Variacions sobre un tema popular (Variations on a popular theme), for piano 4 hands

I wrote these Variations on a previous harmonization of a theme that was part of a collection of pieces intended for beginning piano players when I worked at the Escola de Música del Palau of Barcelona. It is a Catalan children’s song also known as Galop de cortesia.

The variations experiment with piano resources and polytonal harmonies that echo composers as diverse as Stravinsky, Schubert, or the late composer Adelaida Vallribera i Soler (✞2012), with whom I had the good fortune to share friendship and creative projects.

This work provided me with a scholarship to participate in a composition course with the composer Leonardo Balada in 1991.

Joan Josep Gutiérrez Yzquierdo