Carter - Variations for Orchestra

Composer's notes for this First Recording: "My Variations for Orchestra was written for The Louisville Orchestra during 1955 from sketches made in 1953 and 1954. The project of writing such a work had interested me for some time as I was eager to put into concrete musical terms a number of ideas I had had about this old form. Traditionally, of course, this type of composition is based on one pattern of material, a theme or succession of harmonies out of which are built many short contrasting sections of music. The theme and each little section form musical vignettes usually presenting one single, unchanging mood or character and often only one musical idea or technique. Viewed a a series of separate pieces of sharply defined character, a set of musical variations resembles certain old literary works such as the collection of brief, trenchant delineations of Ethical Characters by Theophrastus held together by one common idea of purpose. Such a set implicitly gives expression to the classical attitude toward the problem of 'unity in diversity.' "In this work I was interested in adopting a more dynamic and changeable approach. The general characteristics of the form are maintained -- one pattern of material out of which a diversity of characters come, but the principle of variations is often applied even within the scope of each short piece. In some, great changes of character and theme occur, in others, contrasting themes and characters answer each other back and forth or are heard simultaneously. By these and other devices, I have tried to give musical expression to experiences anyone living today must have when confronted with so many remarkable examples of unexpected types of changes of relationships of character uncovered in the human sphere by psychologists and novelists, in the life cycle of insects and certain marine animals by biologists, indeed in every domain of science and art. Thus the old notion of 'unity in diversity' presents itself to us in an entirely different guise than it did to people living in a short while ago."

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