When I was very young and just beginning to compose, around age 7 or so, I did many exercises where I would compose a short little piece that was in the style of a Bach Chorale. I did many of these exercises because they can help you with your counterpoint, voice leading, and harmony. But I found it frustrating that I couldn’t use the harmonic language with which I felt comfortable expressing myself because there were a set of rules based on the Bach Chorales that prevented me from doing so. Some years later, when I decided to write a piano piece, and specifically a Theme and Variations, I decided to start by writing a Chorale. And this time, instead of limiting myself by following the rules of the exercises I had done in the past, I decided to just compose how I wanted to and use the harmonic language that I felt comfortable with. And so, I wrote a Chorale that used a very expressionistic harmonic language, and then I wrote ten variations that followed. In these ten variations you will always be able to hear some element of the theme at the very beginning of the piece. You will be able to sometimes hear the soprano line and the melody on the top or any of the other three voices below it, or sometimes the music will simply be based on the harmonic progression.