Toledo composer and teacher Jay Welenc re-harmonizes and orchestrates the Granados waltz theme to depict the adventures and perils of maritime life, symbolized in this episode by a sailcloth. He conducts a performance by his students at Toledo School for the Arts.

Cleveland-based composer Meredith Gulla uses a three-note snippet of the Granados waltz theme to craft a piano solo based on the cloud-like softness of her high school prom dress, a symbol of adulthood. She takes us through a series of rhapsodic musical episodes, akin to flashbacks from her youth, styled in a way that’s sometimes whimsical, other times earnest, and heartwarming throughout.

Wisconsin artist Stephen Deeter is a composer, a vocalist, and a lyricist too. His poem “Secondhand” traces his musings on what it means to love and be loved, taking inspiration from both a thrift-shop quilt and from his relationship with his partner. In Stephen’s variation on the Granados waltz theme, he sets “Secondhand” to music by playing with the melodic contour of the original theme and supporting the text with modern-minded harmony.

Hong Kong-born composer Alvin Leung shares his electroacoustic interpretation of the Granados waltz theme, taking inspiration from flannel textures. He nestles fragments of the original theme into an atmospheric soundscape that’s reminiscent of wintertime and all its coziness.

Cincinnati-based composer Michael Nicht contributes a piano solo to the patchwork, taking inspiration from a beautiful brindle prayer shawl. In this variation, Michael casts the Granados theme in an asymmetrical meter with surprising harmonies to convey the instability one may experience in the search for spirituality.

Welcome to The Patchwork Suite, a theme and variations project based on a waltz by Enrique Granados. Here, Mary Claire Murphy uncovers the scope of the podcast, surveys the life of Enrique Granados, and introduces the waltz theme that will reappear under various guises throughout the series.