Charles Wuorinen’s Variations for guitar solo was composed in 1994 for Todd Seelye, who commissioned the work. This is a monumental addition to the guitar repertoire. While there are solo guitar pieces which exceed Wuorinen’s Variations in length, there is absolutely no work for solo guitar which approaches this level, of integration, this grandeur of scale, design and conception. One striking aspect of the musical surface is the frequent recurrence of a six-note figure, three notes, and a complementary three which reflect some flavor of mirror or retrograde, or otherwise flipping of the first three. As these figures become faster throughout the work it is as if the surface intermittently quickens into a dense knot, only to be flipped back into the warm, human pace which prevails.

 -W1lliam Anderson