Variations (2017)
Performers:
Contemporaneous
David Bloom, conductor
Program Notes:
The idea for a variations piece was sparked by both the diversity of the mixed ensemble, as well as a book by Robert Coover called Pricksongs & Descants. Coover’s literary take on the idea of theme and variations works to effectively disrupt any sort of narrative or linear continuity by subjecting each moment of the plot to constant variation. As I was reading his work, I was also thinking about the fact that literary works will often jump around freely between different plots or points in time, yet I often feel constrained, musically, to compose a neat, linear progression of events. For Variations, I decided instead to create four musical spaces, and then simply to imagine all of the different ways in which the material could move.
In the end, the piece turned out to feel a bit like a wandering mind (not unlike Coover’s short stories). Spending time in each of these musical spaces feels to me like daydreaming about little moments from the day, searching for patterns and imagining possibilities.