JOHNSTONE – Melodic Variations on ‘Amazing Grace’ – Quartet of FOUR CELLOS

Movements or sections:
Set in Theme + Variation form.
After the initial original melody, heard twice, the variations unfold. The first variation does not wander too far from the original theme, but shows how the cellos are always divided up in pairs of instrumentalists. Variation II substantially moves the tempo forward with an almost Spanish flavour of pizzicatos and a type of ‘Mendelssohn’ feeling from the melody. Variation III relaxes the pace again, and is clearly like a ‘Barcarolle’. From Variation IV the movements are larger and above all more worked out. This fourth variation is in the form of a Gavotte which appears to have several verses in itself, and in varying variations inside this one variation! Therefore, it may even be performed as a separate musical number. A transition of chromatic sequences leads into Variation V, which is dubbed ‘The Reger Variation’ for it is here that the most intricate harmonies of the entire work are found, and especially for cellos 2 and 3. Without hesitation the music moves directly into a sonorous Variation VI, indeed a grandiose variation in which the first two cellos expressively deliver the principal melody as if a vocal duet, whilst cellos 3 and 4 have almost constant triplets in rather an orchestral guise! The end of this variation then quickly becomes tamed and much sweeter, leading us into a delicate Coda, which contains small fragments of the original melody over a kind of gently moving drone bass.