Celebrating the Variation

[aeolium]

As someone who is particularly fond of the variation form, I was wondering which examples of it appealed to others here. The composer who seems to have been most attracted to it was Haydn, who uses variations extensively in his symphonies and string quartets and memorably in the keyboard Variations in F minor. Yet although there have been wonderful variations, and variation movements, in orchestral and chamber works, it is the keyboard that seems to bring out the best in the form: not just the twin peaks of the Goldberg and Diabelli but in many other examples.

It seems imv not to be the big theme that results in the most interesting variations; I don't think Haydn's Emperor-variations in op 76 no 3 or Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn to be as impressive as those composers' other variation movements/works with humbler themes. The themes for the Goldberg and Diabelli variations are not that memorable, nor to my mind the La Folia theme that proved so tempting to later composers, nor the "Harmonious Blacksmith" that Handel (and later Brahms) enriched with their variations.

[ahinton]

As someone who is particularly fond of the variation form, I was wondering which examples of it appealed to others here. The composer who seems to have been most attracted to it was Haydn, who uses variations extensively in his symphonies and string quartets and memorably in the keyboard Variations in F minor. Yet although there have been wonderful variations, and variation movements, in orchestral and chamber works, it is the keyboard that seems to bring out the best in the form: not just the twin peaks of the Goldberg and Diabelli but in many other examples.

It seems imv not to be the big theme that results in the most interesting variations; I don't think Haydn's Emperor-variations in op 76 no 3 or Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn to be as impressive as those composers' other variation movements/works with humbler themes. The themes for the Goldberg and Diabelli variations are not that memorable, nor to my mind the La Folia theme that proved so tempting to later composers, nor the "Harmonious Blacksmith" that Handel (and later Brahms) enriched with their variations.

There are so many notable candidates! Strauss's Don Quixote, Elgar's Enigma, Schönberg's and Carter's Variations for Orchestra, Reger's Bach Variations and Mozart Variations, Stevenson's Passacaglia on D-S-C-H, Brahms's Paganini Variations, Simpson's Quartet No. 9, various sets by Beethoven (perhaps most notably - after the Diabelli - those in the Opp. 127 and 135 quartets) and hundreds of other worthy contenders. Sorabji was particularly drawn to the form and there are many examples among his work, some of enormous dimensions, of which one - his Sequentia Cyclica super Dies Iræ - is scheduled to receive its second complete performance at the hands of pianist Jonathan Powell (who gave the world première in 2010) at this year's Music Sacra festival in Maastricht in just over six week's time; this work is one of the most monumental variations sets ever composed and occupies a little of seven hours in performance, dwarfed only by his earlier Symphonic Variations for piano which has yet to be performed but which looks to be some hour and a half longer still.

[Bryn]

... Sorabji was particularly drawn to the form and there are many examples among his work, some of enormous dimensions, of which one - his Sequentia Cyclica super Dies Iræ - is scheduled to receive its second complete performance at the hands of pianist Jonathan Powell (who gave the world première in 2010) at this year's Music Sacra festival in Maastricht in just over six week's time; this work is one of the most monumental variations sets ever composed and occupies a little [over] seven hours in performance, dwarfed only by his earlier Symphonic Variations for piano which has yet to be performed but which looks to be some hour and a half longer still.

Surely the third complete performance. After all, both you and I were fortunate enough to have attended the private one given shortly before the public première.

[Lento]

It's Brahms' "St Anthony Chorale" for me: not an original thought, I know (as it were).

[richardfinegold]

Beethoven wrote many movements of individual works in Variation Form. A few random examples would be the slow movement of the Kreutzer Sonata and the second movement of Op. 111.
How many Composers wrote Variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"?

[amateur51]

Beethoven wrote many movements of individual works in Variation Form. A few random examples would be the slow movement of the Kreutzer Sonata and the second movement of Op. 111.
How many Composers wrote Variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"?

Sir Patrick Moore for his bluddy xylophone, perhaps?

[Richard Tarleton]

As someone who is particularly fond of the variation form, I was wondering which examples of it appealed to others here.

You've mentioned some of my very favourite pieces of music, aeolium

I'm also drawn to the 16th and early 17th century plucked varieties. One of my party pieces (and a standard piece in any classical guitarist's education) is Luys de Narváez Guárdame las vacas [Look after my cows] from his collection of vihuela music Los seis libros del Delphin of 1538, which includes some of the very earliest examples of the form. Also every Elizabethan composer wrote his own variations (or divisions) for lute to the popular tunes of the day - e.g. The Woods So Wild, John Come Kiss Me Now, Go From My Window, Walsingham, The Carman's Whistle, and of course Sellenger's Round.

To your list of towering masterpieces I'd add the D Minor Chaconne.....

Here's a slightly ropey performance of Guádame las vacas by Segovia in old age....

[aeolium]

To your list of towering masterpieces I'd add the D Minor Chaconne.....

Yes, the original Bach and Busoni's arrangement.

There are some other memorable chamber music examples: The Death and the Maiden slow movement; the Andantino con variazioni of Dvorak's first piano quartet; the Trout variations; the slow movement of Mozart's A major quartet K464; the variations in Haydn's last two op 76 quartets; and the slow movement of Beethoven's op 127 among many...

[jean]

Brahms Handel variations op.24.

[visualnickmos]

It has to be LvB, 'Diabelli' with Richter playing.

Seventh heaven.

[Richard Tarleton]

It has to be LvB, 'Diabelli' with Richter playing.

The first time I heard the Diabelli live was in Oxford Town Hall - the Oxford Bach Festival, 1969 - played by Daniel Chorzempa [better known as an organist]. It was an extraordinary concert - I was in the front row. He played the Waldstein with the Andante Favori as the slow movement, and then with barely a pause (I think he took one bow) sat down again and played the Diabelli. I think some people were expecting an interval As Felix Aprahamian put it in his rave review the next day, he "piled the Pelion of the Diabelli on the Ossa of the Waldstein". I heard John Lill play the two a few years later, but with the short slow movement!

Recordings-wise I like to ring the changes, these's so much to bring out in this extraordinary work.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes, the original Bach and Busoni's arrangement.

- and Brahms' (for Left Hand alone).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HIZAhFqgtY

[Richard Tarleton]

Another set of variations beloved of guitarists - Fernando Sor's Variations on a Theme of Mozart [from the Magic Flute].

[doversoul1]

Not quite the same thing but the tune La Folia makes fascinating variations. In fact, there was once a programme about La Folia and its variations on Early Music Show.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Not quite the same thing but the tune La Folia makes fascinating variations. In fact, there was once a programme about La Folia and its variations on Early Music Show.

This disc has given me loads of pleasure: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Variations-F...words=la+folia
Not quite complete, of course....

....hasn't got the Rachmaninov variations