Leonovich - Brilliant Variations on “Three Blind Mice” (For Cello and Piano)

Brilliant Variations on “Three Blind Mice” began while I was deep in the world of nineteenth-century cello fantasies. After more than three years of work on the Servais Urtext Project, I found myself drawn to the bravura, theatricality, and occasional absurdity of the Romantic concert fantasy. The word “Brilliant” in the title is a nod to that tradition, where fantasies and variation sets often promised sparkle, display, and more than a little drama.

The piece was inspired by and dedicated to my friend Charles Morey, violinist in the Cincinnati Symphony. I have known Charles for about twenty years, and he is exactly the kind of fantastic and eccentric musician who would be up for a strange idea like this. I thought of him the entire time I was composing it.

The piece was first planned for a Valentine’s Day concert. I originally considered using “That’s Amore” as the theme, but for various reasons, including copyright, “Three Blind Mice” turned out to be the better choice. That performance never happened, and the piece eventually took on a second life as a version for cello and piano.

In this version, much of the original violin material became cello material, while the piano part gave the piece a deeper and darker frame. The piece is really a set of double variations, built on “Three Blind Mice” and the suspiciously similar finale theme from Haydn’s Hen Symphony. From there, the tune passes through affectionate echoes of Schubert, Sibelius, Lyadov, Mendelssohn, and Servais. One of the variations had already found another life in 2025, when the B-flat variation was repurposed into one of my Ukrainian Biblical Songs. The result is intentionally absurd, but treated with complete seriousness.

Duration: ca. 5 minutes Difficulty: ASTA Grade 5 Includes: score and separate cello part