1778 found Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of 22. At this time, he composed a set of twelve
variations on the theme, “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman.” This translates to, “Shall I tell you,
Mother? Many people credit Mozart with
the creation of this well-known melody.
You will know it as, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” However, Mozart does not receive the glory for
the origin of this piece. This French
melody first appeared in 1761, known as a French folk tune and used in various
children’s songs including, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” and the “Alphabet Song.” The original publication in 1761 by M. Bouin was
intended for extravagant entertainment for garden parties in Paris. Years later, Mozart’s 12 Variations in C Major are
speculated to have been written for his students as practice keyboard exercises. Created for solo piano with thirteen
sections, this piece was first published in Vienna in 1785.
Below is the original theme in C major:
From here, the variations give the melody to the right and left hand, embellish
melodies with running sixteenth notes, add triplets, switch to off-beat
patterns, find running scale patterns, move to the parallel minor, give staccato
and legato expressions, and decorate with other melodic embellishments. All of these variations support the theory that
this piece was composed for student exercise.
The original presentation of the melody in two part harmony allows ample room for Mozart's imagination to run wild. Various suspensions and chromaticism gives way to the enriched harmony and the final variation shifts to triple meter and allegro tempo for an exciting close.
This is so cool! I had never even thought about where this song came from just because it's always kinda been a thing. The video was super interesting; who knew Twinkle Twinkle Little Star could be so intense?
ReplyDeleteThis kind of reminds me of the Etudes Chopin wrote for technique practice but ended up performing. I wonder if he ever performed this or just used it for teaching? Also I had no idea Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was French!
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting that many composers of the time would create pieces to be used as exercises. It's cool how they are both beautiful and functional at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that someone could create several different variations on one simple tune and perform it as though it were a complete work un-seperated blows my mind. What could have been the method to creating all 12 variations? Improv? Methodical thought processes?
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ReplyDeleteFor the longest time, I thought that Mozart wrote the Twinkle-Twinkle melody because in the band method book that we used in middle school the first piece was "Variations on Twinkle-Twinkle" by Mozart. This clears things up.
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