Work
Nine Variations on a Balletto by Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi
for piano (four hands)
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About
The theme of this work comes from a balletto by Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi dating from 1591 from the Songs of Syon, a setting to words by Johann Lindemann dating from c. 1550. The theme was employed by J.S.Bach in an organ Chorale Prelude for New Year’s Day ‘In dir ist Freude’ (‘In thee is gladness’) and included in his Little Organ Book (published as book XV of the Organ Works of J.S.Bach, edited by Ivor Atkins, London Novello & Co. Ltd., 1951). In my piece the theme undergoes varied treatments in the nine variations that follow, particularly from variations 3 to 9 when it passes through a variety of time signatures and tempi.
Nine Variations was composed in Mount Maunganui from the 7th to 9th of January 2017 and given its first performance by Stanley Wong and the composer in their joint recital ‘Variations – Private Collection’ at the Hong Kong City Hall Recital Hall on May 26 2018.