Romantic Variations

Well, I've had my hands full lately. Baby Sabine arrived in May, 2008. I started Smule with Ge in June, 2008. I had major surgery to repair my broken jaw in September, 2008, just before I took my qualifying exams (not pretty) at Stanford and launched Smule's first product, the Sonic Lighter. Coached Noah's basketball team (tough season!), now assistant coach on baseball team (go Red Sox!). Ocarina in November. Orals last month (brutal!). Working on Schumann's Waldszenen sporadically. Buried in there somewhere is my wife (she hasn't left me yet) and my daughter Charlotte .

Jonathan (God bless you Jonathan) is still hanging in there with me, and via his seminar Winter quarter, Livia and Janet will perform the first (and at this stage only) two movements from a new set of variations I'm writing for violin duet, having performed already back east at Fredonia . Modeled after Brahm's Schumann variations, I'm threading my own theme (really a bi-tonal harmonic progression) across a handful of works from other composers, in this case, Chopin and Debussy. The progression is never explicitly stated, only implied. Livia and Janet are performing the pieces tonight at Stanford. I'll be sitting on the back row.

Romantic Variations Score, April, 2008