Karim Al-Zand

composer

date

2002

duration

7 minutes

instrumentation

viola, piano

awards

Finalist in the Long Island Arts Council Second International Composition Contest

premiere

January 30, 2003
Sheldon Person, viola;
Jeffrey Neufeld, piano

Duncan Recital Hall
Houston TX

Variations

on a theme of Bartòk for viola & piano

about the piece:

image The piece is a short ‘theme and variations’ using as its theme a melody from Bela Bartòk’s Concerto for Orchestra. The first tune heard in the Intermezzo movement of that work is a lilting, folk-like melody that alternates measures of four and five beats. Bartòk’s melody is remarkable in that it has very little harmonic motion and quite limited pitch material, occasionally repeating a pattern of only three or four notes. Consequently, the five variations of the piece are, in a sense, ‘metric variations,’ since they focus on exploring contrasting rhythmic patterns, layered between the parts.

image