Variations on a Polish theme

What do you think about these variations. It is a piece based on a Polish ethnical theme. I'm interested in your opinions and reviews and especially the last variation. The pdf is incomplete. Thank you in advance.

Here is the recording: waryjacje_nowe.mp3 -- FileFactory.com - free file hosting --

Waryacye.pdf

Hello ! :)

Lovely piece, I like the rhythmic feeling on this piece , joyful and expressive, is it based on a traditional dance?

All in all its a great piece congratulation !:thumbsup:

Hello,

This is one of the first pieces I've looked at without request in a long time haha. Anyway, your piece is the focus of this.

The original melody is quite simple and I am quite curious to know if you came up with the bass or the bass was provided somewhere else. The repeated quarter notes are very dull to me for some reason.

Now for the variations:

There didn't seem to be any outstanding errors in these variations and nothing outstandingly well done either (except maybe staying within chord tones). In a few locations (the measures you have a D leap to a G# and back to a B), the contour is awkward because the G# is a leading tone to A and the A is avoided. Besides that I couldn't really find much else to improve within this framework.

However, I urge you to look at your strategy of variation. If you look at the original theme, 6things unify it (in my opinion) : the melodic contour, the melodic rhythm, the harmonic contour, the harmonic rhythm, the relation of melody to barline and finally the mode. All of your variations seemed to be based off of the change of melodic contour or melodic rhythm only. However, you can go further and change the mode of the variation, or you can keep the melodic contour and mode the same and vary the harmonic contour and harmonic rhythm of the phrase. This will keep unity in the listener's mind while also providing suitable variation.

For an example of a masterful theme and variations piece, look at the Arietta from Beethoven's 32nd piano sonata (can be found on imslp). Many many many varied variation practices are used in this piece, yet the listener keeps the theme fresh in the mind.

My final advice to you would be to re-evaluate the relationship between melody and harmony in each of your variations. It seems like most of the piece was simply chord tones and no dissonance. In order to be a successful composer, you must exploit dissonance as well in order to provide necessary contrast and interest.

I hope that was helpful enough to you and good luck writing!

I did not changed only the melodic contour and the melodic rhythm. Some of the variations have other mode (theme is major, several variations are minor) and time signature (theme was 2/4, several variations are in 3/4). In one of the variations I placed the melody in bass. The accompaniment of the theme was dull, because not the theme, but variations are main attraction. There must be a contrast because very simple original melody and characteristic variations. Theme do not has to be beautiful and magnificent, it is the feature of variations. And...my favorite variations are typically classical ones "Ah vous dirai je maman" written by Mozart.