VARIATIONS DIAbelli — Wikipédia

THE 33 variations on a Diabelli waltz on. 120 from Ludwig van Beethoven called “Diabelli variations” ( Diabelli variations ) form a collection of variations for piano written between 1819 and 1823 on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli. They were published in an anthology in two parts, entitled Fatherland artist association (Patriotic Association of Artists) and which included the variations of fifty other composers.

In 1819, Diabelli, well -known publisher and composer, wrote and sent a brief waltz to all important composers of the Austrian Empire (such as Franz Schubert, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel or the Archduke Rodolphe of Austria), asking them to write a variation on this theme. The idea was to publish all the variations for the benefit of widows and orphans of the Napoleonic wars, in a patriotic volume entitled Fatherland artist association .

Anton Schindler says that Beethoven first refused to participate in the project, claiming the banality of the theme. Then learning that Diabelli would pay him a good sum in exchange for a set of variations, Beethoven decided to show everything that can be done from such a thin subject. In another version, Beethoven would have felt insulted by a proposal unworthy of him and would have written 33 variations to demonstrate what is possible to do from such a simple material. He completed the twenty-three first variations at the end of the summer of 1819, then abandoned the work for several years, working on the composition of the Mass and the last sonatas. He resumed variations in early 1823 and ended them in March or April this year. They were published in June of that same year.

Beethovenian variations, commonly known as “Diabelli variations”, bear the number of Opus 120 and are dedicated to Antonia Brentano, one of the most serious contenders for the “Beloved Immortelle” ^{[ first ]} .

The concern of the variation pushed until the dissolution of the theme is an aspect of the musical thought of the last period of Beethoven: the composer preferred for his collection the title 33 changes about a waltz by Anton Diabelli (literally 33 transformations on a Diabelli waltz ) at the end Variation .

• (in) William Kinderman, ‘ The Evolution and Structure of Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations » , Journal of the American Musicological Society , vol. 35, n ^O 2, summer 1982 , p. 306-328 .
• (of) Alfred Brendel, “The reverse sublime: Beethoven’s Diabelli variations” , In About music. Collected essays, lectures and speeches , Munich, Piper, 2005 (ISBN  978-3-492-04783-8 ) .