Frederic Hand

Theme, Variations and Finale

Theme, Variations and Finale was written for and dedicated to my dear friend Benjamin Verdery. Ben and I met when he was nineteen and one of my first college students. It was clear then that Ben was a unique talent and destined to become one of our great guitarists. He is now Professor of Classical Guitar at Yale University. For this piece I've tuned the third string to F sharp and the sixth string to D. This allowed me access to harmonies and sonorities that I've not before explored. Many were darker and more terse than the musical language I'm accustomed to. Especially intriguing was the combination of fretted notes up on the fingerboard on the lower strings, with higher open strings. The interval of a second, ascending, descending or both, is featured throughout each movement. - Frederic Hand, composer