Variations

My piece is subtitled ‘Homage to Haydn’. Why? Because it is modelled on Haydn’s Variations in F minor/major. But modelled does not imply pastiche or imitation. From Brahms onwards (if not before) there are countless examples of pieces modelled on others in a variety of ways. To do this does not imply a closeness to the original, rather inevitably a distance from it. I don’t know whether a listener would be the wiser for knowing the original. In any case a composition must stand on its own feet. Alexander Goehr