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Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)

“This Land is Your Land” is simultaneously a patriotic hymn for schoolchildren, a rallying cry for immigrants, and, in Woody Guthrie’s original version, a sardonic protest song. But the message remains the same: America belongs to everyone, regardless of their background.

My variations aim to reflect the reality of America’s situation. Each variation grows more distant from the theme and more violent in character, until giving way to a gentle plea for unity. We are left wondering, “Whose land is this land?”

Each variation expressed the iconic and familiar tune in a different aesthetic, encompassing humor, dissonance, innocence, dream-like mists, ending in uncertainty as if questioning. The Boston Musical Intelligencer

"Variations on This Land Is Your Land" takes the cheerful self-assuredness of the original tune and churns it into a complex, dissonant, and delicate meditation on whose land we live on, and what it means to tell and re-tell that story. White Crate

The variations {…} progress from versions that range from playful to jovial to gradually darkening ones that evoke the country's current state of malaise and division. Textura

Was Ravaei interrogating the aspirational notion that “This land belongs to you and me?” Just what is meant by “you and me,” one couldn't help thinking, in a purported union that has and continues to marginalize, victimize, and terrorize certain groups and individuals? San Francisco Classical Voice

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Details

  • For solo piano
  • Category: Solo
  • Year Composed: 2023
  • Duration: 7'
  • Tags: American Folk Music, Social Justice
  • View Score ›

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Broadcasts

Performances

  • 28 NOV 2026
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
  • Hamburg, Germany
  • Lara Downes, piano
  • 9 MAY 2026
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Cal Performances
  • Berkeley, CA
  • Lara Downes, piano
  • 18 MAY 2025
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Juventas New Music Ensemble
  • Boylston, MA
  • Julia Scott Carey, piano
  • 17 MAY 2025
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Juventas New Music Ensemble
  • Boylston, MA
  • Julia Scott Carey, piano
  • 8 APR 2025
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Meany Center for the Performing Arts at University of Washington
  • Seattle, WA
  • Lara Downes, piano
  • 15 JAN 2025
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Joe's Pub at The Public Theater
  • New York, NY
  • Lara Downes, piano
  • 21 JUL 2024
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Newport Classical Music Festival
  • Newport, RI
  • Lara Downes, piano
  • 6 JUL 2024
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Lincoln Center
  • New York, NY
  • Lara Downes, piano
  • 3 JUL 2024
  • Variations on "This Land is Your Land" (Version for Solo Piano)
  • Brevard Music Center
  • Brevard, NC
  • Lara Downes, piano

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