About the creation

My friend the pianist asked me to compose for him five minutes of music to complete the program of his forthcoming recital. So, I settled down to think what can be done music-wise with five minutes of empty time. I tried to weave a set of variations around a traditional tune of rare beauty, but when I reached the fourth variation, I realized that they would far exceed the five minutes allotted to me. Besides, the Diabelli theme of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations does not possess much beauty. So, I started to improvise a slow introduction, not having the slightest idea of what this introduction is supposed to introduce. But as soon as that introduction exhausted itself and reached a standstill, something very lively popped up and started moving, evolving and growing. In turn, out of this "lively something" grew a new "something", moving, evolving and growing canon-wise and transforming itself in endless variation. And when all this bustle exhausted itself, the canon dissolves into fragments and reaching a standstill, up comes again the slow introduction, this time in a different key, this time to introduce the final coda. But this coda is nothing else but a new variation of our “lively something” rushing forth in racing tempo, complete with a short reminder of the canon.

This is how my little Sonatina came into being. It was not my doing. At the most, I jotted down the notes or rather put them up on my computer’s desktop, obeying the inner necessity of what was evolving before my mind’s eyes and ears. This same inner necessity decreed the duration of seven minutes or so, in excess of the five originally allotted to me. I hereby extend my sincere apology to my dear friend the pianist.