Variation sets of this time tend to be the dullest pieces - particularly those that follow the formula of progressive diminution - that is, adding more and more ornamentation to the melody. Eventually these Plateresque melodies fall under their own wieght into either then minor or something completely different. You find this a lot in Mozart's keyboard variations, what with their version of the theme in eighth notes and then triplets and then sixteenth notes, before the whole process begins again in the left hand. The twelve-year old Beethoven's first opus, a surprisingly engaging set of variations on a dull march by the long-forgotten composer Dressler, basically demonstrates just what exactly someone can do with the simple alternation of tonic minor and dominant major harmony. We begin very matter of factly with several variations that don't alter very much of the theme, before the fifth variation appears with its rapid broken octaves, it sort of returns to a diminuted style of variation before the final, ninth variation appears in the major and wipes all the dullness away with a touch of the odd, a strange move to the raised six. A good, if awkward, start.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
9 Variations for Piano in C minor: on a march by Ernst Christoph Dressler (1782)
Biamonti 1; WoO 63
Variation sets of this time tend to be the dullest pieces - particularly those that follow the formula of progressive diminution - that is, adding more and more ornamentation to the melody. Eventually these Plateresque melodies fall under their own wieght into either then minor or something completely different. You find this a lot in Mozart's keyboard variations, what with their version of the theme in eighth notes and then triplets and then sixteenth notes, before the whole process begins again in the left hand. The twelve-year old Beethoven's first opus, a surprisingly engaging set of variations on a dull march by the long-forgotten composer Dressler, basically demonstrates just what exactly someone can do with the simple alternation of tonic minor and dominant major harmony. We begin very matter of factly with several variations that don't alter very much of the theme, before the fifth variation appears with its rapid broken octaves, it sort of returns to a diminuted style of variation before the final, ninth variation appears in the major and wipes all the dullness away with a touch of the odd, a strange move to the raised six. A good, if awkward, start.
Variation sets of this time tend to be the dullest pieces - particularly those that follow the formula of progressive diminution - that is, adding more and more ornamentation to the melody. Eventually these Plateresque melodies fall under their own wieght into either then minor or something completely different. You find this a lot in Mozart's keyboard variations, what with their version of the theme in eighth notes and then triplets and then sixteenth notes, before the whole process begins again in the left hand. The twelve-year old Beethoven's first opus, a surprisingly engaging set of variations on a dull march by the long-forgotten composer Dressler, basically demonstrates just what exactly someone can do with the simple alternation of tonic minor and dominant major harmony. We begin very matter of factly with several variations that don't alter very much of the theme, before the fifth variation appears with its rapid broken octaves, it sort of returns to a diminuted style of variation before the final, ninth variation appears in the major and wipes all the dullness away with a touch of the odd, a strange move to the raised six. A good, if awkward, start.
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