Table of Contents

Preface Introduction: Repetition and Decoration The Rhetoric of Variation Rhetoric and Classical Composers Rhetoric and Variation Figures of Rhetoric and Music Figures for Variation Form Rhetorical Analysis Variation as Form and Technique in Eighteenth-Century Musical Writings Improvised and Composed Variation Technique Improvised and Composed Variation Form The Variation in the Universe of Classical Musical Forms Expansion Techniques Principal Periods Haydn's Expansions Variation and Expanded Forms Convention and Innovation in Haydn's Variations to 1780 Early Variations The Watershed of 1772 Haydn's "Creative Periods" Hybrid Variations: Principles and Development Synthesis: Haydn's Variations in the 1780s and 1790s Symphonies Quartets Keyboard Works Mozart's Variations Inventio: Choice and Adaptation of Themes Dispositio: Ordering of Variations Elaboratio: Figures and Figurations 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 (Tables A.1-A-3) Appendix B: Extended Original-Language Quotations Selected Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

By far the most extensive, intelligent, and original treatment of the concept and techniqe of variation yet produced. Sisman employs a wide range of approaches, from classical and neoclassical rhetorical theory and the most recent techniques of literary analysis to sophisticated modern methods of dealing with the music itself. -- Eugene K. Wolf, University of Pennsylvania

About the Author

Elaine R. Sisman is Associate Professor of Music, Columbia University.

Reviews

By far the most extensive, intelligent, and original treatment of the concept and techniqe of variation yet produced. Sisman employs a wide range of approaches, from classical and neoclassical rhetorical theory and the most recent techniques of literary analysis to sophisticated modern methods of dealing with the music itself.--Eugene K. Wolf, University of Pennsylvania