Recording
- Orchestral VariationsHartford Symphony Orchestra; Fritz Mahler13:41
Copland’s Orchestral Variations is his orchestration of his 1930 piano work, twenty variations and a coda built on four notes, E, C, E♭ and C♯. A soft horn plays the ringing C♯ of the opening, and parts of the keyboard’s hard-edged lines become a duet for flute and oboe.
Listening notes
- Four-note motif and held C♯
The whole piece is built from four notes, E, C, E♭ and C♯. In the piano original a key held down silently lets C♯ ring on after the other notes are struck. In the orchestral version a horn holds that note softly after a clang of brass and percussion.
- Theme and first variation
Copland reverses the usual order of a variation set. The theme is stated forcefully, and the first variation is more subdued. The same four notes form a hard chord in one place and a line passed between instruments in another.
- Orchestration and première, Louisville, 1957
Copland wrote the piano piece in 1930 and returned to it in 1957 for a Louisville Orchestra commission. Robert Whitney conducted the orchestral première in Louisville on 5 March 1957.
- Variation XI, flute and oboe
The middle of the piece is a slow, quiet passage for woodwind. In the eleventh variation flute and oboe play the four-note idea as a duet. The quicker variations begin in Variation XII.
- Later variations, rhythmic interplay
In the later variations quick notes pass between the instruments. One rhythm is set against another, and the beat drops away and is caught up again. The opening four notes remain underneath the changes of pace.
- Percussion in the orchestral score
The orchestral score adds bongos, conga drum and cowbell to a percussion group that also includes tubular bells, glockenspiel and xylophone.
- Coda
The coda expands the short exchanges into heavy chords for full orchestra. Brass and percussion return to the force of the opening. The coda follows twenty variations, all built from the same four notes.