cosmic variations on a haunted theme

Duration ca. 13' (2003)
violin, cello, piano

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Premiered by Opus 3 Trio, Hearst Hall, National Cathedral, Washington, DC, March 30, 2003.

Other performances: Opus 3 Trio, Snake River Chamber Festival, CO, August 10, 2003; Washington, DC, October 29, 2006.

Leshnoff's command of instrumental color is so firm, and his tart, insinuating harmonies so arresting...strong-limbed and imaginative.
—Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, July 2012

program note

Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme, written in a two-month period in 2002 for Opus 3 Trio. The opening nineteen measures, framed by a sustained major second in the violin and violoncello, presage the subsequent nine variations not only by presenting the primary thematic material, but also by juxtaposing the two contrasting moods of the composition: timeless/heavenly and fast/furious. Leshnoff introduces the three-note head motive of the theme before adding its five-note conclusion. Variations unfold in groups of three with Variations 3, 6, and 9 entitled “Music of the Heavens.” We hear the theme in the piano (Var. 1), violin (Var. 2), and fragmented in all three instruments (Var. 3). Variation 2 is significant because it contains a secondary theme in the piano introduced over a D-sharp pedal point. Of hypnotic beauty, this theme is reminiscent of themes in works by composers as diverse as Bach, Paganini, and Crumb. Accumulated momentum culminates for the first time in Variation 4 (predominantly in marked 6/8 meter). Variation 5 concerns the head motive in dialogue between strings and piano, an idea revisited in Variation 8 in which the motive is now accompanied by vigorous chords reminiscent of Variation 5. Variations 3, 6 and 9, are contemplative, while Variations 6 and 9 combine the central theme with the secondary theme introduced in Variation 2. Cosmic Variations ends as it began, with a sense of timelessness in which the opening motive is now but a distant memory as the secondary theme fades into the eternity “. . . of the heavens.”