When I was asked to write a piece for two pianos, my first reaction was puzzlement over how to write an interesting piece for two instruments as complete and full-bodied as the piano. I decided to write two different parts that would sometimes complement each other, sometimes seem to struggle against each other, but which would, in the end, add up to more than any single piano part could encompass.

As the title suggests, Duovarios is, loosely, two sets of variations for duo-pianists. The theme of Piano II, which enters first, is a set of five “tetrads”, arranged in a palindrome: 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 -- and each “1” begins a new series. This pattern continues rigorously throughout the 13-minute piece, usually at a speed of about one chord per measure. Of course the pattern is only the rack on which the variations are hung. . . . Piano I has a 12-tone row as its “theme”, and it is variation form only in the sense that all 12-tone music is. However, several motifs derived from the row are repeated frequently thoughout the piece, and suggest sonata or rondo form more than variation.

“Duovarios” was written for David Bradshaw and Cosmo Buono, who premiered it in Alice Tully Hall, NYC, in January 1988. It can be heard on N/S R 1029, Elizabeth Bell “Snows of Yesteryear”, performed by Loretta Goldberg and Jennifer Rinehart.