A French Variation On "Korobeiniki" ("Tetris" Theme) (2023) for solo piano

Soren Stavnicky (b. 2003)

This piece was written as the final project in a music theory course I took earlier this year. Everyone was asked to compose a piece (of any instrumentation we wanted), choosing one of the various musical styles/genres we covered that semester. It seemed the most natural choice for me on that list was Impressionism. My introduction to classical music essentially was from the timeless, gorgeous piano works of Claude Debussy, and I thought it would be a nice project to try and write in that expressive, colorful, French style he pioneered.

For a central theme or idea, I thought it would be fun to take an iconic melody that everyone knows, and approach it as if someone like Debussy or Ravel were writing a variation on it. I eventually landed on the 19th century Russian folk tune, “Korobeiniki”, commonly known today as the main theme to the iconic video game "Tetris."

My main idea was to utilize the melodic shaping of this tune, and fit it to the chords, voicings, and harmonies that are prevalent in Impressionist music. Things like Debussy's prevalent use of the whole-tone scale, very spaced-out and open-ended chords (stacked fourths and fifths), the use of chord planing, monophonic melodic lines (often doubled at the octave), and very colorful arpeggios in the left hand while the right hand has more of the melodic drive, propelling the piece forward.

Performed and Recorded by Sequoia Sounds, piano

If you would like your piano piece brought to life, Sequoia is available for work so please do check his website and YouTube channel out:

sequoiasounds.com

www.youtube.com/@SequoiaSounds

Link to the scrolling score video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcwIJoglvM