75: Theme and Variation Form

One of the most important forms we have yet to discuss is also, at least in terms of its description, one of the most basic: theme and variations. That is, follow a 3 step process:

1. Play a thing
2. Change it somehow
3. Keep doing step 2 as long as you feel like it


Theme and Variations can vary wildly in complexity. At one end of the spectrum we have the first work in the first of 10 Suzuki volumes: five (when I was growing up—but now six) purely rhythmic variations plus plain old nursery rhyme, sing-it-to-your-babies Twinkle Twinkle. 
• Variation A gets students started thinking about detache versus staccato
• Variation B introduces rests
• Variation C works on bow distribution from tip to frog and vice versa
• Variation D (since apparently relabeled “E”) works on right-hand flexibility 
• Variation E (apparently actually “D” thanks to the relabeling) introduces triplets and/or counting in 6/8 
• The theme is just straight, quarter-quarter-quarter-quarter-quarter-quarter-half
But in all 7 variations, the “11556654433221” idea remains exactly the same. 

The other end of the spectrum, I think, is the Bach Chaconne. In due time, I’ll write an article that goes into every possible detail about the Chaconne, but for now, consider this a primer: it takes about 15 minutes to play, and it uses one violin to imitate an organ and/or full orchestra, playing music over the same 8-bar bassline 64 times in a row, and is widely considered the Mount Everest of my instrument’s solo repertoire. I haven’t dared go anywhere near the Chaconne and probably won’t for a few more years; until I muster up the courage, I’ll stick to doing analysis and pointing out why it’s so cool. (Seriously, if you have never heard it, go check it out!)

(The fourth movement of the Ninth is also in Theme and Variation; its theme may seem simple enough to be quite far to the “Twinkle” end of the spectrum—but the more I listen to, score-study, write about, and attempt to learn it cover-to-cover, the more resolutely I will defend the position that it’s almost as difficult as the Chaconne. Neither is particularly difficult if you strip them down to their most essential elements—the theme of the Ninth, and only the melodic voice in the Chaconne—but something else (the emotional vulnerability and direct line to every listener’s heart in the Ninth, and the fact that you’re juggling so many extra parts in the Chaconne) makes them both far, far, far more complex than a cursory look at just their themes would suggest they are.)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

35: Figured Bass

Image
  There’s a system of notating harmonies that’s rather unique to the Baroque era, but which is so frequently used there, and so important to it, that no discussion of theory would ever be complete if we did not cover it. This is the notation of figured bass: “figured,” in the sense of using figures (numbers) to notate the bass. Figured bass was, in a sense, its own notation completely separate from the five lines and four spaces of the staff, which was nearly exclusively the purview of cellists, bassists, harpsichords, and organists.  Figured bass, fair warning, can be intimidating at first. But, just as with anything else we’ve covered so far, the more you practice reading it, the better you’ll get.  In this system, we use numbers to indicate intervals above the bass. We stack them, and this is how we build chords. If you can’t stack them, nowadays, it’s perfectly fine to use slashes and write the numbers horizontally.  Let’s start with the easiest figured bass nota...
Read more

58: Swell pedals and swell shades

There’s one pedal that we haven’t discussed on the organ because it isn’t one of the “note” pedals—in fact, it’s the only one that doesn’t have a pitch. Instead, the missing pedal is the swell pedal. Look at the body of the organ (the assembly of where all the pipes are, as opposed to the “console”, where the organist sits and plays the instrument—these may or may not be physically close to each other), and you’ll probably see what kind of look like plantation shutters. (If you know where my parish is, then this feature of the organ is very clearly visible on ours. Your local organ might not be so obvious.) These shutters, called “swell shutters/shades,” show or hide the pipes of the organ. Organs have instantaneous dynamic control—the amount of pressure you put on a key dictates how much air flows through the pipes, just like a piano allows you to adjust dynamics on the fly by changing the amount of pressure with which the hammer hits the string(s) given the pressure on the key. Thes...
Read more

54: Trills in the Baroque vs. Classical Periods

Image
Baroque music is known for its incredibly technical and ornamented style. The most common and fundamental of those ornaments is our focus today: the trill. Most simply, a trill is a very fast, repeated alternation of two notes. In the vast majority of cases, those notes are adjacent, but that is not a requirement. Given how fast and common they are, regardless of what you play—whether it’s a string, wind, or keyboard instrument, or your voice—they have a reputation for being quite tiring to play. The period matters when considering a trill. Classical and later composers treat trills, in a sense, in the opposite manner than Baroque composers do. Let me show you two examples: First, the Baroque way of thinking. This is a PAC:   and especially in the Baroque era, when the plucked harpsichord dominated over the hammered piano, it was hard to sustain sounds for long since the sound of the plucking decays quickly. The trill was developed in response, out of a need both to ornam...
Read more