First Performance: Suite: 3 March 2005 Taplin Auditorium- Princeton, NJ
                                                   Andrew McKenna Lee, guitar

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Program Notes:

Variations, Fixations, and Fantasies is a solo guitar piece based on J.S. Bach's Prelude for Lute, BWV 999. This piece has always been a bit of a curiosity for me, as it is fairly famous in the guitar repertoire in spite of its relatively brief, 1.5 minute duration. Unlike most of Bach's other preludes, which belong to dance suites or other collections of similar pieces, this one seems to be a solitary being, floating aimlessly amidst the vast expanse of Bach's output. This latter condition is what drew me to the idea of creating a much larger work around it- I wanted to expound upon certain ideas inherent in the original work, as well as refract some of them through a more contemporary compositional language. Many other composers have done similar things with older works- Jacob Druckman's orchestral piece Prism comes to mind, as well as Leonardo Balada's Transparencies of Chopin's First Ballade, and many of the works of Alfred Schnittke.

Ultimately, the work will consist of ten complimentary pieces, each in its own way based on the original Bach prelude. In its entirety, it will be organized in three sets, followed by a postlude- each set containing three distinct types of pieces. The Variations are the most closely associated with the original prelude, and use the bass line (in original, retrograde, and inverted forms respectively) as a point of departure over which the harmony and musical texture are re-worked and re-contextualized. The Fixations, living up to their name, dwell obsessively on one small aspect of the original prelude and attempt to spin out pieces which, in their enlargement of a single, microscopic idea, resemble something very unlike the original. Finally, the Fantasies, which are the most complex in form and the longest in duration, freely associate different elements of the prelude in somewhat more direct and reminiscent ways.

As of today's date (08/20/05) the piece is still unfinished, and it will likely be some time before I have completed writing the work and longer still until I have learned to perform it! I have completed part of the piece, however, and am currently performing it as a suite. This suite contains the original prelude, the first variation, the first fixation, and what I believe will be the second fantasy when the work is finally completed. In the end, it will be roughly over a half hour in length.

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