Diabelli Variations

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The 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli Op. 120, most commonly referred to as the Diabelli Variations, are a set of variations for the piano by Ludwig van Beethoven on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli. Originally titled 33 Veränderungen über einen Walzer von Diabelli, they were written between 1819 and 1823. In the work's title, Beethoven chose to use the German word Veränderungen, meaning "transformations" as opposed to the conventional Italian-derived Variationen.

This masterpiece was composed after Diabelli, a well known music publisher as well as an amateur composer, sent a simple waltz to all of the important composers of Austria (including Schubert and the eleven year-old Liszt), asking each of them to write a variation on it. His intention was to publish all the variations in one quasi-patriotic volume. Fifty composers responded, and their variations were published as Vaterländische Künstlerverein (Patriotic Artists' Association).

Beethoven, according to legend, initially dismissed the theme as 'a cobbler's patch' and far too banal and mediocre to be worthy of his time. However, he secretly saw great possibilities in the theme which made him lay aside his sketching of the Missa Solemnis in order to turn his attention towards it. It was therefore the case that Beethoven, much to the astonishment of Diabelli, conceived of not a single variation but a huge volume filled with thirty-three variations.

In publishing the variations, Diabelli introduced this masterpiece with the following statement: We present here to the world variations of no ordinary type, but a great and important masterpiece worthy to be ranked with the imperishable creations of the old classics . . . . All these variations, through the novelty of their ideas, care in working out, and beauty in the most artful of their transitions, will entitle the work to a place beside Johann Sebastian Bach's famous masterpiece in the same form. Indeed, the Diabelli Variations stand beside Bach's Goldberg Variations as the greatest achievements in variation form. However, while in the Goldberg Variations Bach deprived himself of the resources available from taking the melody of the theme as a guiding principle, thereby gaining an independence in melodic matters that enabled him to attain far more variety and expanse, Beethoven made no such sacrifice. He exploited the melody, trivial as it was, in addition to the harmonic and rhythmic elements, and by doing so succeeded in fusing them all into a set of variations of incredible analytical profundity. In addition to the analytical aspects, Beethoven enlarged upon the dimensions of this musical material so that the Diabelli Variations are property called 'amplifying variations'.

Certain of the variations stand out and merit special comment. Number 22 is Beethoven's demonstration that the theme has elements in common with Leporello's aria 'Notte e giorno faticar' from the beginning of Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Beethoven makes the most of its broad humour. Numbers 24 and 32 are more or less textbook fugues and show Beethoven's debt to Bach in his own variation writing. This debt is further highlighted in variation 31, the last of the slow minor variations, with its direct reference to the Goldberg Variations. Indeed, William Kinderman in his acclaimed analysis 'Beethoven's Diabelli Variations' argues that one of the main themes running through the variations is Beethoven's use of parody. This shows itself not only in the examples cited above but also in the way that Beethoven takes this 'cobbler's patch' of a theme and 'harps on the actual substance of the waltz itself - specifically those features of it which are particularly trite - and reproduces them in exaggerated form so that they become insufferably so in the parody. It is this form of parody that is most important for the overall progression of the Variations, because Beethoven's criterion for criticism is precisely the melodic outline of Diabelli's theme.'

It is rather touching that Beethoven not only chooses to parody the work of others but also the compositional output of himself. This can be most clearly seen in variation number 33 which Kinderman argues 'is the culmination of a complex musical evolution in which the Arietta (of the Final Piano Sonata - Opus 111), itself influenced by Beethoven's preoccupation with the Diabelli project, becomes a compositional model for the last of these variations.'