Program Note
Exordium is a set of variations for solo piano based on the Sarabande from the keyboard Partita in B-flat Major by Johann Sebastian Bach. The title references the beginning or introductory part of a discourse. The content of the music is a reflection of the notion that closure is largely the herald of new beginnings.
The music contains five relatively brief character pieces followed by a quodlibet based on a text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and closes with a summation entitled Epiphany.
Melodic motives and rhythmic cell developments from the Sarabande form the principal musical materials of the character pieces. A study of the durational development and other compositional techniques within the Sarabande, the Gigue from the same partita, and selected passages from the Well Tempered Klavier, Book II are source materials for the variations. Beginning with strong references to the source material in B-flat Major, Exordium moves through various increasingly distant variants. The music returns at the conclusion of Epiphany to a reiterated B-flat Major tonality with clear references to the dotted rhythm and accent on the second beat of a measure often characteristic of the sarabande form.
The Goethe text in Quodlibet is a stanza taken from Selige Sehnsucht (Blessed Longing). The poetry emphasizes the concept of constant and continuing rebirth and discovery quintessential to creativity and reflective of using the music of Bach as a source.
"And as long as you do not have this,
Die and be reborn!
You are only a dreary guest
On this dark earth."
— Donald Bohlen
The music contains five relatively brief character pieces followed by a quodlibet based on a text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and closes with a summation entitled Epiphany.
Melodic motives and rhythmic cell developments from the Sarabande form the principal musical materials of the character pieces. A study of the durational development and other compositional techniques within the Sarabande, the Gigue from the same partita, and selected passages from the Well Tempered Klavier, Book II are source materials for the variations. Beginning with strong references to the source material in B-flat Major, Exordium moves through various increasingly distant variants. The music returns at the conclusion of Epiphany to a reiterated B-flat Major tonality with clear references to the dotted rhythm and accent on the second beat of a measure often characteristic of the sarabande form.
The Goethe text in Quodlibet is a stanza taken from Selige Sehnsucht (Blessed Longing). The poetry emphasizes the concept of constant and continuing rebirth and discovery quintessential to creativity and reflective of using the music of Bach as a source.
"And as long as you do not have this,
Die and be reborn!
You are only a dreary guest
On this dark earth."
— Donald Bohlen
Reproduction Notice:
This program note may be freely reproduced in concert programs, provided that proper credit is given to the composer.
This program note may be freely reproduced in concert programs, provided that proper credit is given to the composer.