265 - Whispered Variations

I’m in the midst of composing a large work for mandolin orchestra to be premiered at the upcoming CMSA (Classical Mandolin Society of America) convention here in Kansas City this coming November.

I’ve just thrown out nearly half the music, well, I still have the music but I’m not going to use it in this piece.

The last movement started out to be a straightforward theme and variations quite literally based upon #228 of this collection, “Rip-Off Dance” which itself is somewhat of a rip-off of Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance,” a piece our mandolin orchestra is currently rehearsing with me playing bones of all things on the long percussion break.

But I digress.

Theme and variations is a musical form with a rich history, think Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations” or Alkan’s “Æsop’s Feast.” They’re a fun way for a composer to let their imagination run rampant, not bound by some larger overarching form like sonata allegro or rondo. Not that I compare myself to those masters but if you want to hear an excellent performance of a long form set of piano variations I composed based on the Juan Tizol / Duke Ellington tune “Caravan,” it’s on my bandcamp page, “A Clockwork Caravan”

This morning I’ve thrown out all the variations I’ve composed to the “Rip-Off” dance and am starting over because I’ve developed a new concept / vision - call it what you like - for the last movement of this piece.

One of the most pleasant composition professors I ever had the pleasure of working with, Dr. Chen Yi, was strong on the idea you had to have some kind of concept or vision for your work, or you would waste your time spinning your wheels trying to force the creativity. That was a valuable insight. She loved one of my compositions for wind ensemble - Borborygmi - because that’s exactly what I was trying to express musically with a wind ensemble. Borborygmi are the sounds your body, mainly your stomach and belly, make when you’re hungry or digesting food.

I was thinking about the social experiment where in a circle of people one of them whispers a short phrase of a few words into the ear of the person next to them who then repeats it to the next person - it goes around the circle and by the time it arrives back at the start it’s totally different. How to apply that to theme an variations? I’ve decided every variation becomes a new theme for the next variation. It won’t be long before the original theme is obliterated, hopefully in an interesting way that the listener will be able to pick up on. I’ll see how that goes.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll just throw it out and craft a new concept. I’ve done that plenty of times before.