The 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120, commonly known as the Diabelli Variations, is a set of variations

Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.-Variation form:...

 for the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 written between 1819 and 1823 by 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...

 on a waltz

Waltz (music)

A waltz, or valse from the French term, is a piece of music in triple meter, most often written in time signature but sometimes in 3/8 or 3/2...

 composed by Anton Diabelli

Anton Diabelli

Anton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.-Early life:Diabelli was born in...

. One of the supreme compositions for the piano, it often shares the highest honours with Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

's Goldberg Variations

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...

.

The music writer Donald Tovey called it "the greatest set of variations ever written." The pianist Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel KBE is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia and a resident of the United Kingdom. He is also a poet and author.-Biography:...

 has described it as "the greatest of all piano works." It also comprises, in the words of Hans von Bülow

Hans von Bülow

Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. He was one of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, and his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, including Richard...

, "a microcosm of Beethoven's art." In Beethoven: The Last Decade 1817 - 1827, Martin Cooper writes, "The variety of treatment is almost without parallel, so that the work represents a book of advanced studies in Beethoven's manner of expression and his use of the keyboard, as well as a monumental work in its own right." In his Structural Functions of Harmony, 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...

 writes that the Diabelli Variations "in respect of its harmony, deserves to be called the most adventurous work by Beethoven."

Beethoven's approach to the 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 to take some of its smallest elements – the opening turn, the descending fourth and fifth, the repeated notes – and build upon them pieces of great imagination, power and subtlety. Alfred Brendel wrote, "The theme has ceased to reign over its unruly offspring. Rather, the variations decide what the theme may have to offer them. Instead of being confirmed, adorned and glorified, it is improved, parodied, ridiculed, disclaimed, transfigured, mourned, stamped out and finally uplifted."

Beethoven does not seek variety by using key-changes

Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...

, staying with Diabelli's C-major for most of the set: among the first twenty-eight variations, he uses the tonic minor only once. Then, nearing the conclusion, Beethoven uses the tonic minor for Variations 29-31 and for Variation 32, the impressive fugue

Fugue

In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....

, he switches to E-flat major. Coming at this late point, after such a long period in C-major, the key-change has an increased dramatic effect. At the end of the fugue, a culminating flourish consisting of a diminished seventh arpeggio

Diminished seventh chord

A diminished seventh chord is a four note chord that comprises a diminished triad plus the interval of a diminished seventh above the root. Thus it is , or enharmonically , of any major scale; for example, C diminished-seventh would be , or enharmonically...

 is followed by a mysterious series of quiet chords punctuated by silences. These chords lead back to Diabelli's C-major for Variation 33, the final, sublime minuet

Minuet

A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...

.

Background

The work was composed after Diabelli, a well known music publisher and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, in the early part of 1819 sent a waltz of his creation to all the important composers of the Austrian Empire

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

, including 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...

, 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...

, Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Johann Nepomuk Hummel or Jan Nepomuk Hummel was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era.- Life :...

, and the Archduke Rudolph, asking each of them to write a variation on it. His plan was to publish all the variations in a patriotic volume called Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria. It was published in two parts in 1823 and 1824, by firms headed by Diabelli. It...

, and to use the profits to benefit orphans and widows of the Napoleonic Wars. Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

, then aged over seven, was not included, but it seems his teacher Czerny arranged for him to also provide a variation.

Beethoven had had a connection with Diabelli for a number of years. About a slightly earlier period, 1815, Beethoven's authoritative biographer, Alexander Wheelock Thayer

Alexander Wheelock Thayer

Alexander Wheelock Thayer , was a librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of reference on the composer.-Life:Originally a librarian at Harvard law school, Thayer became aware of...

, writes, "Diabelli, born near Salzburg in 1781, had now been for some years one of the more prolific composers of light and pleasing music, and one of the best and most popular teachers in Vienna. He was much employed by Steiner and Co., as copyist and corrector, and in this capacity enjoyed much of Beethoven's confidence, who also heartily liked him as a man." At the time of his project for variations on a theme of his own by various composers, Diabelli had advanced to become a partner in the publishing firm of Cappi and Diabelli.

The oft-told but now questionable story of the origins of this work is that Beethoven at first refused categorically to participate in Diabelli's project, dismissing the theme as banal, a Schusterfleck or 'cobbler's patch,' unworthy of his time. Not long afterwards, according to the story, upon learning that Diabelli would pay a handsome price for a full set of variations from him, Beethoven changed his mind and decided to show how much could be done with such slim materials. (In another version of the legend, Beethoven was so insulted at being asked to work with material he considered beneath him that he wrote 33 variations in order to demonstrate his prowess.) Today, however, this story is taken as more legend than fact. Its origins are with Anton Schindler, Beethoven's unreliable biographer, whose account conflicts in a number of ways with several established facts, indicating that he did not have first-hand knowledge of events.

At some point, Beethoven certainly did accept Diabelli's proposal, but rather than contributing a single variation on the theme, he planned a large set of variations. In order to begin work he laid aside his sketching of the Missa Solemnis

Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)

The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...

, completing sketches for four variations by early 1819. (Schindler was so far off the mark that he claimed, "At the most, he worked three months on it, during the summer of 1823." Carl Czerny, a pupil of Beethoven, claimed that "Beethoven wrote these Variations in a merry freak.") By the summer of 1819, he had completed twenty-three of the set of thirty-three. In February 1820, in a letter to the publisher Simrock, he mentioned "grand variations," as yet incomplete. Then he laid the work aside for several years – something Beethoven rarely did – while he returned to the Missa Solemnis and the late piano sonatas

Late Piano Sonatas (Beethoven)

The Late Piano Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven usually refer to the last five piano sonatas the composer has composed during his late period.*Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101*Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier"...

.

In June 1822, Beethoven offered to Peters "Variations on a waltz for pianoforte alone (there are many)." In the autumn of the same year he was in negotiations with Diabelli, writing to him, "The fee for the Variat. should be 40 ducats at the most if they are worked out on as large a scale as planned, but if this should not take place, it would be set for less." It was probably in February 1823 that Beethoven returned to the task of completing the set. By March or April 1823, the full set of thirty-three variations was finished. By April 30 a copy was ready to send to Ries in London.
Beethoven kept the original set of twenty-three in order, but inserted nos. 1 (the opening march

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

), 2, 15, 23 (sometimes called a parody of a Cramer finger exercise), 24 (a lyrical fughetta), 25, 26, 28, 29 (the first of the series of three slow variations leading to the final fugue and minuet), 31 (the third, highly expressive slow variation leading directly into the final fugue and minuet) and 33 (the concluding minuet).

What prompted Beethoven to write a set of "grand variations" on Diabelli's theme? One suggestion is the influence of the Archduke Rudoph who, in the previous year, under Beethoven's tutelage, had composed a huge set of forty variations on a theme by Beethoven. In a letter of 1819 to the Archduke, Beethoven mentions that "in my writing-desk there are several compositions that bear witness to my remembering Your Imperial Highness."

Why did Beethoven choose to write thirty-three variations? Although there are no answers to this question, several theories have been advanced. He might have been trying to outdo himself after his
32 Variations in C minor, or trying to outdo Bach's Goldberg Variations with its total of thirty two pieces (two presentations of the theme and thirty variations).
There is a story that Diabelli was pressing Beethoven to send him his contribution to the project, whereupon Beethoven asked, "How many contributions have you got?" "Thirty-two," said Diabelli. "Go ahead and publish them," Beethoven is purported to have replied, "I shall write thirty-three all by myself." Alfred Brendel observes, "In Beethoven's own pianistic output, the figures 32 and 33 have their special significance: 32 sonata

Sonata

Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...

s are followed by 33 variations as a crowning achievement, of which Var. 33 relates directly to the thirty-second's final adagio." And Brendel adds, whimsically, "There happens to be, between the 32 Variations in C minor and the sets Opp. 34 and 35, a numerical gap. The Diabelli Variations fills it."

Diabelli published the work quickly as Op. 120 in June of the same year, adding the following introductory note:
In the following year, 1824, it was republished as Volume 1 of the two-volume set Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria. It was published in two parts in 1823 and 1824, by firms headed by Diabelli. It...

, the second volume comprising the 50 variations by 50 other composers. Subsequent editions no longer mentioned Vaterländischer Künstlerverein.

Title

The title Beethoven gave to the work has received some comment. His first reference was in his correspondence, where he called it Große Veränderungen über einen bekannten Deutschen Tanz ("Grand Variations on a well-known German dance"). Upon first publication, however, the title referred explicitly to a waltz by Diabelli: 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer von Diabelli.

Beethoven chose the German word Veränderungen rather than the usual Italian-derived Variationen, in a period when he preferred using the German language in expression marks and titles, such as Hammerklavier. Yet, apart from the title, we find only traditional Italian musical terms within the work, suggesting that Beethoven was probably trying to make a point in his use of Veränderungen. Since Veränderungen can mean not only "variations" but also "transformations," it is sometimes suggested that Beethoven was announcing that this work does something more profound than had hitherto been done in variation form.

Dedication

Although some commentators find significance in the work's dedication to Mme. Antonie von Brentano

Antonie Brentano

The Immortal Beloved is the mysterious addressee of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6–7 July 1812 in Teplitz...

, offering it as evidence that she was Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved," she was not Beethoven's first choice. His original plan was to have the work sent to England where his old friend, Ferdinand Ries

Ferdinand Ries

Ferdinand Ries was a German composer.- Life :Born into a musical family of Bonn, Ries was a friend and pupil of Beethoven who published in 1838 a collection of reminiscences of his teacher, co-written with Franz Wegeler...

, would find a publisher. Beethoven promised the dedication to Ries's wife ("You will also receive in a few weeks 33 variations on a theme dedicated to your wife." Letter, April 25, 1823). A delay in the shipment to England resulted in confusion. Beethoven explained to Ries in a later letter, "The variations were not to appear here until after they had been published in London, but everything went askew. The dedication to Brentano was intended only for Germany, as I was under obligation to her and could publish nothing else at the time. Besides, only Diabelli, the publisher here, got them from me. Everything was done by Schindler, a bigger wretch I never knew on God's earth—an arch-scoundrel whom I have sent about his business—I can dedicate another work to your wife in place of it ..."

Diabelli's theme

Whether Schindler's story is true or not that Beethoven at first contemptuously dismissed Diabelli's waltz as a Schusterfleck (rosalia / "cobbler's patch"), there is no doubt the definition fits the work perfectly - "musical sequences repeated one after another, each time modulated at like intervals" - as can be seen clearly in these three examples:
Considering the rosalias and the simple, unchanging chords repeated so many times in the treble, what can be said about the artistic worth of the waltz? How are we to view it, how can we balance its simplicity with the vast, complex musical structure Beethoven built upon it? From the earliest days this enigma has drawn comment, and the widest possible range of opinions of Diabelli's theme have been expressed. At one end of the spectrum is the admiration of Donald Francis Tovey ("healthy, unaffected, and drily energetic," "rich in solid musical facts," cast in "reinforced concrete") and Maynard Solomon ("pellucid, brave, utterly lacking in sentimentality or affectation") and the kindly tolerance of Hans von Bülow ("quite a pretty and tasteful little piece, protected from the dangers of obsolescence by what one might call its melodic neutrality"). At the other end is William Kinderman's contempt ("banal," "trite", "a beer hall waltz").

In liner notes to Vladimir Ashkenazy's

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...

 2006 Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 recording, Michael Steinberg

Michael Steinberg (music critic)

Michael Steinberg was an American music critic, musicologist, and writer. Born in Breslau, Germany , Steinberg left Germany as one of the Kindertransport child refugees...

 attempts to pinpoint what Beethoven might have found appealing in the theme, writing:

Commentaries

Since the work was first published, commentators have tried to find patterns, even an overall plan or structure for this huge, diverse work, but little consensus has been reached. Several early writers sought to discover clear parallels with Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

's Goldberg Variations

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...

, without great success. Others claimed to have found symmetries, three groups of nine, for example, although the penultimate Fugue had to be counted as five. The work has been analyzed in terms of sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

, complete with separate 'movements.' What is not disputed, however, is that the work begins with a simple, rather commonplace musical idea, transforms it in many radical ways, and ends with a sequence of variations that are sublime in the manner of other late Beethoven works.

By Maynard Solomon

Maynard Solomon

Maynard Solomon

Maynard Solomon has carried out a multiple career: he was a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer, and later became a writer on music.-Career in the recording industry:...

 in The Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination expresses this idea symbolically, as a journey from the everyday world ("Diabelli's theme conveys ideas, not only of the national, the commonplace, the humble, the rustic, the comic, but of the mother tongue, the earthly, the sensuous, and, ultimately, perhaps, of every waltzing couple under the sun" to a transcendent reality. For Solomon the structure, if there is any, consists merely of "clusters of variations representing forward and upward motion of every conceivable kind, character and speed." He sees demarcation points at Variations 8, 14 and 20, which he characterizes as three "strategically placed plateaus [which] provide spacious havens for spiritual and physical renewal in the wake of the exertions which have preceded them."). Thus, his analysis yields four sections, variations 1-7, 9-13, 15-19 and 21-33.

By William Kinderman

The most influential writing on the work today is William Kinderman's Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, which begins by carefully tracing the development of the work through various Beethoven sketchbooks. Of great significance, according to Kinderman, is the discovery that a few crucial variations were added in the final stage of composition, 1822–23 and inserted at important turning-points in the series. A careful study of these late additions reveals that they stand out from the others by having in common a return to, and special emphasis on, the melodic outline of Diabelli's waltz, in the mode of parody.

For Kinderman, parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 is the key to the work. He points out that most of the variations do not emphasize the simple features of Diabelli's waltz: "Most of Beethoven's other variations thoroughly transform the surface of Diabelli's theme, and though motivic

Motif (music)

In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....

 materials from the waltz are exploited exhaustively, its affective model is left far behind." The purpose of the new variations is to recall Diabelli's waltz in order to keep the cycle from spiraling too far away from its original theme. Without such a device, considering the great variety and complexity of the set, Diabelli's waltz would become superfluous, "a mere prologue to the whole." Parody is used because of the banality of Diabelli's theme.

Kinderman distinguishes several forms of "parody," pointing out several examples which have no special structural significance and which were composed in the earlier period, such as the humorous parody of the aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

 from Mozart's 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...

(Var. 22) and the parody of a Cramer

Johann Baptist Cramer

Johann Baptist Cramer was an English musician of German origin. He was the son of Wilhelm Cramer, a famous London violinist and musical conductor, one of a numerous family who were identified with the progress of music during the 18th and 19th centuries.-Biography:Johann Baptist Cramer was born in...

 finger exercise (Var. 23). He also mentions allusions to Bach (Vars. 24 and 32) and Mozart (Var. 33). But the added, structural variations recall Diabelli's waltz, not Bach or Mozart or Cramer, and clearly highlight its most unimaginative aspects, especially its repetition of the C major tonic chord with G emphasized as the high note and the static harmony thus created.

The first of the three added variations is No. 1, a "mock-heroic" march which immediately follows Diabelli to open the set dramatically, echoing in the right hand the tonic triad of the theme while the left hand simply walks down in octaves Diabelli's descending fourth. Afterwards, Diabelli is barely recognizable until Variation 15, the second structural variation, a brief, lightweight piece conspicuously inserted between several of the most powerful variations (Nos. 14, 16 and 17). It recalls and caricatures the original waltz by means of its prosaic harmony. The third and final structural variation, in Kinderman's analysis, is No. 25, which shifts Diabelli's monotonous rhythm from the bass to the treble and fills the bass with a simple figure endlessly repeated in a "lumbering caricature." It opens the concluding section of the series which moves from the ridiculous to the sublime, from Diabelli's waltz to Beethoven's minuet, along the way incorporating the history of music from Bach, through Mozart, to the world of Beethoven's own last piano sonatas.

Kinderman summarizes, "Diabelli's waltz is treated first ironically as a march that is half-stilted, half-impressive, and then, at crucial points in the form, twice recapitulated in amusing caricature variations. At the conclusion of the work, in the Fugue and last variation, reference to the melodic head of Diabelli's theme once again becomes explicit - indeed, it is hammered into the ground. But any further sense of the original context of the waltz is lacking. By means of three parody variations, 1, 15, and 25, Beethoven established a series of periodic references to the waltz that draw it more closely into the inner workings of the set, and the last of these gives rise to a progression that transcends the theme once and for all. That is the central idea of the Diabelli Variations."

Kinderman thus sees the work as falling into three sections, Variations 1-14, 15-24 and 25-33.

By Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel

Alfred Brendel KBE is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia and a resident of the United Kingdom. He is also a poet and author.-Biography:...

, in his essay "Must Classical Music be Entirely Serious?" takes an approach similar to Kinderman's, making the case for the work as "a humorous work in the widest possible sense" and pointing out that early commentators took a similar view:

Beethoven and Bach

The reputation of the Diabelli Variations ranks alongside Bach's Goldberg Variations. However, while in the Goldberg Variations Bach deprived himself of the resources available from taking the melody of the theme as a guiding principle, thereby gaining an independence in melodic matters that enabled him to attain far more variety and expanse, Beethoven made no such sacrifice. He exploited the melody, in addition to the harmonic and rhythmic elements, and by doing so succeeded in fusing them all into a set of variations of incredible analytical profundity. In addition to the analytical aspects, Beethoven enlarged upon the dimensions of this musical material so that the Diabelli Variations are properly called 'amplifying variations'.

Numbers 24 and 32 are more or less textbook fugues that show Beethoven's debt to Bach, a debt further highlighted in variation 31, the last of the slow minor variations, with its direct reference to the Goldberg Variations.

The variations

The performer of the audio files in this section is Neal O'Doan.

Tema: Vivace

Diabelli's theme, a waltz with off-beat accents and sharp changes in dynamics

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

, was never intended for dancing. By this time, the waltz was no longer merely a dance but had become a form of art music

Art music

Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...

. Alfred Brendel's suggested title for Diabelli's theme, in his essay "Must Classical Music be Entirely Serious?", making the case for viewing the Diabelli Variations as a humorous work, is Alleged Waltz. Commentators do not agree on the intrinsic musical value of Diabelli's theme.


Variation 1: Alla Marcia maestoso

While Beethoven's first variation stays close to the melody of Diabelli's theme, there is nothing waltz-like about it. It is a strong, heavily accented march in 4/4 time, greatly differing from the character and 3/4 time of the theme. This sharp break from Diabelli announces that the series will not consist of mere decorative variations on a theme. The first variation, according to Tovey, gives "emphatic proof that this is to be a very grand and serious work," describing it as "entirely solemn and grand in style."

Kinderman, on the other hand, whose researches among the Beethoven sketchbooks discovered that Variation 1 was inserted late into the work, deems it a "structural variation," echoing Diabelli more clearly than the non-structural variations and, in this case, parodying the weaknesses of the theme. Its character is, for Kinderman, "pompous" and "mock-heroic." Alfred Brendel takes a view similar to Kinderman's, characterizing this variation as "serious but slightly lacking in brains." The title he offers is March: gladiator, flexing his muscles. Wilhelm von Lenz called it The Mastodon and the Theme —— a fable.



Variation 2: Poco Allegro

This variation was not part of Beethoven's first series but was added somewhat later. While it returns to 3/4 time after the preceding march, it echoes little of Diabelli's theme. It is delicate, with a hushed, tense atmosphere. The only markings are p and leggiermente. It moves in eighth notes, allegro, the treble and bass rapidly alternating throughout the entire piece. Near the end, the tension is increased by syncopation

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...

s. Brendel suggests the delicacy of this variation by entitling it Snowflakes. Beethoven diverges from Diabelli's structure of two equal parts, each one repeated, by omitting a repeat for the first part. Artur Schnabel

Artur Schnabel

Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...

, in his famous recording, repeated the first part anyway.


Variation 3: L’istesso tempo

Marked dol (dolce), this variation has a strong melodic line, although the original theme is not obvious. Mid-way through each section echoes the rising sequence which occurred at a similar point in Diabelli's theme. In the second half, there is a remarkable pianissimo passage where the treble holds a chord for four full bars while the bass repeats a little three-note figure over and over, eight times, after which the melody proceeds as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

This was the first variation in Beethoven's original plan. From the earliest sketchbooks, Beethoven kept it together with the following Variation 4. Both use 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,...

, and the transition between them is seamless. Brendel's title for this variation is Confidence and nagging doubt.



Variation 4: Un poco più vivace

The steady rise in drama since Variation 2 reaches a high point in this variation. Here the excitement is brought front and centre, both halves of the piece racing in crescendo

Crescendo

-In music:*Crescendo, a passage of music during which the volume gradually increases, see Dynamics * Crescendo , a Liverpool-based electronic pop band* "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", one of Duke Ellington's longer-form compositions...

s toward a pair of chords marked forte. The driving rhythm emphasizes the third beat of the bar. Brendel's title for this variation is Learned ländler

Ländler

The ländler is a folk dance in 3/4 time which was popular in Austria, south Germany and German Switzerland at the end of the 18th century.It is a dance for couples which strongly features hopping and stamping...

.


Variation 5: Allegro vivace

This fifth variation is an exciting number with breathtaking rhythmic climaxes. For the first time in the series, there are elements of virtuosity, which will become more pronounced in the variations which immediately follow. Brendel's title for this variation is Tamed goblin.


Variation 6: Allegro ma non troppo e serioso.

Both this and the following variations are brilliant, exciting, virtuoso pieces. This sixth variation features a trill

Trill (music)

The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....

 in nearly every bar set off against arpeggio

Arpeggio

An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...

s and hurried figures in the opposite hand. Brendel's title for this variation is Trill rhetorics (Demonsthenes braving the surf). Wilhelm von Lenz called it "In the Tyrol."



Variation 7: Un poco più allegro.

Sforzando octaves in the bass hand against triplets

Tuplet

In music a tuplet is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the...

 in the treble make for a brilliant, dramatic effect. Kinderman goes so far as to describe it as "harsh.". Brendel's title for this variation is Sniveling and stamping.


Variation 8: Poco vivace

After the three loud, dramatic variations which precede it, this eighth variation offers relief and contrast in the form of a soft, strongly melodic piece, the melody moving at a stately pace in half- and dotted half-notes, with the bass providing a quiet accompaniment in the form of rising figures. The marking is dolce e tenerament ("sweetly and tenderly"). Brendel's title for this variation is Intermezzo

Intermezzo

In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...

 (to Brahms).



Variation 9: Allegro pesante e risoluto

Simple but powerful, Variation 9 is constructed out of the slimmest of materials, consisting of little more than Diabelli's opening grace-note and turn repeated in various registers. The direction is always ascending, building toward a climax. Brendel's title for this variation is Industrious nutcracker. Like Variation No. 1, he characterizes it as "deeply serious but slightly lacking in brains."



Variation 10: Presto

Traditionally viewed as the close of a main division of the work, Variation 10 is the most brilliant of all the variations, a break-neck presto with trills, tremolo

Tremolo

Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...

s and staccato

Staccato

Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...

 octave scales. Tovey comments, "The tenth, a most exciting whirlwind of sound, reproduces all the sequences and rhythms of the theme so clearly that it seems much more like a melodic variation than it really is." Brendel's title for this variation is Giggling and neighing.


Variation 11: Allegretto

Another variation built out of Diabelli's opening three notes, this one quiet and graceful. Kinderman points out how closely related Variations 11 and 12 are in structure. The opening of this variation appears in the movie Copying Beethoven as the theme of the sonata written by the copyist that Beethoven first ridicules then later, to redeem himself, begins to work on more seriously. Brendel's title for this variation is Innocente' (to Bülow).



Variation 12: Un poco più moto

Ceaseless motion with lots of running fourths. Kinderman sees this variation as foreshadowing Number 20 because of the simple way it exposes the harmonic structure. Tovey points out that it is a development of No. 11. Brendel's title for this variation is Wave Pattern. Variation 12 is another divergence from Diabelli's two-part structure. Rather than repeating the first part, Beethoven writes it out in full, making significant changes, while omitting a repeat or any substitution for a repeat for the second part.



Variation 13: Vivace

Powerful, rhythmic chords, forte, each time followed by nearly two bars of silence, then a soft reply. "Eloquent pauses," in von Lenz's words. "Absurd silences," for Gerald Abraham. Barry Cooper sees it as a humorous piece, in which Beethoven "seems almost to poke fun at Diabelli's theme." Diabelli's mild opening turn is turned into the powerful chords, and his repeated chords become a long silence. The sequence is ended with two soft, anti-climactic notes. Brendel's title for this variation is Aphorism (biting).


Variation 14: Grave e maestoso

The first slow variation, grave e maestoso. Von Bülow comments, "To imbue this wonderful number with what I should like to call the 'high priestly solemnity' in which it was conceived, let the performer's fantasy summon up before his eyes the sublime arches of a Gothic cathedral." Kinderman writes of its "breadth and measured dignity," adding "its spacious noblity brings the work to a point of exposure which arouses our expectations for some new and dramatic gesture." The three variations which follow certainly fulfill those expectations. Brendel's title for this variation is Here He Cometh, the Chosen.


Variation 15: Presto Scherzando

One of the last variations composed, Variation 15 is short and light, setting the stage for the following two loud virtuoso displays. For Barry Cooper, this is another humorous variation poking fun at Diabelli's theme. Tovey comments, "The fifteenth variation gives the whole melodic outline [of the theme] so closely that its extraordinary freedom of harmony (the first half actually closes in the tonic) produces no effect of remoteness." Brendel's title for this variation is Cheerful Spook.

Tovey gives a similar analysis of the variations:


Variation 16: Allegro

A virtuoso variation, forte, with trills and ascending and descending broken octaves. Brendel's title for this variation and the following one is Triumph.



Variation 17: Allegro.

This is the second march after the opening variation, most of it forte, with accented octaves in the bass and ceaseless, hurried figures in the treble. For Tovey, "This brings the first half of the work to a brilliant climax." Brendel's title for this variation and the preceding one is Triumph.


Variation 18: Poco moderato.

Another variation using the opening turn in Diabelli's waltz, this time with a quiet (dolce), almost meditative character. Brendel's title for this variation is Precious memory, slightly faded.


Variation 19: Presto

Fast and busy, in sharp contrast to the variation which follows. Von Bülow points out "the canonic

Canon (music)

In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...

 dialogue between the two parts." Brendel's title for this variation is Helter-skelter.


Variation 20: Andante

An extraordinarily slow-moving variation consisting almost entirely of dotted whole notes in low registers - a striking contrast with the variations immediately before and after. Diabelli's melody is easily identified, but the harmonic progressions (see bars 9-12) are unusual and the overall tonality is ambiguous. Suggesting the title "Oracle", von Bülow recommends "an effect suggestive of the veiled organ-registers." Kinderman writes, "In this great enigmatic slow variation, No. 20, we have reached the still centre of the work ... the citadel of 'inner peace'." Tovey calls it "one of the most awe-inspiring passages in music." Brendel describes this Variation 20 as "hypnotic introspection" and offers as a title Inner sanctum. Liszt called it Sphinx. Diabelli's two-part structure is maintained, but without repeats.



Variation 21: Allegro con brio – Meno allegro – Tempo primo.

An extreme contrast to the preceding Andante. The beginning, in Kinderman's analysis, of variations achieving "transcendence," evoking "the entire musical universe as Beethoven knew it." The accompanying chords repeated so many times at the start of each section and the repeated trills repeated from the highest to the lowest registers ruthlessly exaggerate features of Diabelli's theme. Tovey describes this variation as "startling," but points out that it follows Diabelli's melody clearly and "changes from quick common to slower triple time whenever it reproduces the sequential passages ... in the theme." Brendel's title for this variation is Maniac and moaner. Uhde groups Nos. 21—28 as the "scherzo group," with the tender Fughetta (No. 24) standing in as a "trio."



Variation 22: Allegro molto, alla ‘Notte e giorno faticar’ di Mozart

A reference to Leporello's aria in the beginning of Mozart's 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...

. The music is rather crudely humorous in style. Because Leporello is complaining that he has to "Work day and night," it is sometimes said that here Beethoven is grumbling about the labour he poured into these variations. It has been suggested, too, that Beethoven is trying to tell us that Diabelli's theme was stolen from Mozart. Brendel's title for this variation is ‘Notte e giorno faticar’ (to Diabelli).



Variation 23: Allegro assai

For von Bülow, another virtuoso variation to close what he views as the second main division of the work. For Kinderman, a parody of finger exercises published by Johann Baptist Cramer

Johann Baptist Cramer

Johann Baptist Cramer was an English musician of German origin. He was the son of Wilhelm Cramer, a famous London violinist and musical conductor, one of a numerous family who were identified with the progress of music during the 18th and 19th centuries.-Biography:Johann Baptist Cramer was born in...

 (whom Beethoven did admire as a pianist, if not as a composer). Tovey refers to its "orchestral brilliance and capricious rhythm." Brendel's title for this variation is The virtuoso at boiling-point (to Cramer). He characterizes Nos. 23, 27 and 28 as "one-track minds in an excited state," suggesting an ironical approach.


Variation 24: Fughetta (Andante)

Lyrical and beautiful, greatly contrasting with the preceding variation, an allusion to Bach. Tovey describes this variation as "a wonderfully delicate and mysterious web of sounds on a figure suggested partly by the treble and partly by the bass of the first four bars of the theme. Acting on a hint given him by the second half of Diabelli's theme, Beethoven inverts this in the second half of the fughetta." Kinderman compares it with the concluding fugue in the last movement of the Sonata in A flat, Op. 110

Piano Sonata No. 31 (Beethoven)

The Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110, by Ludwig van Beethoven was composed in 1821. It is the central piano sonata in the group of three opp. 109–111 which he wrote between 1820 and 1822, and the thirty-first of his published piano sonatas....

 and to the mood of "certain quiet devotional passages in the Missa Solemnis

Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)

The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...

," both of which were composed in this same period. Brendel's title for this variation is Pure Spirit.


Variation 25: Allegro

Simple chords in the right hand over a ceaseless, busy pattern in the left hand. Tovey notes that it reproduces the opening of each half of Diabelli's theme quite simply, although the rest is very free, adding that "as a reaction from the impressively thoughtful and calm fughetta it has an intensely humorous effect." Brendel's title for this variation is Teutscher (German dance).



Variation 26: (Piacevole)

Brendel's title for this variation is Circles on the Water.



Variation 27: Vivace

Brendel's title for this variation is Juggler. He suggests an ironical approach, characterizing Nos. 23, 27 and 28 as "one-track minds in an excited state."



Variation 28: Allegro

Von Bülow sees this as the close of the third main division of the work: "This Variation ... must be hammered out with wellnigh raging impetuosity... More delicate shading would not be in place - at least in the First Part." (von Bülow)

Tovey writes:
Brendel points out that as of 1819 there was a single C minor variation (No. 30) and that the late additions of Nos. 29 and 31 expanded the use of the key into "a larger C minor area." Brendel's title for this variation is The rage of the jumping-jack.



Variation 29: Adagio ma non troppo

The first of three slow variations, this appears to be the beginning of the end: "The composer transports us into a new, more earnest, even melancholy realm of feeling. It might be regarded as beginning the Adagio of this Variation-sonata; from this Adagio we are carried back, by the grand double fugue, Var. XXXII, into the original bright sphere of the tone-poem, the general character of which receives its seal in the graceful Minuetto-Finale." (von Bülow) Brendel's title for this variation is Stifled sighs (Konrad Wolff).


Variation 30: Andante, sempre cantabile

"A kind of Baroque lament" (Kinderman). Slow and expressive, like the variation which follows. Its final bars lead smoothly to Variation 31. Commentators have used strong language for the concluding section. Tovey describes it as "a phrase so haunting that though Beethoven does not repeat the entire sections of this variation he marks the last four bars to be repeated." Von Bulow says, "We can recognize in these four measures the original germ of the entire romanticism of Schumann." Brendel's title for this variation is Gentle grief. There are only hints of Diabelli's two-part structure.


Variation 31: Largo, molto espressivo

Deeply felt, filled with ornaments

Ornament (music)

In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...

 and trills, there are many similarities with the arietta of Piano Sonata, 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...

. Tovey again uses superlatives: "The thirty-first variation is an extremely rich outpouring of highly ornamented melody, which to Beethoven's contemporaries must have been hardly intelligible, but which we, who have learnt from Bach that a great artist's feeling is often more profound where his expression is most ornate, can recognize for one of the most impassioned utterances in all music."

Von Bülow comments, "We should like to style this number, thoughtful and tender alike, a renascence of the Bach Adagio, as the succeeding double fugue is one of the Handel Allegros. Conjoining to these the final Variations, which might be considered as a new birth, so to speak, of the Haydn-Mozart Minuet, we possess, in these three Variations, a compendium of the whole history of music." The ending of this variation, an unresolved dominant seventh, leads naturally to the following fugue. Brendel's title for this variation is To Bach (to Chopin). The structure is a foreshortening of Diabelli's theme.


Variation 32: Fuga: Allegro

While in traditional variation sets a fugue was often used to conclude the work, Beethoven uses his fugue to reach a grand climax, then follows it with a final, quiet minuet. The fugue of Variation 32 is set apart by its foreign key, E-flat major. Structurally, the piece abandons Diabelli's two-part original. Melodically, it is based on Diabelli's falling fourth, used in many of the preceding variations, as well as, most strikingly, on the least inspired, least promising part of Diabelli's theme, the note repeated ten times. The bass in the opening bars takes Diabelli's rising figure and presents it in descending sequence. Out of these flimsy materials, Beethoven builds his powerful triple fugue.

The themes are presented in a wonderful variety of harmonies, contexts, lights and shades, as well as using the traditional fugal techniques of inversion

Inversion (music)

In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...

 and stretto

Stretto

The term stretto comes from the Italian past participle of stringere, and means "narrow", "tight", or "close".In music the Italian term stretto has two distinct meanings:...

. About two thirds through, a fortissimo climax is reached and, following a pause, there begins a contrasting pianissimo section with a constantly hurrying figure serving as the third fugal subject. Eventually, the original two themes of the fugue burst out loudly again and the work races impetuously toward its final climax, a crashing chord and a grand sweep of arpeggios twice down and up the entire keyboard.

The transition to the sublime minuet that forms the final variation is a series of quiet, greatly prolonged chords that achieve an extraordinary effect. In Solomon's words, "The thirty-third variation is introduced by a Poco adagio that breaks the fugue's agitated momentum and finally takes us to the brink of utter motionlessness, providing a curtain to separate the fugue from the minuet." The ending is so impressive that commentators are often driven to superlatives. Gerald Abraham calls it "one of the strangest passages Beethoven ever wrote." Kinderman describes the transition as "one of the most magical moments in the work":
Tovey's description of this dramatic moment is:
Brendel's title for this variation is To Handel.


Variation 33: Tempo di Menuetto moderato

An ethereal close to a musical masterpiece, transcendent in the manner of so many of the late works of Beethoven. Tovey comments:
Brendel's title for this variation is To Mozart; to Beethoven explaining:
Solomon describes the closing bars as "the final image - of a tender, songful, profound nostalgia, a vantage point from which we can review the purposes of the entire journey." Technically, von Bülow admires in the closing four bars, "the principle of modulation chiefly developed in the master's last creative period ... the successive step-wise progession of the several parts while employing enharmonic modulation as a bridge to connect even the remotest tonalities." After a final ascent that seems directed toward some otherworldly realm, Beethoven adds a single forte chord.

Works inspired

• Dialogue avec 33 variations de L. van Beethoven sur une valse de Diabelli, a 1971 dialogue between writer Michel Butor
  Michel Butor
  -Life and work:Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Salonika, the United States, and Geneva...
  
   and Beethoven.
• 33 Variations
  33 Variations
  33 Variations is a play by Moisés Kaufman, inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven's eponymous work. It débuted on Broadway on March 9, 2009, starring Jane Fonda...
  
  , a 2007 play by Moisés Kaufman
  Moisés Kaufman
  Moisés Kaufman is a playwright, director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. He is the author of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, 33 Variations and is perhaps best known for writing The Laramie Project with other members of Tectonic Theater Project...
  
  , explores the story of the variations' composition.

Commentaries

• Beethoven's Diabelli Variations by William Kinderman. Online version

Sheet music

• Public Domain sheet music of Franz Schubert's Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli at IMSLP
• Public Domain sheet music of Franz Liszt's Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli at IMSLP
• Score of Mozart's aria "Notte e giorno faticar" from Don Giovanni. Compare with Variation 22 above.

Early Copies & Editions

• http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=&template=dokseite_digitales_archiv_en&_dokid=wm354&_seite=1Engraver's copy sent to Ferdinand Ries in London, 1823, with corrections in Beethoven's handwriting. Complete (78 pages). Title page in Beethoven's handwriting includes title and dedication to wife of Ries as follows : "33 Veränderungen über einen walzer Der Gemahlin meines lieben Freundes Ries gewidmet von Ludwig van Beethoven Vien am 30ten April 1823." This London edition was never published. From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.]
• Corrections to London engraver's copy (above) for Variation 31, in Beethoven's handwriting (two pages). From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.
• 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer für das Piano-Forte, pub. Cappi und Diabelli (complete, 43 pages). Dedicated to Antonia Brentano. From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.
• 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer für das Piano-Forte, pub. Cappi und Diabelli (cover and theme only). Dedicated to Antonia Brentano. From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.
• 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer für das Piano-Forte, pub. Cappi und Diabelli (cover and theme only). Dedicated to Antonia Brentano. From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.
• Vaterländische Künstlerverein (cover only); also 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer (cover and theme only); pub. A. Diabelli et Comp. From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.
• Vaterländische Künstlerverein (cover only); also 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer (cover and theme only); pub. A. Diabelli et Comp. From the Digital Archives of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.