Variations in d minor

About this piece:

Variations in D Minor contains one theme and six variations, broadly speaking. The purpose of the piece is to push the performer with technically challenging arpeggios, articulations, rhythms, and scales while developing the theme from its original form to something reminiscent suggesting only small, rhythmic aspects of the original idea. The piece can be conceptualized in three broad sections: statement and elaboration of theme, reminiscence, and reiteration. The first establishes the theme and varies it slightly in a staccato, march-like fashion culminating with expansive, climactic arpeggios spanning the length of the keyboard. The listener is then introduced to a polychordal soundscape reflecting only the rhythmic components of the original theme. This drives forward into an aggressive, dissonant, and enraged presentation of the theme. This rage eventually settles moving into the third and final section of the piece: reiteration. This last variation places the theme in the bassline below an accompaniment moving upward from the mid-register of the piano. These roles intensify, pushing inertia forward towards one final reiteration and a rapid descent of a d harmonic minor scale.