Sleep Well, My Darling

This is my latest piece... honestly it's fairly simple, and easy to play for the most part, but it grew on me a lot. To me the more I listen to it the more beautiful it has become which is rare for me

It's scored for French Horn quartet and it took me about 5 hours over 2 days to write. There were the usual obstacles in writing four-part harmony, but nothing really unique to this piece.

It is inspired by a line from a letter written by a soldier in World War II to his wife back home. The line read "Sleep Well, My Darling. I wish I could be with you as often as my thoughts are."

I'm attaching both the midi file and the .mus. I think the sound is better in Finale if you have finale 06.
Any comments are welcome!

- Jed

I loooooove the fourth and third horn parts at around 00:57 ... before that it gets a tad squirrely. There is a lot of good stuff going on in this piece. at 1:39 those two chords have that traditional American folksong feel...but it doesn't fit into your piece. I really like this piece. In a concert setting you should think about having someone read a fragment of the letter or the whole letter is time permits.

Oh and in measure fourteen, instead of having the first horn play an A with the second horn, try having the first horn play an F #.

Thanks for your comments oboe hazzard... tried the f# instead of the a, definite improvement... I may change that section around a litttle bit though, still looking at it. When you said the parts were a bit squirrelly before :57 or so, were you referring to 3rd and 4th horn before that? Have to try and review that. I also was wondering about the chords at the end, I couldn't decide if they fit or not.

As far as concert performance, I would have some of the letter read, unfortunately most of the letter is just a description of the war, so this would be the relevant part.

My darling, I gave you a very detailed description of the situation. Now I must go to sleep, for I have to rise early in the morning.
Sleep well, my darling. I wish this letter were with you as fast as my thoughts or – even better – that I were with you as fast as my thoughts! But then I would be always with you and I wouldn’t have to travel.
Best wishes and many kisses,
Your Walter

Lt Walter Best was shot and killed just 2 weeks later.

Oooh, very beautiful and relaxing piece. It reminds me of a Disney movie where at very end, the main character completes his/her task and everyone is happy and nothing could possibly go wrong. That's right before the main character gets his/her head sliced off...Anyway, great work.

I am going to look at the parts I commented on again and be more specific later today. Have you seen the PBS mini-series the civil war? There is a CD out from all of the music on it and the last track is Ashokan Farewell...a letter is read during it quite similar to your letter...you should take a look if you ever get the chance. I am sure it is on iTunes or Rhapsody.

Thanks for the comments - I've looked at it and made some changes, here's the newest version, I hope it addresses some of the problems.

Yea, I've heard the Ashokan farewell read with the letter. Beautiful piece paired with great text... possibly the greatest letter ever written in my opinion.

We played Ashokan farewell in an orchestra concert last year.

*reminisces*

Okay, enough of that! Good, Beautiful, Patriotic, Relaxing. Loved it!

There are just a few times where I thought the chords should have gone a different way, but yours works really well too!

Awesome...

keep it up