Variations on the name of GRIEG
for piano op.20 (2004)
The process of turning names into sequences of notes is an old fact in our music history. The best known examples are the BACH signature used by Bach himself but also by many other composers, as well as Shostakovich's finger-print DSCH. Grieg himself wrote a Fugue on the name of GADE.
However, there are no strict rules for the transcription of letters into notes; one reason is the divergences between the English and German notations. For instance, B is used in Germany as B flat (the natural B being noted as H). Another reason is that only the first 7 or 8 letters of the alphabet correspond to a note, and so that different systems have been used for the remaining letters.
In order to transcribe the name of GRIEG, I used the same system as Ravel in his Berceuse sur le nom de GABRIEL FAURE, i.e. by extending the English notation beyond the seven first notes, H being equivalent to A, I to B and so on. This yields the following sequence:
This short sequence has some noteworthy properties. Firstly, the symmetrical shape of the intervals: there is an alternation of fifths and minor thirds, in both cases an ascending and descending one. Secondly, the four notes contained in the sequence (E-G-B-D) forms a minor seventh chord which is surprisingly enough a typical landmark of Grieg's harmony. Lastly, the sequence is cyclic, beginning and ending by G, of course as Grieg's name does.
My set of Variations on the name of GRIEG is made of 10 small movements proceeding from the many possibilities offered by this 5 notes sequence which generated the smallest details as the general structure as well. For instance, the cyclic character is emphasized by the fact that the first and last part are almost identical. There is an alternation of slower and faster pieces, the set culminating in Variation 9 which is a brilliant moto perpetuo in 6/8 time.
Even if the harmony makes an extended use of 7th and 9th chords, this work is not build on any material left by Grieg as it was the case in my Concerto in B minor after Grieg's unfinished second piano concerto. The only link with Grieg's music is to be found in Variation 7 which has the caracteristic rhythm of the Norwegian folkdance called Halling.
The Variations on the name of GRIEG are dedicated to Joachim Dorfmüller, president of the German Grieg Society, and received their first performance on the 9th June 2004 at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany, by Laurent Beeckmans at the piano.