Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, James M. Stephenson - 21'
for full orchestra and narrator (1996), chamber orchestra and narrator (2004), reduced chamber orchestra and narrator (2004), or string orchestra and opt. narrator (2025)

A tone poem depicting the harrowing tale of Ichabod Crane and his arch-enemy, Brom Bones, aka the “Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow”. The music is lavishly scored, set appropriately in the Hudson Valley. It vividly recounts the episodes of the tall, lanky Ichabod, as the schoolmaster who unsuccessfully courts love-interest Katrina van Tassell and subsequently encounters the ghostly companion on his ride homeward through the woods.
Folksongs and church hymns, endemic to the region, are used and manipulated to support a most common theme of love and competition, wonderfully depicted by Washington Irving in this popular story.

Commissioned and premiered by the Naples Philharmonic in 1996
Chamber Orchestra reduction commissioned in 2004 by the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Isaiah Jackson, Music Director

Instrumentation: 
Full orchestra: 2.2.2.2/4.3.3.1/timp.3 perc/hp/strings/narrator
Chamber orchestra: 2.2.2.2/2.2.1.0/timp.1 perc/hp/strings/narrator
Reduced chamber orchestra: 1.1.1.1/2.1.1.1/timp.1 perc/hp/strings/narrator
String orchestra: Violin 1-3, viola, cello, bass; opt. narrator (Score AND parts available for purchase)

Orchestral performance parts are available via rental.

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