Prismatic Variations
for solo violin, solo cello (or viola) and ensemble
(2025)
instrumentation: 1(f/p)11(c/bc)1/1110/2pc,hp,pn/2111 - solo violin, solo cello (or viola)
duration: 12 minutes
Premiere performances:
IU New Music Ensemble; David Dzubay, conductor
Kyung Sun Lee, violin
Eric Kim, cello
IU Auer Hall; March 13, 2026
Yonsei University Kuhmo Concert Hall, March 18, 2026
K-ARTS Lee Kang Sook Hall, March 21, 2026
Kyung Sun Lee, violin
Kangho Lee, cello
Kookmin University Concert Hall, March 19, 2026
Kyung Sun Lee, violin
Yoon Kyung Shin, viola
MIDI preview recording:
Perusal Score:
Program Note:
Prismatic Variations was composed for a series of concerts by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music New Music Ensemble in Bloomington and Seoul, South Korea, in March 2026. Supported by Dean Abra Bush, the project unites current students, faculty, and alumni in creating eight new works on the theme of connection, celebrating the strong and enduring musical bonds between South Korea and the Jacobs School. IU faculty violinist Kyung Sun Lee performs the solo violin part on tour, joined by cellist Kangho Lee (K-Arts) and violist Yoon Kyung Shin (Kookmin University) in Seoul, and cellist Eric Kim (IU faculty) in Bloomington. The work’s primary motifs—derived from the soloists’ names and translated into pitches using French and German pitch-letter conventions—form an octatonic scale, symmetrically alternating half and whole steps. This, together with the acoustic scale drawn from the harmonic series, shapes the work’s harmonic language. The piece opens with a theme of two extended phrases presenting the main ideas, followed by fourteen variations in a fast–slow–fast design. The title, borrowed from Donald Erb, evokes the play of light through a prism—musical reflections, refractions, and diffractions of its motivic ideas.
David Dzubay, September 2025