Listening: Theme and Variations

There are many forms that composers use to create a musical piece. One form is called "theme and variations". A theme and variations form begins with a melody line that forms the theme of the piece. After the theme is played, the composer creates variations using the notes from the theme and changing the rhythm, key signature, time signature, style, or even the direction of the notes so that it sounds different. Sometimes there are only a few variations, but sometimes a composer will write many variations. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a piece for the harpsichord, called The Goldberg Variations, that has 30 variations!

A theme could be taken from a folk song or other popular song.
For example, here is Hong Kong Pure Strings performing variations on Happy Birthday.
They chose to create variations that change the style of the song. First, they play it the way we often sing it. Then they choose styles that sound like Spanish style, a waltz, and also mimic famous pieces. For example, there is a variation that sounds a lot like Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5!
Can you find it?   (Click the link above to hear the Brahms piece.)

Many times a composer will use a theme from another composer's famous piece. In the videos below, you can listen to several pieces where the composers did just that.

The following video is a piece by Johannes Brahms. It is Variations on a Theme by Haydn for two pianos. The performers are Anastasia and Liubov Gromoglasova.

The next theme and variations were written by Chopin. He used a theme from the composer Rossini.

In this video, the performers, Richard Shaw and Elizabeth Walker, are performing on instruments from the time that Chopin wrote the music. In fact, the piano is one of Chopin's own pianos!

How do the flute and piano look different than the flute and piano we see today?