Variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (NOW WITH PDF ALSO!!!)

Hello Young Composers,

I have composed a small theme and variations (four variations) on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Thema- It's a somewhat Mozartian (but not quite) arrangement on the theme. It uses Alberti bass in the first part, and has a rather simple harmonic structure.

Var. 1- My favorite, it's quite short and fast.

Var. 2- It repeats the theme with accompanying triplets and (sort of) contrapuntal bass.

Var. 3- Minor key. My mom's favorite :P

Var. 4- Last variation. For me, it's sort of meh, but I'll leave that subjective.

Enjoy!

(And please say which variation is your favorite!:D)

Twinkle Twinkle Variations.mid

Twinkle Twinkle Variations.mus

Twinkle Twinkle Variations.pdf

The theme was originally composed by Mozart to perhaps that's why it sounds Mozart-ish ;)

These are nice variations, you have brought some variety in a well known tune. My favorite probably the start of the second or minor.

However, in a few places your harmonies don't quite work or are a bit thin.

It would be good to see you use these techniques in your own piece with original material.

>Austin

(In reference to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) "Many think that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the original composer of this melody, a misconception[4] reinforced by its appearance as a "correct answer" in the original edition of Trivial Pursuit. However, Mozart wrote twelve variations for piano on the melody (Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman"), now catalogued as K. 265/300e in the K

I would like a pdf score please!

(In reference to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) "Many think that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the original composer of this melody, a misconception[4] reinforced by its appearance as a "correct answer" in the original edition of Trivial Pursuit. However, Mozart wrote twelve variations for piano on the melody (Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman"), now catalogued as K. 265/300e in the K

My favorite variation is the second variation. I like polyphony, when you can place the original melody in bass and write new, higher part. But this is also good. When I listened to it, I concentrated on the triplets. You should make your accompaniment more dense.

Hi Edgar - not bad! For some reason I can't open the .mus file, but your theme is different from the usual tune, particularly the part after the repeat. Here is the first page of Mozart's set:

http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/objs/ed/ucb20_199_49.jpg

Mm,

Much better than mine.

Thank you cygnusdei.

I'll re-upload the .mus file, so try it again in a few.

Cheers.

There,

This updated version is more complete anyway.

So try it again.

The theme was originally composed by Mozart to perhaps that's why it sounds Mozart-ish ;)

These are nice variations, you have brought some variety in a well known tune. My favorite probably the start of the second or minor.

However, in a few places your harmonies don't quite work or are a bit thin.

It would be good to see you use these techniques in your own piece with original material.

>Austin

Uh...

The minor variation is the third one.

Now with PDF, people!

When you state the main theme, in measures 5 and 6, I think having those parrellel octaves just stand out like sore thumbs. If you want to keep them, I would probably use them in other variations as something that highlights the whole variation; if not, there is no point in having that their and it just sounds very awkward. So you might want to think about changing that a little bit.

Also on Variation three you have some unnecessary dissonance at mm. numbers 31 (that G and A, C and D) as well as more parrallel octaves in the last beat (E and D) that even go into the next measure. MM. 32 is the same, that C to G in the bass coupled with the C to G in the soprano will still come across as parallel octaves, and those, just sound bad.

Thank you, that was helpful and I'll keep it in mind while composing other things.

Great job! :w00t:

Hey, this piece is great! :thumbsup:

My only real critique is that some of the harmonies seemed just a little of.

Also, you may want to make up some different transitions for inbetween the variations.

Were you aware there is a competition here for variations on popular songs (I believe submissions must be recieved by march first, you should check), you should submit this!

Try some of the techniques you used here on Gerfunden, I think it would improve it a ton!

Micah (Pianoforte) thanks again for your suggestions for my work. :P

I think the competition is Nursery rhymes re-vamped

When you state the main theme, in measures 5 and 6, I think having those parrellel octaves just stand out like sore thumbs. If you want to keep them, I would probably use them in other variations as something that highlights the whole variation; if not, there is no point in having that their and it just sounds very awkward. So you might want to think about changing that a little bit.

Also on Variation three you have some unnecessary dissonance at mm. numbers 31 (that G and A, C and D) as well as more parrallel octaves in the last beat (E and D) that even go into the next measure. MM. 32 is the same, that C to G in the bass coupled with the C to G in the soprano will still come across as parallel octaves, and those, just sound bad.

He's not writing choral music so parallel anythings do not matter! You honestly think that you can NEVER avoid parallel octaves in a symphony played a symphony orchestra?

to anthonyzerillocomposer:

you can try to avoid them, of course in a symphonic piece, there are some voices doubling, but the rule is that the octaves cant be made when concerning 2 external voices, let's say the melody and the bass, since they are too much evident to the listener that are easily heard, instead with inner voices it is a bit harder and not really a bad thing because it is not out and easily avertible.

And tell me, why just in choral writing?? octaves cant be made at any place if you write in a certain style... unless no other device can be used, you are not really allowed to make parallel octaves, not because they are ugly, because you might need them to make some melodic part more enhanced, but because in this way you "kill" a voice, so instead of listening to several things, you just get one, that plays the same... that's why they made that rule, to avoid the repetition of voices, that automatically kills a voice, unless you do it to get a certain effect.

in more part writings octaves can be tolerated , but in a 2 voice piece, like a piano piece, with 2 voice lines, they are too much evident.

hope this made sense.

to Edgar:

I think that the piece sounds ok, not too good, but it is not bad, you see inventiveness and variation, the thing that makes me say that it doesn't sound too well is the fact that you don't really follow the theme.

I tell you why:

When you make a variation of something, following the way it was done in a certain time, you should do it as if you were in that time, doing it.

Now, you have to follow the same harmonies of the theme, in all your variations, you can change the melody, you can change the notes in the bass, but you must respect the harmony involved, the grades called, and not just variate everything as it would seem good.

so, if the theme has a bass line with, for example, "I,IV,V,VI,IV,V,I", you must respect that sequence in all your variations, and use the same harmony over those grades, but you can change all the melodies involved, all the rhythms, etc.

Favourite variation... the first one.

Interesting piece. It's a pity there's only 3 variations!

Good luck!

There are 4 variations actually but I've learned a LOT since I composed this. Thank you everyone for your comments!