Friday, July 16, 2021

Prior to Beethoven, variations in general were considered to be an inferior musical form, not on the same level as sonatas or symphonies. Indeed, Beethoven did not assign opus numbers to his early variations, reserving them for what he considered to be major works. But in 1802, Beethoven wrote to his publisher,   “I have composed two sets of variations, one consisting of eight variations and the other of thirty. Both sets are worked out in quite a new manner, and each in a separate and different way. . .”