VARIATION CHALLENGE

I'd like to see what y'all can do with this theme. It's made up of a six-note row that is repeated twice, in ranges appropriate to a violin.

YOUR CHALLENGE:

Write a variation on this theme for three homophonic instruments, or one homophonic instrument and 1 keyboard instrument, or just one keyboard instrument. There should be three discernible structural lines. The variations should be at least twice as long as the theme.

GO!

I think I scared everyone off by saying "six-note row."

It's just a motif, folks.

It's still frightening.

It's not the 6 note row that scares me, it's the tiome signiture, or rather, the fact you don't seem to like keeping one

First, I'd like to state that there was a seven note row, not six, A-E-C-Eb-F-G-Bb, i'm by no means nit-picking, I just wanted to clarify the row i used in this excersize.

Secondly, I'll explain what I did. I used 2 divergent forms of the row, and played it in its order. I avoided the use of inversion and retrograde, simply for clarity of the piece.

Thirdly, Enjoy!

Whoops! Nice catch on the number of notes.

And very nice variations! I really enjoyed them. Good job - now everyone else will see that it's not an impossible task.

I'll have a go if I get the time...
Cool theme!

This one wasn't very well planned out, but it turned out okay I guess. I just used harmony that seemed to created an atonal variation that seemed to try to be tonal at times. Not really based as much on the correct notes as the rythm at times (which is awesome, by the way). I would call it more of a MOOD variation than a variation of a theme. And I didn't use the seven-tone row, shame on me. I had fun though... I'll have to work on another one soon with the rows.

I should point out that I'm not expecting from this exercise a series of variations on the TUNE - nor am I expecting the variations to be your classical one-step-away variety. I'll post my example soon.

Originally Posted by MusicManJ4

I just used harmony that seemed to created an atonal variation that seemed to try to be tonal at times. Not really based as much on the correct notes as the rythm at times (which is awesome, by the way). I would call it more of a MOOD variation than a variation of a theme. And I didn't use the seven-tone row, shame on me.

Nice job here - you used the thematic elements of the row, and the rhythmic gestures, and created some really great music from it, which is kind of the point of the exercise.