Variations on a Polish Folk Song

After hearing the brilliant recording of my Variations on a Nursery Rhyme by husband and wife, Duo Klavitarre (Maciej Ziemski, guitar and wife, Jolanta, piano) on their Monalvo label CD, I was encouraged to write another set of variations for this amazing duo. I asked them for examples of Polish folk songs to use and out of several, I chose Zalotny, a Silesian song (Silesia, is a southern Polish region,) for the many opportunities that the theme offered for variation. And, whereas Nursery Rhyme variations was a traditional classical-variation form with sectional repeats and a four-voice fugue as a conclusion, Variations on a Polish Folk Song is by contrast, a through-composed, developing-variation form making full use of the motives from song, Zalotny, which my research tells me refers to a flirtatious boy-girl relationship; this jaunty musical theme is stated in full at the beginning by solo guitar, followed shortly by the piano in “saucy” variation, and thereafter by conversation-like interplay between the two instruments (as the title suggests) and then, a surprise ending. Variations on a Polish Folk Song is scheduled to be premiered in the Fall of 2021 and later to be recorded on the duo’s second CD.