The Dietrich Variations

by Jeff Pittson

	/

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Full-color 6-Panel Digipak, designed by Evan Pittson. Only 200 copies produced.

Includes unlimited streaming of The Dietrich Variations via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

edition of 200

$16 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$12 USD or more
Full Digital Discography

5

releases

Get all 5 Jeff Pittson releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Awake, Modern Artifact, The Dietrich Variations, Invisible Love, and Go Where It's Dangerous. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$32.20 USD or more (30% OFF)

1.	Theme: Falling in Love Again (Can't Help it) 03:22	info	buy track
2.	Lonesome Love 02:03	info	buy track
3.	Westworld 01:34	info	buy track
4.	Exile Rhapsody 02:08	info	buy track
5.	Hamburg 00:46	info	buy track
6.	Mysterium 01:33	info	buy track
7.	Night Intervals 01:20	info	buy track
8.	Watercolors 01:05	info	buy track
9.	Bodhi Tree Satti 05:10	info	buy track
10.	Third Eye 01:33	info	buy track
11.	Running Man 00:57	info	buy track
12.	Eight Winds 00:49	info	buy track
13.	Preludium 01:07	info	buy track
14.	Inventio 01:36	info	buy track
15.	Pianola Duo 01:10	info	buy track
16.	Opus Posthuma 03:10	info	buy track
17.	Love Lost Tango 02:41	info	buy track
18.	Tears In The Rain 07:04	info	buy track
19.	Les Six 01:23	info	buy track
20.	Majorca 01:21	info	buy track
21.	The View From Manhattan 02:07	info	buy track
22.	Leningrad 01:17	info	buy track
23.	Shiva 03:19	info	buy track
24.	Etude In Fifths 01:04	info	buy track
25.	Microdensities 02:11	info	buy track
26.	Endlessly Rising 01:13	info	buy track
27.	Fantasies 03:33	info	buy track
28.	Flying Dutchman 01:24	info	buy track
29.	The Starry Sky 03:36	info	buy track
30.	Fanfare 01:53	info	buy track
31.	Fin De Siecle 04:16	info	buy track
32.	Reductio 02:56	info	buy track
33.	Coda 01:19	info	buy track

about

Thirty-one Fantasy Variations on "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help it

“Why tonality as such should be thrown out for good, I can’t see.
Why it should be always present, I can’t see.”

–Charles Ives, “Some Quarter-Tone Impressions”
from Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings

The Dietrich Variations, named for the actor Marlene Dietrich, pays homage to composers ranging from the romantic era to those who contributed to that musical explosion known as the twentieth century. From Fin-De-Siecle Vienna circa 1900, Igor Stravinsky with Le Sacre Du Printemps, to the very end of the century, European influenced classical music experienced a sonic “Big Bang” in style, harmony, national influences and textures in which we witness the development of a nearly overwhelming bandwidth of musical variety. The piece is a loosely conceived set of fantasy-variations based on the song by Frederick Hollander and premiered by Ms. Dietrich in the 1930 film Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel). Following the film’s success as the first major German sound movie, and establishing Dietrich as an international star, Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It) became her personal anthem, the signature song of her more than five decade career.

The variations, written in 1999–2000, have a variety of origins: some began as fragments, sketches on paper or in the computer, some as developed lead sheets or short scores; many began as improvisations, either in real-time or by layering through the use of MIDI recording and editing. Some were first takes and others were edited as necessary, trying to follow the software analogy that the best end of the pencil is the eraser. For this recording, the Wersi CP-2 digital piano was connected to an Opcode MIDI interface running into a 1996 Apple Macintosh. The sequencing software was MOTU Performer.

Twentieth century composers since Gustav Mahler have confronted the convergence of tonality, atonality and serialism by utilizing or borrowing from each procedure. For example, Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland turned to 12-tone technique rather late in their careers. Alban Berg, while being a serialist, was able to artistically balance elements of tonality and atonality to forge a powerful personal style that remains the most popular of the Second Viennese School. Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of Twelve-tone technique, at the same time, stated that there is still much great music to be written in C major and wrote tonal music occasionally as late as the 1940s. Elliott Carter began as a tonalist and then developed a highly personalized sonic universe of his own.

Finally, in praise of tonality, Leonard Bernstein, in his sixth and final Norton lecture entitled The Poetry of Earth, asserts that tonality and melody are components of our common “musical earth” that have always been present and always will be. In his opinion our tonal heritage exists at the core of our artistic-spiritual DNA and manifests in a multiplicity of music from around the planet whether classical, popular or indigenous folk.

Special thanks to Walter Gray for introducing me to chamber music concerts as a teen, Jerry Kuderna for being the inspiration for the Dietrich’s, and Wally Schnalle and Dave Bell for their technical support. Most of all, deepest thanks to Suzanne with whom I fell in love again.

–Jeff Pittson, Dobbs Ferry, NY (January 2018)

credits

released July 17, 2018

Jeff Pittson: piano

All music composed by Jeff Pittson, November 2000–March 2001
(Jeff Pittson Publishing, BMI)
except "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help it"
composed by Frederick Hollander, English lyric by Sammy Lerner
(Pensive Music/Frederick Hollander Music, ASCAP)

Engineering: Dave Bell
Mastering: September 30, 2001, Bellboy Recording, Richmond, CA
Graphic Design: Evan Pittson
Piano Illustration: Jeff Pittson

license

about

Jeff Pittson New York, New York

Jeff Pittson represents a dynamic force in the world of jazz having performed with such important figures as Joe Henderson, Ruth Brown, Eddie Henderson, John Handy, Jack Walrath, Mike Clark, Maynard Ferguson, Larry Coryell, Kenny Garrett, and many more. A virtuoso performer on piano and Moog synthesizer, he is also fluent on a wide spectrum of keyboards including Hammond B-3. ... more

jeffpittson.com

contact / help

Contact Jeff Pittson

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Jeff Pittson, you may also like:

Out of the Dark
by Caleb Colledge

featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 23, 2021
go to album
Into the Anthropocene
by Pascal Le Boeuf

Described as “an ecological history of humanity,” this sparse, tense suite of songs perfectly balances melody and chaos. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 28, 2018
go to album
Jacob's Ladder
by Brad Mehldau

featured on Bandcamp Radio Feb 22, 2022
go to album
Fleeting Future
by Akusmi

Inspired by a trip to Indonesia, “Fleeting Future” is an album chock full of dense and dizzying jazz compositions. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 27, 2022
go to album
robyn
by cktrl

featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 3, 2020
go to album
moogmemory
by Matthew Bourne

featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 8, 2015
go to album
Colour Talk
by Bram De Looze

Stark and moving piano compositions that feel as delicate as snowfall and as hushed as a late winter’s night. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 22, 2020
go to album