Study of Variations

Improvising on a tune to accompany dancing has ancient roots, but the form know as variation form is a sixteenth-century invention, used for independent instrumental pieces rather than as dance accompaniment. Variations combine change with repetition, taking a given theme - an existing or newly composed tune, bass line, harmonic plan, melody with accompaniment, or other musical subject - and presenting an uninterrupted series of variations on that theme. The goal was to showcase the variety that could be achieved in embellishing a basic idea and, often, to provide a technical challenge as the figuration becomes increasingly complex, but the result was a very practical solution to the problem of how to achieve length and coherence in a piece without words. For this reason, perhaps, it became the formal type most favored by composers of instrumental music in the early seventeenth century.

After Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), variations was built on motives derived from some part of the theme but altered in rhythm, tempo, dynamics, or context so as to produce a new design. And many nineteenth-century composers worked in this genre. For example, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) came under the spell of the great Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840), one of the most hypnotic artists of the nineteenth century. He directly imitated the master in his six Etudes d'execution transcendante d'apres Paganini (Transcendental Technical Studies Based on Paganini, 1851), transcribing four of Paganini's solo violin Caprices, Op.1 and his La Campanella (The Bell) from the Violin Concerto No.2 in B Minor.

After Liszt, influence of the Paganini's Variations lasted. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) also wrote virtuoso music and focused on variation form. His Variations on Theme of Paganini, Op.35 (1863) is sets of variations. The piece Op.35 is called as one of the most difficult and etude-like pieces.

Until now, composers are loving to write variation form and many of the contemporary composers also used the Paganini's theme for their variation forms.

References

Gordon, S. (1996) A History of Keyboard Literature, Schirmer Books

Hanning, B. R. (1998) Concise History of Western Music, Norton