Publisher's Synopsis
"This book explores variation both as a form (Part I) and as a process (Part II). Parts III and IV are devoted to the more "practical" domains of performance and pedagogy, respectively. Part I examines both sectional and continuous variation forms, from Biber to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Subtopics include music cognition, methodology, Schenkerian approaches, topoi and hermeneutics, and extrageneric variation. Part II examines techniques such as developing variation, thematic work, contrapuntal treatment, leitmotifs, and thematic recurrence. It also takes up the variational processes that occur across the different movements of a piece (cyclicity) and even across different pieces (intertextuality). Part III looks at the performance of Beethoven's variations in particular, and Part IV delves into the teaching of variation, especially from historical vantages"--.
