Themes and Variations

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[00:00:00]
Jason Croft: Good evening from Urbana and the University of Illinois, it's Prairie Performances. WILL's weekly show presenting classical and jazz from the heart of the prairie in central Illinois. Prairie Performances is made possible in part by funding from the John Frayne Graduate Student Classical Music Work Experience Endowment.

[00:06:52]
Mel Miller: The second movement of Beethoven's Sonata in F minor, also known as the Appassionata, performed here by Ian Hobson. Good evening and welcome to Prairie Performances. I'm your host, Mel Miller.

The second movement of Beethoven's Appassionata is one of three pieces you'll hear tonight that can be described as a theme and variations. Theme and variations, also called variation form, is a musical format that presents the listener with a simple theme. The composer then makes alterations to the melody, rhythm or harmony of that theme to create different versions known as variations. I find this form a lot of fun because it gives the listener a chance to hear a single tune played in a number of different ways, and it demonstrates how much a composer can do with a relatively small amount of basic musical material.

Variation form appears frequently in classical music. One of the most beloved examples of this phenomenon comes from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. His Variations on a Rococo Theme, while rococo only in style and not origin, is a mainstay of the cello repertoire. And you can hear it performed tonight by the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ken Lam and featuring cellist Ruth Marshall, here on Prairie Performances.

[00:27:20]

Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme performed here by the Illinois Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ken Lamb and featuring Ruth Marshall on cello, all part of this Prairie Performances on themes and variations in classical music. I'm your host Mel Miller.

The next piece on our program is made up of variations that the composer described as sketches of his personal friends. Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, also called the Enigma Variations, is comprised of variations labeled by the nicknames of those close to him, including his publisher August Jaeger, fellow composers Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, Elgar's wife Alice, and Elgar himself. Which variation do you think belongs to who? See if you can guess.

I'll leave you tonight with Elgar's Enigma Variations as performed by the Sinfonia da Camera under the baton of Ian Hobson. I've been your host, Mel Miller. Thank you so much for listening with me this evening here on Prairie Performances. 

[00:57:53]

Prairie Performances is a production of Illinois Public Media. I'm your host, Mel Miller. I hope you'll join me next time!