variation for 3 compact discs
A familiar composition unfolds, only to be shadowed by its own echo. A Vivaldi sonata emerges with clarity, then becomes entangled with a fragile, imperfect memory of itself, hummed, reconstructed, and slightly displaced. As layers accumulate, the original dissolves into a shifting texture of recognition and uncertainty, where precision and approximation coexist. The work opens a space between listening and remembering, where repetition becomes variation.
The piece explores how canonical music is transformed through memory and embodiment. By layering the original recording with successive hummed versions, it destabilizes the authority of the source and foregrounds memory as a generative process. The interaction between structure and deviation reflects on how cultural forms are internalized and altered, suggesting that repetition always produces difference.
Variation for 3 Compact Discs consists of three CD players. The first plays a Vivaldi sonata for two guitars; the second and third feature recordings of the artist humming the same sonata from memory, with the third transposed one octave higher. Each player enters sequentially at specific moments, creating overlapping layers that produce continuously shifting sonic variations.
