Variations on a Theme by Haydn

<h2 id="origin-of-the-theme">Origin of the theme</h2>

<p>Brahms composed the work on a theme entitled "Chorale St. Antoni", which Brahms found in a <a href="/facts/Wind_ensemble/VcD708Jd">wind ensemble</a> composition. When Brahms discovered it, the wind ensemble piece carried an attribution to the composer <a href="/facts/Joseph_Haydn/z7NDdYag">Joseph Haydn</a>. Brahms titled his own composition accordingly, crediting Haydn for the theme. However, music publishers in the early nineteenth century often attached the names of famous composers to works by unknown or lesser-known composers, to make the pieces more saleable. Subsequent research has concluded that the wind piece Brahms used as a source does not fit Haydn's style. The wind ensemble piece remains without clear attribution.
</p><p>As a result, Brahms's piece is sometimes referred to today, in recordings and concert programs, as the <i>St. Anthony Variations</i> or <i>Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale</i>, in addition to the original title that Brahms gave it.
</p><p>A detailed survey of the controversy can be found in Douglas Yeo's 2004 edition of the "Haydn" piece (ISMN M-57015-175-1).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> In 1870, Brahms's friend Carl Ferdinand Pohl, the librarian of the Vienna Philharmonic Society, who was working on a Haydn biography at the time, showed Brahms a transcription he had made of a piece attributed to Haydn titled "Divertimento No. 1". The second movement bore the heading "St. Anthony Chorale", and it is this movement which provides the theme on which the variations are based. Brahms's statement of the theme varies in small but significant ways from the original, principally with regard to instrumentation. 
</p><p>Some sources state the Divertimento was probably written by <a href="/facts/Ignaz_Pleyel/d4JQoUHL">Ignaz Pleyel</a>, but this has not been definitively established. A further question is whether the composer of the divertimento actually wrote the "St. Anthony Chorale" or simply quoted an older theme taken from an unknown source. To date, no other mention of a "St. Anthony Chorale" has been found.
</p>
<h2 id="instrumentation">Instrumentation</h2>
<p>The variations are scored for <a href="/facts/Piccolo/rleSc7Db">piccolo</a>, 2 <a href="/facts/Flute/sux7paa7">flutes</a>, 2 <a href="/facts/Oboe/Grnq9JAx">oboes</a>, 2 <a href="/facts/Clarinet/57a45Ia7">clarinets</a>, 2 <a href="/facts/Bassoon/kn1HeqoW">bassoons</a>, <a href="/facts/Contrabassoon/J1mNclbm">contrabassoon</a>, 4 <a href="/facts/Horn_(instrument)/8NDBJsY1">horns</a> (2 in E♭, 2 in B♭), 2 <a href="/facts/Trumpet/QzvHkd6V">trumpets</a>, <a href="/facts/Timpani/RMflATzA">timpani</a>, <a href="/facts/Triangle_(musical_instrument)/daNTkgEz">triangle</a>, and the normal string section of first and second <a href="/facts/Violin/0m2eLF3B">violins</a>, <a href="/facts/Viola/l869ofuf">violas</a>, <a href="/facts/Cello/IeYEXr96">cellos</a> and <a href="/facts/Double_bass/zyyj4aay">double basses</a>. 
</p><p>The piece usually takes about 18 minutes to perform.
</p>
<h2 id="form">Form</h2>

<p>The theme begins with a repeated ten-measure passage which itself consists of two intriguing five-measure phrases, a quirk that is likely to have caught Brahms's attention. Almost without exception, the eight variations follow the phrasal structure of the theme and, though less strictly, the harmonic structure as well. Each has a distinctive character, several calling to mind the forms and techniques of earlier eras, with some displaying a mastery of <a href="/facts/Counterpoint/9yd8pKzN">counterpoint</a> seldom encountered in <a href="/facts/Romantic_music/Smlk40jm">Romantic music</a>.
</p><p>The finale is a magnificent theme and variations on a ground bass, five measures in length, derived from the principal theme. Its culmination, a restatement of the chorale, is a moment of such transcendence that the usually austere Brahms permits himself the use of a <a href="/facts/Triangle_(musical_instrument)/daNTkgEz">triangle</a>.
</p><p>Just before the end of the piece, in the <a href="/facts/Coda_(music)/D49KTaAQ">coda</a> of the finale, Brahms <a href="/facts/Musical_quotation/YLelP5pr">quotes</a> a passage that really is by Haydn. In measures 463–464, the violas and cellos echo the cello line from measure 148 of the second movement of the latter's <a href="/facts/Symphony_No._101_(Haydn)/0oGFTcDx">"Clock" Symphony</a>, one of the finest examples of Haydn's pioneering work in the symphonic <a href="/facts/Variation_(music)/zKfWB18C">variation</a> form. The reader may compare the two passages by following these links:  <a href="http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bfk3333/sco10067.gif">Brahms</a>, <a href="http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bgn9295/sco10040.gif">Haydn</a> (see below for link credits). This fragmentary allusion may be the music's sole link to music known with certainty to be by Haydn.
</p>
<h2 id="sections">Sections</h2>
<p>The sections are named and tempo markings given as follows. Where the tempo markings of the two versions differ, the one for Op. 56b is shown in parentheses.
</p>
<ul><li>Theme. Chorale St. Antoni. <i>Andante</i></li>
<li>Variation I. <i>Poco più animato</i> (<i>Andante con moto</i>)</li>
<li>Variation II. <i>Più vivace</i> (<i>Vivace</i>)</li>
<li>Variation III. <i>Con moto</i></li>
<li>Variation IV. <i>Andante con moto</i> (<i>Andante</i>)</li>
<li>Variation V. <i>Vivace</i> (<i>Poco presto</i>)</li>
<li>Variation VI. <i>Vivace</i></li>
<li>Variation VII. <i>Grazioso</i></li>
<li>Variation VIII. <i>Presto non troppo</i> (<i>Poco presto</i>)</li>
<li>Finale. <i>Andante</i></li></ul>
<h2 id="use-elsewhere">Use elsewhere</h2>
<p>The main theme was used in the 23 minute title track from the 1974 LP <i><a href="/facts/Hamburger_Concerto/It7aQ82W">Hamburger Concerto</a></i> by Dutch rock group <a href="/facts/Focus_(band)/kknwXogW">Focus</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/List_of_variations_on_a_theme_by_another_composer/In6FktDY">List of variations on a theme by another composer</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li>Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn: Scores at the <a href="/facts/International_Music_Score_Library_Project/TVgA4KwI">International Music Score Library Project</a></li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bfk3333/index.html">score</a> of Brahms's Variations has been posted by the <a href="http://www.music.indiana.edu/muslib.html">William and Gayle Cook Music Library</a> at the <a href="http://www.music.indiana.edu/">Indiana University School of Music</a>.  The same library is the source of the Haydn link included in the comparison above.</li>
<li>Rodda, Richard E. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110613142741/http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2120">"Program notes"</a>. Archived from <a href="http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2120">the original</a> on June 13, 2011. for the Apr 9-11, 2009 Kennedy Center performances featuring Kurt Masur, conducting the U.S. National Symphony Orchestra</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>McCorkle, Donald M., p. 5 in the Norton Scores edition of the Variations (ISBN 0-393-09206-2) <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"26 Variations on 'La folia di Spagna' (Salieri, Antonio) - IMSLP". imslp.org. Retrieved 2024-02-04. <a href="https://imslp.org/wiki/26_Variations_on_'La_folia_di_Spagna'_(Salieri,_Antonio)" target="_blank">https://imslp.org/wiki/26_Variations_on_'La_folia_di_Spagna'_(Salieri,_Antonio)</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Yeo, Douglas (2013). "Divertimento [Feldparthie] in B-flat [St. Antoni Chorale], Hob. 2:46". yeodoug.com. Retrieved November 9, 2013. <a href="http://www.yeodoug.com/publications/le_monde_du_serpent/le_monde_du_serpent_notes.html" target="_blank">http://www.yeodoug.com/publications/le_monde_du_serpent/le_monde_du_serpent_notes.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Hamburger Concerto, Release group by Focus, MusicBrainz <a href="https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/a0d98b00-20ba-3129-ab70-3fc53424016b" target="_blank">https://musicbrainz.org/release-group/a0d98b00-20ba-3129-ab70-3fc53424016b</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Variations on a Theme by Haydn open-in-new

Variations on a Theme by Haydn