VARIATIONS (1974) Op.7

Opus number: 7

Title: Variations

Instrumentation: piano

Date written: 1974, Appalacian State University, Boone, North Carolina

Length: twelve minutes

Premiere performance:  Larry Bell, pianist, Appalachian State University Contemporary Music Festival, May 1974

Important subsequent performances: Larry Bell, May 1974, Boone, NC; May 1980, Paul Hall, Juilliard; March 31, 1983, American Academy in Rome; April 18, 1982, and February 29, 1984, at The Boston Conservatory

Recording: tapes at The Boston Conservatory library of Bell’s performances of 1982 and 1984

Program notes: “Variations” for piano was written for the composer to play and completed at Appalachian State University in the spring of 1974. Much of this work shows the influence of Dallapiccola’s “Quaderno Musicale di Anna Libera” in its preoccupation with contrapuntal techniques. Larry Bell first performed it at Appalachian’s Contemporary Music Festival in May 1974 and it won a BMI Student Composers Award that same season.