Three Variations on an Acronym (2013)
Piano
This composition formed part of a project in which all the students of my year were asked to create three short variations for piano based on a musical acronym devised by Dr Geoff Palmer, named after the local city: A-B-E-R(D, after Re)-D-E-E-N(a group of 4 notes following the points of this letter).
For these variations, I chose use the ‘Aberdeen’ theme symbolically in the context of character pieces based on some of the city’s best known features.
‘Granite’ – This variation is Neoclassical in style, and evokes the rigidity of Aberdeen’s most common building material. It is structured in strict formal blocks, and there are added notes which colour the tonality of D major.
‘Haar’ – The haar is the North Sea fog that occasionally envelops Aberdeen. Here, the theme makes up the bass of the variation. Over this, I have added some Impressionist harmonies.
‘Seagulls’ – This variation is the most explicitly programmatic, depicting seagulls attacking and Aberdeen defending itself. As well as the ‘Aberdeen’ theme, I have also made imitations of seagulls’ cries with dissonant chord clusters. These two motifs come into intensifying conflict, until the ‘Aberdeen’ theme conquers the final statement.
These pieces make up the second of my third year compositions. The third variation was performed publically by Richard Bailey, along with many other contributions, as part of the course. in November 2013.