Judith Shatin - Chai Variations on 'Eliahu Ha'Navi'

[andhow04]

here is a fascinating set of variations by Judith Shatin on a Jewish liturgical song, 'Eliahu Ha'Navi' (Elijah the Prophet)

the song itself is folk-like with simple harmony structure.

what's interesting about these variations is that there are 18 of them, the sum of the letters in 'Chai' meaning life or living in Hebrew. the composer asks the performer, to arrange the order of the 18 variations. you just start and end with the theme, and in between it is your choice.

the variations are in different styles, some are more 'fore-grounded' with the melody and others are much more abstract and even pointillistic.

i played this live a few times, and also made an audio recording, but the composer and iw orked on this editorial video version, that starts with an interview between the two of us. the piece itself starts at 15:55