In this first full-scale examination of the theme-and-variations form in the Classical era, Elaine Sisman demonstrates persuasively that it was Haydn's prophetic innovationsplacing the variation in every position of a multi-movement cycle, broadening its array of theme types, and transforming its larger shapethat truly created the Classical variation. She elucidates the concept and technique of variation, traces Haydn's development and use of the form in symphonies, chamber music, and keyboard works, and then shows how ...
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In this first full-scale examination of the theme-and-variations form in the Classical era, Elaine Sisman demonstrates persuasively that it was Haydn's prophetic innovationsplacing the variation in every position of a multi-movement cycle, broadening its array of theme types, and transforming its larger shapethat truly created the Classical variation. She elucidates the concept and technique of variation, traces Haydn's development and use of the form in symphonies, chamber music, and keyboard works, and then shows how Mozart and Beethoven in their individual ways built on his contributions. Throughout, Sisman's analysis reflects both musical thinking of the Classical period and today's critical interests. She discusses ornamentation and musical figures, explores the pervasive eighteenth-century notion of music as rhetoric, and relates the style of the variation to that of the other dominant form in this period: sonata form. Her book offers a revaluation of the nature of the variation form and a new approach to the music of Haydn. Haydn and the Classical Variation is addressed to students and scholars of music, but the author's unaffected style makes it accessible to nonprofessional music lovers as well.
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Add this copy of Haydn and the Classical Variation to cart. $145.00, like new condition, Sold by MW Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Galway, G, IRELAND, published 1993 by Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press.
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Seller's Description:
Series: Studies in the History of Music, 5. Physical description: xii, 311 pages: illustrations; 25 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-301) and index. Contents: 1. Introduction: repetition and decoration--2. The rhetoric of variation: Rhetoric and classical composers; Rhetoric and variation; Figures of rhetoric and music; Figures for variation form; Rhetorical analysis--3. Variation as form and technique in eighteenth-century musical writings: Improvised and composed variation technique; Improvised and composed variation form--4. The variation in the universe of classical musical forms: Expansion techniques; Principal periods; Haydn's expansions; Variation and expanded forms--5. Convention and innovation in Haydn's variations to 1780: Early variations; The watershed of 1772; Haydn's "creative periods"; Hybrid variations: principles and development--6. Synthesis: Haydn's variations in the 1780s and 1790s: Symphonies; Quartets; Keyboard works--7. Mozart's variations: Inventio: choice and adaptation of themes; Dispositio: ordering of variations; Elaboratio: figures and figurations--8. Conclusion: Beethoven and the transformation of the classical variation: Decorum; Piano variations and the "new way"; Eroica: transformation of the alternating variation--Appendix A: Variations of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven [list of works]--Appendix B: Extended original-language quotations. Subjects: Haydn, Joseph 1732-1809; Variations; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 1756-1791; Beethoven, Ludwig van 1770-1827; Variations Analysis, appreciation; Variations History and criticism 18th century; Instrumental music Analysis; Retorica; Music History and criticism Classical; Musical form; Composition (Music); Austria. Fine cloth copy in a near-fine, very slightly edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust-wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong.
Add this copy of Haydn and the Classical Variation (Studies in the to cart. $196.95, very good condition, Sold by Affordable Collectibles rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Columbia, MO, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Harvard University Press.
