Hjemstavn Variants

The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America selected George Gregory of San Antonio, Texas, to play a carillon recital at the World Carillon Federation Congress in Løgumkloster, Denmark, in 1982. The congress committee requested that all recitalists play a piece based on a Danish folksong and provided a set of folksongs from which to pick.   George asked Theron Kirk to pick one of the folksongs and create a carillon arrangement for his recital. Kirk chose "I skovens dybe stille ro" which translates to "In the deep quiet calm of the forest" but chose to name his arrangement, “Hjemstavn Variants.” “Hjemstavn” means the place where you live and grow up. A "jangle of bells" is used three times between the variations.

Kirk was chairman of the Department of Music and Humanities at San Antonio College (now part of the Alamo Community Colleges), San Antonio, Texas. George, who also taught at the school, encouraged Kirk to write music for the carillon. Kirk composed another carillon composition, “Introduction and Tower Toccata,” also published by ACME.