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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.
Variation form
Variation forms include ground bass, passacaglia, chaconne, and theme and variations. 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.
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Encyclopedia
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.
Variation form
Variation forms include ground bass, passacaglia, chaconne, and theme and variations. 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 can 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—or constantly recurring harmonic progression is heard through the entire piece. Fantasia variation is a form which relies on variation but which repeats and incorporates material freely.
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 The Harmonious Blacksmith set, and Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, which together with Beethoven's late variations are 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. 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 No. 12, Op. 26, or the variations in the final movement of the Third Symphony. Variation sets also occur in several of his late works, such as slow movement of his String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127, the second movement of his final Piano Sonata No. 32, 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 form was developed further. In 1824, Carl Czerny premiered his Variations for piano and orchestra on the Austrian National Hymn Gott erhalte Franz der Kaiser, Op. 73. Frédéric Chopin wrote a number of sets for solo piano, and also the Variations on "La ci darem la mano" from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, Op. 2, for piano and orchestra (c. 1827).
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 and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (1861; piano), and the Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn (1873; orchestra). This 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's Enigma Variations (1899) is probably his best-known full-length piece.
Variation sets have also been composed by notable twentieth-century composers, including Sergei Rachmaninoff (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini), Charles Ives (Variations on America, 1891), Arnold Schoenberg (the Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31, and Theme and Variations, Op. 43), Igor Stravinsky (Pulcinella: XV Gavotta con due variazioni, 1920; Octet: II Tema con variazioni, 1922; Ebony Concerto: III, 1945; and Variations for Orchestra, 1964), Anton Webern (the Variations, Op. 27 for piano, and Variations, Op. 30 for orchestra), Alban Berg (Act 1, Scene 4 and the beginning of Act 3 scene 1 of Wozzeck), Paul Hindemith (Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber, 1943), 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).
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.
Improvisation of elaborate variations on a popular theme is one of the core genres of jazz.
See also
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