Variation (music)
Encyclopedia
In music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, variation is a formal
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...
technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
, timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
, orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
or any combination of these.
Variation form
Variation forms include ground bass, passacagliaPassacaglia
The passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....
, chaconne
Chaconne
A chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
, and theme and variations. Ground bass, passacaglia and chaconne are typically based on brief ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
motifs providing a repetitive harmonic basis and are also typically continuous evolving structures. 'Theme and variation' forms are however based specifically on melodic variation, in which the fundamental musical idea, or theme
Theme (music)
In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.-Characteristics:A theme may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found . In contrast to an idea or motif, a theme is...
, is repeated in altered form or accompanied in a different manner. 'Theme and variation' structure generally begins with a theme (which is itself sometimes preceded by an introduction), typically between eight and thirty-two bars in length; each variation, particularly in music of the eighteenth century and earlier, will be of the same length and structure as the theme. This form may in part have derived from the practical inventiveness of musicians; "Court dances were long; the tunes which accompanied them were short. Their repetition became intolerably wearisome, and inevitably led the player to indulge in extempore variation and ornament"; however, the format of the dance required these variations to maintain the same duration and shape of the tune.
Variation forms can be written as 'free-standing' pieces for solo instruments or ensembles, or can constitute a movement
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
of a larger piece. Most jazz music is structured on a basic pattern of theme and variations.
History of variations
Although the first isolated example emerged in the 14th century, works in theme-and-variation form first emerge in the history of classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
in the early sixteenth century. Possibly the earliest published example is the diferencias for vihuela
Vihuela
Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands.-History:The vihuela, as it was known...
by Luis de Narváez
Luis de Narváez
Luis de Narváez was a Spanish composer and vihuelist. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Narváez is known today for Los seys libros del delphín, a collection of polyphonic music for the vihuela which includes the earliest known variation sets...
(1538). A favorite form of variations in Renaissance music
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
was divisions
Division (music)
Division in music refers to a type of ornamentation or variation common in 16th and 17th century music in which each note of a melodic line is "divided" into several shorter, faster-moving notes, often by a rhythmic repetition of a simple musical device such as the trill, turn or cambiata on each...
, a type in which the basic rhythmic beat is successively divided into smaller and smaller values. The basic principle of beginning with simple variations and moving on to more elaborate ones has always been present in the history of the variation form, since it provides a way of giving an overall shape to a variation set, rather letting it just form an arbitrary sequence.
Keyboard works in variation form were written by a number of 16th century English composers, including William Byrd
William Byrd
William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...
, Hugh Aston
Hugh Aston
Hugh Aston was an English composer of the early Tudor period. While little of his music survives, he is notable for his innovative keyboard writing.- Life :...
and Giles Farnaby
Giles Farnaby
Giles Farnaby was an English composer and virginalist of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.-Life:Giles Farnaby was born about 1563, perhaps in Truro, Cornwall, England or near London. His father, Thomas, was a Cittizen and Joyner of London, and Giles may have been related to Thomas Farnaby , the...
. Two famous variation sets from the Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
era, both originally written for harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, are George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's The Harmonious Blacksmith
The Harmonious Blacksmith
The Harmonious Blacksmith is the popular name of the final movement, Air and variations, of George Frideric Handel's Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430, for harpsichord...
set, and Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Goldberg Variations
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
.
In the Classical era, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
wrote a great number of variations, such as the first movement of his Piano Sonata in A, K. 331
Piano Sonata No. 11 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331 is a sonata in three movements:#Andante grazioso — a theme with six variations#Menuetto — a minuet and trio#Alla Turca: Allegretto in A minor and major....
, or the finale of his Clarinet Quintet
Clarinet Quintet (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, was written in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. A clarinet quintet is a work for one clarinet and a string quartet . Although originally written for basset clarinet, it is almost always played on a clarinet in A or B-flat...
. Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
specialized in sets of double variation
Double variation
The double variation is a musical form used in classical music. It is a type of theme and variations that employs two themes. In a double variation set, a first theme is followed by a second theme , followed by a variation on A, then a variation on B, and so on with alternating A and B...
s, in which two related themes, usually minor and major, are presented and then varied in alternation; outstanding examples are the slow movement of his Symphony No. 103
Symphony No. 103 (Haydn)
The Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major, Hoboken 1/103, is the eleventh of the twelve so-called London Symphonies written by Joseph Haydn.This symphony is nicknamed "The Drumroll", after the long roll on the timpani with which it begins....
, the Drumroll, and the Variations in F minor
Variations in F minor
The Andante with variations in F minor , also known as Un piccolo divertimento, was composed for piano by Joseph Haydn in 1793, and is among his most popular piano works. The variations here are a set of double variations, the first theme is in F minor and the second theme in F major...
for piano, H XVII:6.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
wrote many variation sets in his career. Some were independent sets, for instance the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120
Diabelli Variations
The 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120, commonly known as the Diabelli Variations, is a set of variations for the piano written between 1819 and 1823 by Ludwig van Beethoven on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli...
. Others form single movements or parts of movements in larger works, such as first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26
Piano Sonata No. 12 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat major, Op. 26 in 1800–1801, around the same time as he completed his First Symphony...
, or the variations in the final movement of the Third Symphony (Eroica)
Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major , also known as the Eroica , is a landmark musical work marking the full arrival of the composer's "middle-period," a series of unprecedented large scale works of emotional depth and structural rigor.The symphony is widely regarded as a mature...
. Variation sets also occur in several of his late works, such as the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127
String Quartet No. 12 (Beethoven)
The String Quartet No. 12 in E major, op. 127, by Ludwig van Beethoven, was completed in 1825. It is the first of Beethoven's late quartets. There are four movements:#Maestoso — Allegro#Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile#Scherzando vivace...
, the second movement of his final Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111
Piano Sonata No. 32 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, is the last of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas. Along with Beethoven's 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, op. 120 and his two collections of bagatelles—Opus 119 and Opus 126 —this was one of Beethoven's last compositions for piano. The...
, and the slow movement of the Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
.
Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
wrote five variation sets using his own lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er as themes. Amongst them is the slow movement of his string quartet Death and the Maiden D. 810, an intense set of variations on his somber lied (D. 531) of the same title. Schubert's Piano Quintet in A (The Trout, D. 667) likewise includes variations on his song The Trout
Die Forelle
Franz Schubert composed his lively lied "Die Forelle" in early 1817 for solo voice and piano. The text is from a poem by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart. In the Deutsch catalog of Schubert's works it is number 550, or D550...
D. 550. The second movement of the Fantasie in C major
Wanderer Fantasy
The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 , popularly known as the Wanderer Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in November 1822. It is considered Schubert's most technically demanding composition for the piano...
comprises a set of variations on Der Wanderer
Der Wanderer
Der Wanderer is the name of a Lied composed by Franz Schubert in October 1816 for voice and piano. A revised version was published near the end of May 1821 as opus 4, number 1. The words are taken from a German poem by Georg Philipp Schmidt...
; indeed the work as a whole takes its popular name from the lied.
In the Romantic
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
era, the variation form was developed further. In 1824, Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. He is best remembered today for his books of études for the piano. Czerny's music was profoundly influenced by his teachers, Muzio Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Ludwig van Beethoven.-Early life:Carl Czerny was born...
premiered his Variations for piano and orchestra on the Austrian National Hymn Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser, Op. 73. Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
wrote four sets for solo piano, and also the Variations on "La ci darem la mano"
Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" (Chopin)
Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" for piano and orchestra, Op. 2, was written in 1827, when he was aged only 17. It was one of the earliest manifestations of Chopin's incipient genius...
from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's opera Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Op. 2, for piano and orchestra (1827). A further example of the form is Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Variations sérieuses
Variations Sérieuses
The Variations sérieuses, Op. 54, is a set of variations, many of them requiring a virtuoso technique, on a theme in D minor by Felix Mendelssohn, lasting about twelve minutes in performance. It was completed on 4 June 1841....
.
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
wrote a number of sets of variations; some of them rely on themes by older composers, for example the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No...
(1861; piano), and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn (1873; orchestra). The latter work is believed to be the first set of variations for orchestra alone that was a work in its own right, rather than part of a symphony, suite or other larger work. Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Enigma Variations
Enigma Variations
Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...
(1899) is another example. Anton Arensky
Anton Arensky
Anton Stepanovich Arensky -Biography:Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine...
's Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky
Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky (Arensky)
Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a, a piece for string orchestra by Anton Arensky, started out as the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 35. It was written in 1894, the year after the death of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in a tribute to that composer...
(1894) is among his most popular compositions.
Variation sets have also been composed by notable twentieth-century composers, including Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
(Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
for piano and orchestra, and his variations for solo piano on themes by Chopin
Variations on a Theme of Chopin (Rachmaninoff)
Not to be confused with a work with the same title by Federico Mompou or Ferruccio Busoni's work of the same title.Variations on a Theme of Chopin , Op. 22, is a group of 22 variations on Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C minor Not to be confused with a work with the same title by Federico Mompou or...
and Corelli), Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
(Variations on America, 1891), Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
(the Variations for Orchestra
Variations for Orchestra
Variations for Orchestra is the last ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam . The premiere took place on Friday, July 2, 1982, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.- Reviews :*],...
, Op. 31, and Theme and Variations, Opp. 43a and 43b), Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
(Pulcinella
Pulcinella (ballet)
Pulcinella is a ballet by Igor Stravinsky based on an 18th-century play — Pulcinella is a character originating from Commedia dell'arte. The ballet premiered at the Paris Opera on 15 May 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet. The dancer Léonide Massine created both the libretto and choreography,...
: XV Gavotta con due variazioni, 1920; Octet
Octet (music)
In music, an octet is a musical ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or a musical composition written for such an ensemble.-Octets in classical music:Octets in classical music are one of the largest groupings of chamber music...
: II Tema con variazioni, 1922; Ebony Concerto
Ebony Concerto
Ebony Concerto may refer to:*Ebony Concerto by John Taras, a dance in the repertory of New York City Ballet*Ebony Concerto by Damian Woetzel, a dance in the repertory of New York City Ballet*Ebony Concerto by Igor Stravinsky...
: III, 1945; and Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam
Variations (Stravinsky)
Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam is Igor Stravinsky's last orchestral composition, written in 1963–64.-History:Stravinsky began work on the Variations in Santa Fé, New Mexico in July 1963, and completed the composition in Hollywood, California on 28 October 1964...
, 1963–64), Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
(Variations
Variations for piano (Webern)
Variations for piano, op. 27, is a twelve-tone piece for piano composed by Anton Webern in 1936. It consists of three movements:# Sehr mäßig # Sehr schnell # Ruhig fließend...
, Op. 27 for piano, and Variations, Op. 30 for orchestra), Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
(Act 1, Scene 4 and the beginning of Act 3 scene 1 of Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
), Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
(Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber, 1943), Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
(Thème et variations
Thème et variations
Thème et variations is a composition by Olivier Messiaen for solo violin and piano, and lasts around ten minutes. It is considered as equally characteristic as his Quatuor pour la fin du temps and is as immediately accessible as that work...
for violin and piano, 1932), Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
(including The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34, is a musical composition by Benjamin Britten in 1946 with a subtitle "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell"...
(Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell) and the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, is a work for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. It was written in 1937 at the request of Boyd Neel, who conducted his orchestra at the premiere of the work at that year's Salzburg Festival. It was the work that brought Britten to international...
), and Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, Thirty-six Variations on "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!"
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
The People United Will Never Be Defeated! is a piano composition by American composer Frederic Rzewski.-History:The People United is a set of 36 variations on the Chilean song "¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!" by Sergio Ortega and Quilapayún, and received its world premiere on February 7,...
.
A significant sub-set of the above consists of variations on a theme by another composer.
Improvised variations
Skilled musicians can often improvise variations on a theme. This was commonplace in the Baroque era, when the da capo ariaDa capo aria
The da capo aria is a musical form, which was prevalent in the Baroque era. It is sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra. The da capo aria is very common in the musical genres of opera and oratorio...
, particularly when in slow tempo, required the singer to be able to improvise a variation during the return of the main material.
Musicians of the Classical era also could improvise variations; both Mozart (see Mozart's compositional method
Mozart's compositional method
The question of how Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created his works has long been studied. 19th century views on this topic were often based on a romantic, mythologizing conception of the process of composition...
) and Beethoven made powerful impressions on their audiences when they improvised. Modern listeners can get a sense of what these improvised variations sounded like by listening to published works that evidently are written transcriptions of improvised performances, in particular Beethoven's Fantasia in G Minor, Op. 77, and Mozart's Variations on an Aria by Gluck, K. 455.
Improvisation of elaborate variations on a popular theme is one of the core genres of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
.
See also
- Tune-familyTune-familyIn folk music a tune-family is, "a seeming multiplicity of melodies," reducible, "to a small number of 'models' or sets." One can think of the models or sets as deep structures. Often, "different tunes are the same," and, "the same tune is different."...
- Matrix (music)Matrix (music)In music, especially folk and popular music, a matrix is an element of variations which does not change. The term was derived from use in musical writings and from Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation, who defines creativity as the bisociation of two sets of ideas or matrices...
- Developing variationDeveloping variationIn music composition, developing variation is a formal technique in which the concepts of development and variation are united in that variations are produced through the development of existing material....
- Musical developmentMusical developmentIn European classical music, musical development is a process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material, and is often contrasted with musical variation, which is a slightly different means to the same...
- Strophic formStrophic formStrophic form is the simplest and most durable of musical forms, elaborating a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as "A A A..."...
- InversionInversion (music)In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...
- Composer tributes (classical music)Composer tributes (classical music)Musical tributes or homages from one composer to another can take many forms. Following are examples of the major types of tributes occurring in classical music. Note that a particular work may fit into more than one of these types.-Variations:...
Further reading
- Ehrhardt, Damien. 1998. La variation chez Robert Schumann. Forme et évolution (Diss. Sorbonne 1997). Lille: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. ISBN 2-284-00573-X
- Nelson, Robert U. 1948. The Technique of Variation; A Study of the Instrumental Variation from Antonio de Cabezón to Max Reger. University of California Publications in Music 3. Berkeley: University of California Press.