In the early 1990s I was independently requested by two good friends to write a piano piece based on existing music, John Snijders (Amsterdam) desiring one based on Bizet’s Carmen and Daniel Matej (Bratislava) one on Satie’s Three Pieces on the Form of a Pear. I felt reminded of two pianist acquaintances who had commissioned similar collections – Aki Takahashi with pieces based on Beatles’ songs as well as Yvar Mikhashoff and the tangos written for him. Thereupon I decided (as if also asked by Takahashi and Mikhashoff) to write one piece fulfilling all four prerequisites. This piece indeed begins with the Satie work, of which the falling third at the end of the opening phrase is here bridged by a chromatic phrase, subsequently the sole representative of (and thereby dispensing with) Satie; a tangolike passage then leads to the simultaneous rendition of Bizets Habañera and McCartneys Michelle – note the descending chromatic scales there! To make a version for each of the four (two of them albeit involuntary) initiators I transposed the finished piece into four different keys and supplied them with four different titles:

1: Helmut: un morceau lourd en forme de poire (for Daniel Matej)

2: Des nus descendant une échelle (for John Snijders)

3: Elle l’a vue, elle l’a bue, la pomme insatiable (for Aki Takahashi) 

4: Chronique tangentielle 36°52′12″ (for Yvar Mikhashoff)