Writing a theme and variations is a compositional high-wire act. It demands the most imaginative and nimble sonic exploration, while limiting your source material to a single tune. It requires complete unity and constant change, consistency without being boring, interesting development without seeming contrived. For all these reasons, I was very hesitant to begin work on this piece. It took several weeks, but I began to see the potential of the form. Variation sets are, in a sense, an ordered and stripped- down approach to what happens in nearly every musical tradition: small, static ideas are forced to evolve again and again until they render a larger piece of music that is greater than the sum of its parts. I don’t know to what extent I achieved this, but this was the musical philosophy and goal driving the creation of this piece.

October Variations gets its name from the month in which I wrote the opening theme, but also from how I feel about that time of year: a sense of rest, a central point between two long and severe seasons. This piece is a palindrome, meaning the second half is essentially a mirror image of the first. The “reflection point” between variations three and four is truly the “heart” of this piece, a moment where the theme has been entirely unspooled and the music begins to recede back to where it began.

I was inspired by countless artists and ideas when writing this piece, but I would be remiss if I didn’t list a few by name. I was deeply influenced by the vivid harmonic colors and more free musical style of several Jazz concerts I’ve seen at Oberlin, including several student concerts, and the jazz-inspired work of my professor, Michael Frazier. I spent a few weeks while I was writing this studying Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and I think his voice looms somewhat large over this piece. I doubt any outside listener would pick out Rachmaninoff from my music, but his keen sense of musical timing and his gentleness of touch while developing a simple theme, certainly served as something to aspire to.

Instrumentation: Bb cl, vla, pno

Duration: c. 8’

Performances:

• October 11th, 2023 in Warner Concert Hall at Oberlin Conservatory