Variation (music)
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In music, variation is a formal technique where material is altered during repetition: reiteration with changes. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre or orchestration.
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[edit] Variation forms
Variation forms include ground bass, passacaglia, chaconne, and theme and variations[1]. Theme and variations is a musical form in which the fundamental musical idea, or theme, is repeated in altered form or accompanied in a different manner. It could be used as a solo piece or as movement of a larger piece. Passacaglias and chaconnes are forms in which a repeating bass line or ostinato--typically shorter than a full-scale variation theme--is heard through the entire piece. Fantasia variation is a form which relies on variation but which repeats and incorporates material freely.
[edit] History of variations
Works in theme-and-variation form first emerge in the history of classical music only in the sixteenth century (Sisman 2001). A favorite form of variations in Renaissance music was divisions, 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.
Two famous variation sets from the Baroque era, both for harpsichord, are George Frideric Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith set, and Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, which together with Beethoven's late variations is widely considered to represent the pinnacle of the form.
In the Classical era, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a great number of variations, such as the first movement of his Piano Sonata in A, K. 331, or the finale of his Clarinet Quintet. Mozart favored a particular pattern in his variations: the penultimate variation is in slow tempo, often acting as a kind of extra slow movement in a multi-movement work; and the final variation is fast and in bravura style.[citation needed] Joseph Haydn specialized in sets of double variations, 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, the Drumroll, and the Variations in F minor for piano, H XVII:6 (Sisman 2001).
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote many variation sets in his career. Some were independent sets, for instance the "Diabelli" variations, Op. 120. Others form single movements or parts of movements in larger works, such as first movement of the Piano Sonata Op. 26, or the variations in the final movement of the Third Symphony. Variation sets that listeners often consider to be among Beethoven's most profound musical utterances[citation needed] occur in several of his late works, such as slow movement of his String quartet Op. 127, the second movement of his final Piano sonata, Op. 111, and the slow movement of the Ninth Symphony.
Franz Schubert wrote five variation sets using his own lieder as themes. A highlight of these is the slow movement of his string quartet Death and the Maiden (Der Tod und das Mädchen, 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 The Trout (Die Forelle, D. 550).
In the Romantic era, the variation receded somewhat in importance, but many composers nevertheless created variation sets. A standout was Johannes Brahms, whose Classical tendencies perhaps naturally inclined him to writing variations; some of Brahms's variation sets rely on themes by older composers, for example the variations for orchestra on a theme (thought in Brahms's time to be) by Haydn (1873) and the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (1861). Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations (1899) is probably his best-known full-length piece.
Variation sets have also been composed by twentieth-century composers, including Sergei Rachmaninoff (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini), Charles Ives (Variations on America, 1891), Arnold Schoenberg (the Variations for Orchestra, Opus 31, and Theme and Variations, Opus 43), Igor Stravinsky (Variations for Orchestra, 1964), Anton Webern (the Variations, Opus 27 for piano and Variations, Opus 30 for orchestra), Alban Berg (Act 1, Scene 4 and the beginning of Act 3 scene 1 of Wozzeck), Paul Hindemith, and Benjamin Britten (including the The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell) and the Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge).
In 1922, Igor Stravinsky composed an Octet, part of which contains an example of a flute theme and several variations on that theme (the title of the said piece is "Tema con Variazioni", literally "Theme with Variations").
[edit] Improvised variations
Skilled musicians who know a theme well can often improvise variations on it. This was commonplace in the Baroque era, when the da capo aria, particularly when in slow tempo, required the performer 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) 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.[2]
Improvisation of elaborate variations on a popular theme is one of the core genres of jazz.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Copland 2002, p.115
- ^ Source for the claim that Mozart's variations were originally improvised: Braunbehrens (1990)
[edit] References
- Braunbehrens, Volkmar (1990) Mozart in Vienna. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
- Copland, Aaron (2002). What to Listen for in Music. Revised edition of an authorized reprint of a hardcover edition published by McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York: Signet Classic. ISBN 0-451-52867-0.
- 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.
- Sisman, Elaine. 2001. "Variations". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
