Commissioned to compose a piece for MIDI piano and chamber orchestra for the Glenn Gould Conference in celebration of what would have been the pianist's sixtieth birthday, Hatzis took as his starting point J.S.Bach's Goldberg Variations, the work with which Gould started and ended his illustrious recording career.

The commission's requirement for the incorporation of a MIDI piano, in addition to the conventional piano played by a member of the ensemble, suggested that Gould?s idiosyncratic performing style could somehow be incorporated into the composition of this work. This was done by means of computer analysis and quantization of the pianist's recorded performances, which was then applied to the newly composed music. The composer, aware of Gould's attitude to such matters led him to feel that the artist would have been the first to endorse such irreverence, much more so if even the slightest of gains could result from the inquiry.

The Gouldberg Variations is thus a set of variations on a set of variations by J.S.Bach. Each of the new variations explores a different compositional idea (intervalic and rhythmic stretching, alternating between conflicting tonalities, layering and juxtaposition, to mention but a few) or a combination thereof. The original music is always recognizable - however disjointed - throughout the course of the piece. The composer notes that in a sense the entire composition may be viewed as a set of overlapping compositions and interpretations touching at the very essence of the post-modernist aesthetic.