Variations from remember by Jeremy Beck

This set of Variations for guitar and string quartet unfolds in one continuous movement. Rather than a series of character pieces based on a given theme, the piece opens up organically, with certain harmonic, rhythmic, and motivic ideas presented in the opening measures being re-shaped into new guises as the music progresses. Some ideas return literally, but in a new context. And, in turn, the accompanying ideas in this new context turn up themselves in unexpected places. Although the tonal centers often change and shift, the piece begins and ends with a focus on C and this tonal center also frequently defines new sections (i.e., the guitar’s solo at the first tempo change). Structurally, the variations increase in tempo to the center of the music and then these tempi are also subjected to the variation process before the piece closes quietly as it began.

Variations was composed in New York City in January of 1990 and premiered at the Yale School of Music, 17 February 1992. The players were Peter Constant, guitar; Amy Baltzer and Bruce
Bielawa, violins; Ab Sengupta, viola; and Inbal Segev, cello. I revised this work in Louisville in 2015, specifically for this eventual recording.

Jeremy Beck “knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way. … [In] Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world … the writing is concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic.” (Gramophone Magazine).

BeckMusic.org