Listening to the Goldberg Variations (2021)

Looking for a text to set for Jenny Wollerman’s epic 21 x 21 project, I came across a beautiful poem titled Listening to The Goldberg Variations by New Zealand poet Elizabeth Smither. Rhapsodic and musical in its use of language, it paints a dreamy and imaginative picture of two people escaping a “disagreeable dinner party” and finding a piano, where the gentleman plays Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It seemed an opportunity to use some snippets of Bach amidst the rest of the musical setting.

Instrumentation: soprano and piano

Duration: ca. 5 1/2 minutes
Commissioned and performed by Jenny Wollerman, soprano, and Jian Liu, piano

Now available on Atoll records!