Variations

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Notes

Variations is comprised of a single movement divided into 11 sections - Theme, 7 variations, 2 interludes, and a coda. The idea of a unified and organic structure was very important to me from the beginning. I was interested in transcending the traditional roles of a theme and its succeeding variations, wherein the theme presents material which is treated by (more or less) discrete segments of contrasting music. Instead, I constructed the successive variations in such a way that they would deal not only with the theme but also with the accumulating materials of the piece as a whole. The variations thus share with the theme the power to suggest new materials and paths of development for what follows. The two interludes, which lie between variations 2 - 3 and Variations 3 - 4, play an especially important role in this respect. They establich important precedents for both the music that follows them and this music's relation to what has gone before.