Learning to Listen: Theme and Variations

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in a time loop, doomed to keep repeating the same day over and over again?

That's the dilemma faced by Phil Connors, a character played by actor Bill Murray in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. Connors eventually decides to study the piano, and the piece he learns is Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme of Paganini.

Well, February 2 is Groundhog Day, and the film of that name has given us an idea: this week on Learning to Listen, we're talking about themes and variations.

In music, the theme and variation form is a musical form that dates from the 16th century. It's one way for composers to structure their music — they take a theme — a tune or sequence of notes, and create music based on that by changing it, adding to it, changing the harmony or the rhythm or altering other musical elements. Sometimes the tune is well-known, sometimes it isn't.

Program Playlist

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Royal Philharmonic/Jascha Horenstein

JS Bach
Goldberg Variations /Glenn Gould
Theme, Variations 1-5 Glenn Gould

Mozart
12 improvisations on "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman"
Christoph Eschenbach, piano

Schubert
'Trout' Quintet: Theme and Variations
James Levine, piano

Bizet/Bourne/Meylan
Fantasie Brillante sur 'Carmen' (extract)
Rotterdam Philharmonic/Yannick Nezet-Seguim
Juliette Hurel, flute

Elgar
'Enigma' Variations: Introduction and Variation 1
Minnesota Orchestra/Neville Marriner

Henri Vieuxtemps
Souvenir d' Amerique
Zuell Bailey/Simone Dinnerstein

Rachmaninoff
'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Royal Philharmonic/Jascha Horenstein

Ives arr. Schuman
Variations on 'America'
NY Philharmonic/Kurt Masur

Gallery

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