Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

VARIATIONS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 915 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

VARIATIONS , in See also:

music, the See also:term given to See also:groups of progressively See also:developed versions of a See also:complete self-contained theme, retaining the See also:form of that theme though not necessarily its See also:melody. This at least is the classical sense of the term, though there are See also:modern developments of the variation form to which this See also:definition is at once too broad and too precise to apply. The aesthetic principle of variations appeared at very See also:early stages of music; and it soon became something far more definite than the use of ornamental versions of a melodic phrase, a use which must have been natural almost as soon as music was articulate at all. During the 16th See also:century principles aesthetically indistinguishable from some types of variation-form inevitably arose in the polyphonic treatment of Gregorian See also:hymns See also:verse by verse. Accordingly, the hymns and Magnificats of See also:Palestrina might without See also:great extravagance be described as contrapuntal sets of variations on ecclesiastical tunes, like very See also:free examples of the type shown later in extreme simplicity and formality by See also:Haydn's variations oil his See also:Austrian See also:national See also:anthem in the " See also:Emperor " quartet (Op. 76, No. 3). Already in the 16th century instrumental music was assuming such See also:independence as it could attain by means of a See also:primitive variation-form, growing partly out of the See also:habit of playing vocal madrigals on the virginals or similar keyed See also:instruments, or singing the See also:top See also:part as a See also:solo to an instrumental See also:accompaniment, with an overwhelming See also:weight of ornaments beneath which the See also:original See also:madrigal was quite unrecognizable. (See, for example, the " diminutions " given in the 3oth See also:volume of Breitkopf & Hartel's complete edition of Palestrina's See also:works.) A favourite See also:plan, of which numerous examples may be found in the Filzwilliam See also:Virginal See also:Book, was to put together several popular or original tunes, with an ornamental variation sandwiched between each. Sometimes, however, sets of variations on a single tune were produced, with essentially modern effect, as in See also:Byrd's variations on " The Carman's See also:Whistle." Such variations were naturally grouped in See also:order of increasing complexity and brilliance. Some of the See also:keyboard passages in which the early See also:English variation-writers indulged are of extraordinary difficulty, even from the standpoint of modern See also:pianoforte technique. In the 17th century a highly See also:artistic form of variation arose, very favourable to the earliest composers of the transition See also:period, because of the simplicity of its principle, which relieved the composer of all the graver problems of formal organization.

This was the ground-See also:

bass, a single phrase placed in the bass and repeating itself as See also:long as the composer had fresh harmonies and superstructure with which to vary it. In typical examples the ground-bass was derived from the See also:dance forms of the See also:passacaglia and the See also:chaconne, which in classical music resembled each other in being in slow See also:time, and did not otherwise differ markedly, except that in the passacaglia the theme could be transferred now and then to the See also:treble or to an inner part, a purely natural aesthetic resource which makes no See also:radical difference to the See also:art-form. The See also:genius of See also:Purcell was cruelly hampered by the lack of possibilities for organizing large musical forms in his time, and nothing is more significant than the avidity with which he seizes upon the ground-bass as a means of giving coherence to his ideas. By the time of See also:Bach and See also:Handel a lighter type of variation-See also:work, less capable of high organization, and more like Byrd's variations on " The Carman's Whistle," had arisen. Bach's See also:Aria variala ally maniera Italiana is an instance of this; and so is the See also:air et doubles that appears now and then in Handel's instrumental works. The principle of this form is simply to take a symmetrical melody (generally in binary form) and embroider it. Such variations are called doubles whenever each variation divides the See also:rhythm systematically into quicker notes than the one before. The most See also:familiar example is that known as " The Harmonious Blacksmith " in Handel's E .najor See also:suite. Sometimes the air itself was stated in a tangle of ornamentation, while the doubles made it See also:float in a simplified form over an accompaniment of increasingly rapid flow. (See, for example, Handel's D See also:minor suite and the little set in B See also:flat on a theme afterwards varied in the noblest modern See also:style by See also:Brahms.) But Bach had meanwhile applied the principle of the ground-bass to variations on a complete symmetrical See also:movement in binary form. His Air and 30 Variations, commonly known as the " See also:Goldberg " variations, is (with the exception of See also:Beethoven's 33 Veranderungen on a waltz by Diabelli) not only the most gigantic set of variations in the See also:world, but one of the three largest compositions in any form ever written for a single See also:instrument. Of course in so large a work the conception of theground-bass, as a clearly recognizable theme repeated with no more than slight See also:ornament, would be inadequate whatever the variety of the superstructure: but so steady is the See also:drift of Bach's bass that he is enabled to represent it by countless alternative harmonies and analogous See also:chromatic progressions, without weakening its individuality.

The grouping of the See also:

thirty variations is extremely subtle in See also:balance and See also:climax, the more so because there are no means within the terms of Bach's art for making a free See also:coda to the work, his ground-bass being both too long and too purely a bass to be taken as the theme of a See also:fugue, like that in his great passacaglia for See also:organ. Yet Bach contrives to See also:round off the work perfectly by the See also:simple direction aria da See also:capo at the end. There is no question of retaining or varying the melody of the aria, which indeed is so ornamental as to be pointless and unrecognizable as a basis for variations; nor could it, like the above-mentioned See also:Italian examples of Handel, he simplified, since most of its ornaments are integral parts of the phrases. The next See also:chapter in the See also:history of the variation form is intimately connected with the See also:sonata style. A set of variations used as a movement for a sonata inevitably tends to be variations on the melody. The sonata style implies the See also:identification of themes by their melodies rather than by their texture, the very term " theme " being primarily used in a melodic See also:con-notation (see MELODY). Hence a set of exclusively See also:harmonic variations would not be in the sonata style. Now, most of the best sets of variations by See also:Mozart and Haydn are movements in their sonata works; and this should always be remembered in discussing the tendency of their treatment of the form. Few of their See also:independent sets are of any importance, since most are very early works, or were written for pupils, or intended as encore pieces for concerts. Haydn shows a great fondness for a See also:special form which, even if earlier specimens can be found, he may properly be said to have invented. It consists of alternating variations on two themes, the first a highly organized complete binary melody, and the other a shorter binary melody, often beginning with the same figure as the first, but clearly contrasted with it, inasmuch as, whichever theme is in the See also:major, the other is in the minor. The first theme usually returns as if it were going to be unvaried, but its first repeat is an ornamental variation.

The form is rarely worked out far enough to include more than one variation of the second theme; but the effect is always that of a happy blend of a clearly marked variation form with a more contrasted See also:

scheme a little more highly organized than the roundand-round symmetry of a See also:minuet and trio, but not so elaborate as a See also:rondo. The only later example exactly corresponding to Haydn's form is the first allegretto of Beethoven's pianoforte trio in E flat, Op. 70, No. a; although, with a wider range of See also:key, a free application of the principle of alternating themes is magnificently illustrated by the slow movement of his C minor See also:symphony. Beethoven in his last works invented another variation-form on two themes, in which the first theme is very free in structure and the second theme is a more rigid melody in a different key and time. The examples of this are the slow movement of the 9th Symphony and the Lydian figured See also:chorale in the A minor quartet. A See also:fine later development of this is the slow movement of Brahms's F major See also:string quintet, Op. 88, in which the See also:alternation of the two keys gives rise, in the last See also:line of the movement, to one of the most astonishing and subtle dramatic strokes in all music. In sonata works, Beethoven's examples of the normal variation form based on a single theme are as wonderful as may be expected from him; but nothing is more significant than his strict adherence in sonata works to the melodic principle of variation. He uses the form as an unsurpassable means of obtaining repose in slow movements. The extreme See also:case of this is the slow movement of the sonata, Op. 57 (commonly called Appassionata), which is described in the See also:article on SONATA Fors. In this and in many other instances, his method is aesthetically that of the air et doubles, as being the simplest possible means 914 of obtaining variety and climax without leaving the fundamental key.

Until his latest works, such sets of variations are never finished. Their dramatic force is that of a repose which is too unearthly to last; and at the first sign of dramatic See also:

motion or See also:change of key the See also:sublime See also:vision " fades into the See also:light of See also:common See also:day," a light which Beethoven is far too great an idealist to despise. (See the See also:andante of the B flat trio, Op. g7; and the slow movement of the See also:violin See also:concerto, which contains two episodic themes in the same key.) In his later works Beethoven found means, by striking out into See also:foreign keys or foreign rhythms, of organizing a coda which, as it were, finally spins down in fragmentary new variations, or even returns to the See also:plain theme. Thus he was able to end his sonatas, Opp. See also:log and with See also:solemn slow movements in which, with the utmost richness of detail and novelty of See also:idea, the melodic variation form is nevertheless See also:paramount. Beethoven also found many ways of combining melodic variations with the principles of the rondo and other more highly organized continuous movements. Thus the See also:finale of the Eroica Symphony has not only the theme but many ideas of the variations and fugue-passages in common with the brilliant set of variations for pianoforte on a theme from See also:Prometheus, Op. 35; and the See also:Fantasia for pianoforte, See also:chorus and See also:orchestra, and the choral finale of the 9th Symphony, are sets of melodic variations with freely developed connecting links and episodes. In the case of the 9th Symphony, a second thematic idea eventually combines with the figures of the first theme in See also:double fugue. But Beethoven's highest art in variation-form is to be found in his independent sets of variations. In some of the earliest of these, notably in the 24 on a theme by Righini (which was his See also:chief bravura performance as a See also:young pianoforte player), he far transcends not only the earlier or sonata-form idea of melodic variations, but fuses their resources with those of the ground-bass, and adds to them his own unparalleled grasp of rhythmic organization. Beethoven is the first composer who can be said to have discovered that a theme consists not only of melody and See also:harmony but of rhythm. and form. With earlier composers the form of the theme was automatically preserved in consequence of the preservation of either its melody or its harmony; but Beethoven had an unerring See also:judgment as to when the form of a theme might be definite enough to remain as a basis for a variation which departed radically from both the harmony and the melody.

The climax in the history of variations See also:

dates from the moment when Beethoven was just about to begin his 9th Symphony, and received from A. Diabelli a waltz which that publisher was sending round to all the musicians in See also:Austria so that each might contribute a variation to be published for the benefit of the sufferers in the See also:late See also:Napoleonic See also:wars. Diabelli's theme was absurdly prosaic, but it happened to be perhaps the sturdiest piece of musical See also:anatomy that Beethoven or any composer since has ever seen. Not only was its harmonic form exceptionally clear and See also:firm, but its phrase-rhythm was as simple, recognizable and heterogeneous as its other qualities. Its melodic merit was nil, yet it had plenty of recognizable melodic figures. All these prosaic technicalities are far more likely to impress a great composer as See also:good See also:practical resources than those high poetic qualities which critics discuss incessantly, but which are to a great artist the air he breathes. Diabelli's waltz moved Beethoven to defer his work on the 9th Symphony The shape of Diabelli's theme may be illustrated by a See also:diagram See also:Hit Jill II II I I I I Tonic. Dominant. Rising sequence, See also:Close in dominant. which represents its first sixteen bars; the upright strokes being the bars, and the brackets and dots (together with the names underneath) indicating the way in which the rhythm is grouped by See also:correspondence of phrase and changes of harmony. The second part also consists of sixteen bars, moving harmonically back from the dominant to the tonic, and rhythmically of exactly the same structure as the first part. This harmonic and sequential plan, together with this straightforward square tapering rhythmic structure, is so formal in effect that Beethoven can substitute.

for it almost anything equally familiar that corresponds, in its proportions. Thus, the alternation of tonic and dominant in the first eight bars may be represented by another familiar form in which three bars of tonic and a See also:

fourth of dominant are answered by three bars of dominant and a fourth of tonic; as in variation 14 (which must be reckoned in See also:half-bars). Again, the See also:antithesis of tonic and dominant is accompanied in Diabelli's theme by a part of the melodic figure being repeated a step higher at the change of harmony ; and this naturally produces such devices as the answering of the tonic by the supertonic in variation 8, and, still more surprisingly, by the flat supertonic in variation 3o. In so enormous and resourceful a work, occupying fifty minutes in performance, it is natural that some variations should drift rather farther from the anatomy of the theme than can be explained by any strict principle; and so the jocular transformation of the beginning of Diabelli's bass into the theme of Mozart's Notte e giorno faticar leads to a couple of extra bars at the end of its second part ; otherwise the fughetta (variation 24) and variations 29 and. 31 are the only cases in which any considerable part of the structure of the theme is lost, except the fugue (variation 32), which is simply an elaborate movement on a salient feature of what must by See also:courtesy be called Diabelli's melody. A free fugue is a favourite See also:solution of the difficult problem of the coda in a set of variations. But for the works of Brahms, which invariably retain the classical conceptions while developing them in a thoroughly modern and living See also:language, it can hardly be claimed that the art of variation-See also:writing has advanced since Beethoven. The term is now used for a somewhat nondescript method of stringing together a See also:series of See also:short fantasias on a theme; a method which may be legitimate and artistic in individual cases, but hardly constitutes an art-form. There is this great disadvantage in variations that neglect the anatomy of the theme, that the only way in which, in the See also:absence of other means of. connexion, they can show any coherence at all is by more or less frequently harping on scraps of the melody. The effect is (except in unusually happy examples such as the Etudes symphoniques of See also:Schumann and the See also:Enigma Variations of See also:Elgar) curiously apologetic; because no ambitious composer in the "free" modern variation style thinks a melodic variation quite worthy of his dignity, and so the melodic allusions become the more tiresome from their furtive manner. Many "advanced" specimens of variation-form undoubtedly owe their origin to a vague impulse of revolt from the unsound statements of unobservant writers of See also:mid-19th century See also:text-books, who contented themselves with laying down crude rules such as that a variation might " either retain the melody and change the harmony, or retain the harmony and change the melody," &c., without any See also:attempt to see how the classical composers really analysed their themes. It is very characteristic of Schumann's modesty and grasp of facts that he, who was the first to produce serious art in a free non-anatomical variation style, did not See also:call his experiments variations without qualification.

He never wrote a sat in which the anatomy of the theme was of real importance to the whole; and, with him, whenever at least the initial melodic figure of his theme is not traceable throughout a See also:

section, that. section is simply an See also:episode. But Schumann knows this perfectly well, and acknowledges it. The Etudes symphoniques are called variations only in. those sections which are fairly strict variations. Elsewhere they are simply numbered as etudes. The slow movement of the F major string quartet (in which a second theme masquerades as the first variation, and some of the other variation-like sections are quite free) is called andante quasi variazione; and even the strictest of all his variation works is called Impromptus, on a theme by See also:Clara Wieck, Op. 5. There is, no doubt, great See also:scope for a variation-form which is neither melodic nor anatomic, and we have not a word to say against the. See also:legitimacy of many forms of effective modern fantasia-variations; but the fact remains that it is very hazardous to talk of an " advance " in the variation-form, when even the best fantasia-variations are not only unconnected with any classical type but evidently unable to get nearly as far from either the melody or the harmony of their theme as the 25th of Bach's " Goldberg " variations or many variations in the earliest sets by Beethoven. Indeed, the only See also:sound See also:classification of composers of modern variations, from the time of Mendelssohn onwards, is that which distinguishes the composers who seem to know their theme from those who do not. (D. F.

End of Article: VARIATIONS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
VARIATION AND SELECTION 		[next]
VARIATIONS IN CLEARINGS AT NEW

Site © 2006 - Net Industries