Premiere: 3 October 2003 at Long Grove Community Church, Long Grove, IL
Camerata Chicago & Drostan Hall
Duration: 15 minutes
Instrumentation: string orchestra (minimum 2.2.2.2.1)
Performance Note:
The hymn tune THAXTED was adapted from the central “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” movement from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets sometime in the 1920s. Its name references the English village where Holst lived for a time. My Variations on that melody were written during the spring and summer of 2003 on a commission from Drostan Hall and the Camerata Chicago to mark the ensemble’s inaugural concerts that fall.
Its six sections transform the tune into, essentially, a series of character pieces. The first, a waltz, is heard in a succession of asymmetric meters, most regularly 7/8 (this a nod to the charming second movement of Leonard Bernstein’s Divertimento). After this, the Burlesque is built around the opening four-note motive of Holst’s theme; its central part imbues the hymn with a wild, savage spirit. The third variation, Pastorale (literally “song”), provides a peaceful respite while the Scherzo is marked by further metrical games. A brief Intermezzo forms a bridge into the Finale, which brackets the theme with pedal B-flats in the first violins and low strings, while the viola’s reiterate THAXTED under the second-violin’s descant.