Composer’s Note:

As I began thinking about composing a piece for William Peterson and Pomona’s new Fisk organ I found myself returning to certain intervals, mostly rising whole steps topped off by a half-step. At some point it came to me that these are the intervals of “Es ist genug” a Lutheran hymn tune written by Johann Rudolph Ahle in 1662. The melody is well-known, principally from Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale setting and from Alban Berg’s quotation of that setting in his Violin Concerto. The tune is beguiling and unusual in its opening intervals and its phrase structure, which leave us floating in the key of the dominant far longer than the “central” key.

Upon further reflection, abstract intervals were out the window, and it was clear that I should use this tune as a basis for the piece. The resulting Variations on “Es ist genug” is just what the title implies.