Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the San Diego Symphony commissioned a new work for narrator and orchestra based on Jack Prelutsky’s whimsical book of poetry, “Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant.” Notes were applied to the nine letters of Mr. Prelutsky’s last name (B-D-E-E-G-F-E-D-E), creating an opening musical figure for the title poem that would carry throughout the piece. This motive then became the basis of a series of variations that would become the setting of each subsequent poem. For the two-piano version of these Umbrellaphant Variations, the original recited narration has been removed, retaining just the given title of each poem.
The solo piano version of Umbrellaphant Variations can be found in Collected Works for Piano Vol. 3 (music book).
