Theme & Variations for Viola and Orchestra - by Alan Shulman

Theme & Variations for Viola and Orchestra by Alan Shulman
Performed Sunday, February 4th, 2024 | Ent Center for the Arts
Viola: Michael Sabatka
Conductor: Thomas Wilson
Audio/Video: Michael Lascuola
Program Notes: Jacob Pope
Alan Shulman's Theme and Variations for Viola and Orchestra was first sketched on a bustling subway commute between Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1940. The viola, gaining prominence as a solo instrument, found an advocate in Shulman, who frequently composed for viola and chamber orchestra due to the balance and textural difficulties that often accompanied viola in front of a full orchestra.
Encouraged by his friend and colleague Emanuel Vardi, Shulman completed the composition first for viola and piano. With Vardi as the soloist and the eminent Toscanini in attendance, the piece immediately captured the attention of Dr. Frank Black, the music director of the NBC radio network.
NBC's interest prompted a full orchestration of the work, and its orchestral debut occurred in March 1941 on a radio series spotlighting emerging American composers. The audience's enthusiastic response led to multiple broadcasts, establishing the work's success. Vardi's numerous performances, and positive reviews, further propelled the composition into the limelight.
In 1943, principal violist Milton Preves of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra requested the music, resulting in performances that extended beyond Chicago. The enduring friendship between Shulman and Preves was commemorated when Shulman dedicated his 1953 composition, "Suite for Solo Viola," to Preves.
Shulman's creative journey continued as he re-orchestrated the piece for viola and chamber orchestra - the version you will hear today - with the Zimbler Sinfonietta in 1954.
The theme in Theme & Variations takes an AA’BA’ form - that is to say, a four-measure phrase (A), which gets repeated (A’), is followed by a middle B-section in a different time signature, then goes back to the repeated section (A’ again). Shulman presents seven variations on this theme, which stick closely to the original in terms of harmony and overall contour, but which play with the rhythms and phrasing in increasingly virtuosic ways. The tell-tale sign of the end of a variation is the Picardy third chord - a compositional practice in which a phrase in a minor key finishes on a sudden major chord. The name “Picardy third” comes from how the third of the chord must be raised up one note (e.g. - turning an A-flat into an A-natural) in order to achieve this major harmony.