The Breeze February 2020

Theme and Variations
By: Frank Schuetz
Somewhere between “I’ve never heard this before”
and “I’m sick of hearing this” is a place where most
people prefer to be while listening to music. When
we hear a piece of popular music for the first time,
we might tend to feel that we would be more
comfortable listening to something more familiar,
especially if our favorite songs come to mind. And
yet, even our favorites can wear down our patience
and attention if we hear them repeated too often.
We want neither unfamiliarity nor excessive
repetition, resulting in a challenge for anyone who
composes music. Yet, all songs have to be heard for
a ‘first time.’
Composers of orchestral music have long known
that attention must be captured quickly and held
throughout the performance. One way a composer
may try to mitigate the issue of unfamiliarity is
to use an overture at the beginning of a work, to
introduce listeners to what they will be hearing later
in the performance. That is, they string together
and present as one song pieces of compositions that
subsequently will each be heard in full. Composers
of music for theater, for example, attempt to
capture attention by introducing the song concepts
before the stage show begins. Unfamiliarity is then
lessened to some extent, because the audience has
heard pieces of the music in advance – sort of. The
overture is something that can be used to capture
interest which can be built upon.
Structures of popular songs usually take advantage
of elaboration to capture and hold interest. Songs
often start at a relatively uncomplicated level and
then are elaborated by increasing levels of intensity,
introducing more instruments and voices, and so
on. The main structure of the song remains present
as elaboration increases to hold attention.
A similar tool used by composers to capture and
hold attention is known as Theme and Variations,
and it follows the same type of logic. Stated simply,
the composer first introduces the main concept of
the music piece – the theme – and then presents
variations of that theme while retaining concepts
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