Three Silver Quarters – Elmo Hope

Three Silver Quarters is a particularly fascinating example of Elmo Hope's adventurous composing style of the '60s. The combination of the short yet irregular form—15 measures long—and the even-8ths feel in slow 3/4 meter makes this song at least slightly ahead of its time. It has a gentle, reflective mood, with quite a lyrical melody. The beginning of the melody, however, is particularly striking—a dramatic upward leap of a 7th from C to B♭, starting on the "and" of beat 3. Also striking are the changes, which move almost entirely stepwise. After the first six measures which alternate E♭maj7 and D♭maj7, dominant chords then descend in mostly half steps back to E♭ in the last measure. The last three descending dominant chords are each part of a II-V7 resolution.

There is an intro that repeats the first two chords for eight measures, with solo fills; this can be extended as a vamp. The coda repeats the same chords for four measures, with a melody based on the beginning of the head. Elmo's right-hand voicings are shown on the coda for the C treble clef lead sheet.

The bass plays a 1-feel throughout the head. On this recording, though Elmo plays with an even-8ths feel on both the head and his solo, the bass and drums go to a walking 3-feel with swing 8th notes behind the solo.

This duo recording by Don Sickler and Bertha Hope is the second part of a medley with another Elmo Hope song, Monique. It's rather slower than the original recording, essentially a ballad tempo.