DAILY DOSE OF BEETHOVEN (September 8, 2020)
Variations: The Three B's.
It can be argued that of all of the great “Theme and Variation” compositions in Western history, there are only three that are truly transcendent: The “Goldberg Variations” by Bach, the “Diabelli Variations” by Beethoven, and the “Variations on a Theme by Handel” by Brahms. All three require a deep archeological dig. We’ve done a first level dig of the Bach and the Beethoven. Now let us approach Brahms.
Of all the composers who came after Beethoven, Brahms was the most serious in recognizing the standards he had to live up to. For him, that meant not just Bach and Beethoven, but all of the progress in music that had led up to them. We discussed in a previous post, how Brahms took Bach and Beethoven as bookends for his 4th symphony. Brahm’s “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24”, does something similar, but different.
Brahms recognized that Beethoven's “Diabelli Variations” exemplifies the pinnacle of the “Theme and Variations” form. The magnificent fugue that concludes Brahms' Op. 24 clearly shows that the Diabeli Variations was a great model for him. However, the theme of the variations is not from Bach, from his great contemporary George Frideric Handel, who was much admired by Beethoven.
In the years after Bach and Handel’s death, both genii’s works where buried. Practically no one played them. During Brahms’ life, unknown scores by both Bach and Handel were unearthed. When a new score by Handel was discovered, Brahms made sure to get to it within a few days. When a new score by Bach showed up, all work stopped immediately.
Although we dislike the idea of dissecting music into "periods" such as the "Baroque", Brahms studied all previous music, and the “Handel Variations” address some of Handel's and
Bach's contemporaries. He made changes in his music according to discoveries, not just styles, made over centuries.
Like the Goldberg and Diabelli Variations, Brahms' Handel Variations:
1. Is Gargantuan, of the scale needed for such a transcendental work.
2. Incorporated music history, up until that point.
3. Pushed both piano, and compositional technique to the limits.
4. Ended up, on the other side of a barrier, in a different world.
Brahms composed this work in 1861 at the age of 28, and considered it his best work to date. He had the opportunity to play it once for Richard Wagner, who commented somewhat ambiguously, "One sees what still may be done in the old forms when someone comes along who knows how to use
them" (Wagner rejected the "old forms" as outmoded in favor of his "music drama"'; but he also may have been avoiding them, because of his lack of compositional and pianistic technique.)
Before we plunge into Brahms, we should listen to Handel: not just the theme, but his own variations on it. Brahms' huge task was to advance not just the theme, but Handel's treatment of it. For example, like Handel, Brahms introduces syncopation in the very first variation. (Please ignore the first minute of this video, which comes from another work.)
How does one rise, not just above Handel's theme, but his own magnificent variations on it?
Stay tuned!