The Three Ifs

This piece, The Three Ifs, was composed with the Helvetia Quartet from Switzerland in mind. The unusual instrumentation of the group was very suggestive to me of the following three humoresques:

• The first, "If All Soldiers Were Toys", was written during the NATO bombing of Kosovo. I have often wished that this title could come true, making war obsolete. The music has a carefree, yet mechanical, flavor of a music box.
• The second, "If There Were Nothing Else To Do", was composed at a moment when I had exactly that ... nothing else to do ... but plod steadily along. Perhaps the performers will play it during such a moment.
• The third, "If We Had a Heavenly Hoe-down", gives the contrabass the part that a fiddler might have had in an old barn at party time long, long ago after the harvest in another world.

It is my hope that these three little ditties will be fun to both play and hear. (Kate Waring)