See by My Outfit
(Peter S. Beagle)

Liberty
Reason
Gramophon
Dirty Linen
The Onion
Foreign Policy

Ulee's Gold
Drop Dead Gorgeous
The Phantom of Liberty
Ponette
Monsoon Wedding
Pride and Prejudice (with Kiera Knightley)
Cinema Paradiso
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Burnt by the Sun
Waking Life
Chillicothe
Top Secret
The General (Buster Keaton)
Shaun of the Dead
Resident Evil series
Death at a Funeral
Naked Gun series

MST3K
Scrubs
Dirty Jobs
Monty Python
Red Dwarf
Mr Bean
Red Green
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report

Likes:
Grilled cheese sandwiches
Penguins
Record players
Nieces and newphews
Sarcasm
Reading
God
Quantum physics
Creativity
Fireflies
Thinking
Honesty
Long drives
Guns
Politics
Sophomoric humor
Chili dogs
Color
Silence
Solitude
Cheesecake
Lolrus
Homestar Runner
Neologisms
Women fixing their hair
Arms
Laughing
Chili dogs
Estonia
Spinners
Thanksgiving
Atonality
Cemeteries
My mom
Puns
The Kansas prairie
Orange juice
Public speaking
Trains
Mountain Dew
Charlie the Unicorn
Pun
Colorado
Reese's Pieces
Covered bridges
Lamb saag with garlic nan
Fireworks
Thunderstorms
Flatulence
Walking at night
Explosions
The Llama Song
Freedom
Bananaphone
Covered bridges

Dislikes:
Television
Bossy people
Telemann
Hairs on counters
Shaving
Your mom
Deception
Slow drivers
Hurrying
Tea
Humidity
Horses
Eating in the car
Insomnia
Tendonitis
Melons (any kind)
"Just friends"
Asymmetricality
Fingernails
Lists
Fame
Spider-Man 3
Serialism
Bad grammar
Censorship
The phrase, "the next level"
Bragging about ignorance
Failure
Walking through crowds
Whining

Click above to view all blogs, or click on a title to view the individual entry.

12-Sep-07: Premiere!
"An Horror of a Great Darkness" premieres November 15 at Wright State University....

7-Sep-07: Video of the week
Greg Anderson plays Ligeti's The Devil's Staircase. Disgustingly amazing.

5-Sep-07: I'm a real composer now
And I always look bloated and stoned in pictures. :-(

1-Sep-07: Where it's at
This is it. This is what I'm called to do.

27-Aug-07: Stephen Estep is one year older
And some thoughts on emotions and composing (the loneliest art).

21-Aug-07: Clarinet Sonata sheet music ready!
Yes, sheet music for my clarinet sonata is finally ready. And a bit of opinion on Clementi.

11-Aug-07: The a-maze-ing Ernest Chausson
I learned today how Chausson died, and I made something in his honor.

7-Aug-07: New tunes uploaded
Eleventh Hour, live at the premiere, and Passacaglia for clarinet and piano are now uploaded.

1-Aug-07: Piccolo and string quartet
So last night, under the influence of Nyquil, I sketched some ideas for a piece for piccolo and string quartet.

28-Jul-07: Next projects
"Doleful Creatures" for piccolo and something else? Song cycles? "Godless Killing Machines" for tuba and piano?

13-Jul-07: My music in a film?!
I just got an email today from a fellow in England enquiring about using some of my music in a film.

11-Jul-07: "Darkness" score sneak preview
Here are pages 3 and 4, for your visual enjoyment. The piece will have palm clusters, pedal stomps, glissandos on the strings, and other good stuff. At the end, the pianist is required to stick his head inside the piano and drop the lid on it.

8-Jul-07: "An Horror of a Great Darkness" is finished
Today, I finished my first real solo piano piece ever, "An Horror of a Great Darkness".

6-Jul-07: A new MySpace for Stephen Estep's music
My classical music is finally here, with a snappy new layout.
No, I won't do all the work for you to get your page to look like mine :-P

Scores to my music will be made available as I'm able to get them finished. You can order them directly from me: Email me at grinninglion [at] hotmail [dot] com. I accept PayPal at that address, Western Union, and USPS money orders.

Technical Difficulties (Sonata for Clarinet in A and Piano)
Printed copies: $20, which includes postage in the US and Canada.
PDF files via email: $10.

An Horror of a Great Darkness (Piano Solo - manuscript copy)
Printed copies: $15, which includes postage in the US and Canada.
PDF files via email: $8.

More scores are on their way...