Interlochen Variations: Jones

[pren...@win.bright.net]

Does anyone know anything about Douglas K. Jones, the composer of the
band piece, "Interlochen Variations".. It is published by TRN Music
Publisher. (1982) Any help as to a Web source or other resource would be
appreciated. Please e-mail me as I am preparing a concert and do not
check my newsgroups much these days. Please list "DAWN LEGGE" in the
subject line. Thanks.

Dawn Legge
Prentice WI High School Band

[douglas.j...@gmail.com]

Hi Dawn -- Douglas Jones here, the composer of Interlochen Variations. I'm sorry to see that I'm about 18 years late seeing your request for information. I hope you got the information you needed. Sheesh, being 18 years ago, you may have even retired by now.....

[trd...@gmail.com]

Mr. Jones,
I played Interlochen Variations in high school.... in 1985..... I loved the piece at the time and NEVER EVER forgot about the song. I have a question. ... why was the song written. ... did have anything to do with Interlochen Center for the arts or is it a tribute to Interlochen Switzerland? I'm curious to know. Thanks in advance.

[douglas.j...@gmail.com]

On Friday, January 9, 2015 at 10:19:04 PM UTC-6, trd...@gmail.com wrote:
> Mr. Jones,
> I played Interlochen Variations in high school.... in 1985..... I loved the piece at the time and NEVER EVER forgot about the song. I have a question. ... why was the song written. ... did have anything to do with Interlochen Center for the arts or is it a tribute to Interlochen Switzerland? I'm curious to know. Thanks in advance.

Hi there,

My apologies for the slow response. I just happened across your post, but never remember getting an email to notify me of it.

As for your question, I named the piece for the Interlochen Center For The Arts. I spent the summer of 1980 there studying composition, and this piece was my primary project. I had originally written the tune (the 3/4 section) as something to play on the piano a couple of years earlier. Then after thinking about a piece by Claude T. Smith (Declaration Overture) that I had played in band a couple of years before, I began experimenting with different treatments of the melody in 4/4 and at different tempos. So with my ideas in hand, I headed of to Interlochen in 1980 to see if I could pull it all together. Honestly, I couldn't come up with any names that I liked, so I thought it would be fun to name it after the music camp since that is where I wrote it.

Thanks for asking. I'm glad you liked the piece!

Douglas

[justin...@gmail.com]

That is so funny! I played Interlochen variations in high school. Then when I became a high school band director myself, I came across the peace declaration Overture by Claude T Smith. After hearing the first eight bars or so, I remember thinking, "oh my gosh... That's Interlochen variations! I wonder who ripped off who here haha!"

I often thought about doing some sort of musical Discovery unit with my kids where we learn declaration Overture and then, unassumingly, I pass out Interlochen variations and have the kids read it. See if anybody else notices. I no longer teach but if anyone else wants to run with that idea, please let me know! I would love to hear how it worked for you and your students.

-Justin