Tema con variazioni: Music with alterations

Music would be unimaginable without variations. They bring variety to every piece, be it through the embellishment of a melody, the variation of a rhythm or a harmonic shift. Variation has its origins in improvisation – and consequently in the earliest days of music-making. Here we present a kaleidoscope of variations: from the Renaissance to the present day.

Throughout the ages, composers have prized cycles of variations. Why? Because they could give free rein to their imagination while maintaining a common thread. The wealth of ideas in the finale of Mozart’s G major Piano Concerto K. 453 is breathtaking, in which a Papageno-like theme is presented in multiple transformations without losing its outline – an art that can also be admired in the Allegretto of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

Arnold Schoenberg confessed that the First Viennese School in particular had shown him “how to create new forms from the base material”. This can be seen not only in his Variations for Orchestra, but also in the Passacaglia of his pupil Anton Webern, which, however, is more oriented towards Brahms. With his Haydn Variations, the latter presented a prime example of this genre – similar to Marin Marais, whose Folies d’Espagna were based on a Iberian melody that was known throughout Europe.

Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes by Carl Maria von Weber, on the other hand, are somewhat of a misnomer. They don’t offer variations on individual themes, since Hindemith varies entire works by Weber. César Franck’s Variations symphoniques are characterised by rhapsodic inventiveness, while Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes are tremendously virtuosic. The same applies to Boris Blacher’s brilliant variations on Paganini’s famous Violin Caprice No. 24. In the composition by the adopted Berliner, the vertiginous string runs are sometimes underpinned by a boogie bass.

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