You could think of the theme as a plain cupcake. First, the composer shows the plain cupcake to the audience. The variations are like decorated cupcakes. Once the audience understands the plain cupcake, the decorated ones are displayed for everyone to enjoy with their fancy differences. Nevertheless, they are still recognizable as cupcakes! Let's take a look at "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and taste the deliciousness of what your young composer is learning from studying it during the 3rd year of Let's Play Music!
The Poem
Lyrics for this popular lullaby come from an 1806 poem, "Star", published by Jane Taylor. Jane was a real trailblazer because she and her sister helped introduce the novel idea of writing poetry just for children. Here is the entire original poem:
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| A sing-along storybook is available. By Jane Cabrera. |
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Then the traveller in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny sparks;
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye
'Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
The Melody (and a Silly Game)
"Twinkle" is only one of many international songs that have been sung to the melody Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman, a popular 18th century French children's tune. In English, "The Alphabet Song" and "Baa-baa Blacksheep" are two more songs sung to the tune.
As a kid, I played a singing game with my sisters, and you might like to try it in your family: each of three singers (or teams) choose one of the above songs, then all sing at the same time. Although the lyrics are different, the melody is the same for everyone. Silly, right!? For an even trickier song, sing in a round, starting a few measures behind the previous singer, still singing different lyrics. Still not silly enough?! For the best song yet, all start singing together, but each time the leader claps, switch to different lyrics! Each group will end up singing a different crazy song, perhaps like this:
SINGER 1 SINGER 2
Twinkle, twinkle, little star (CLAP) Baa, Baa black sheep have you any wool?
yes sir, yes sir, three bags full (CLAP) H I J K, LMNOP
Q R S, T U V (CLAP) Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky… And one for the little boy who lives...
Apparently the best time to try this game is while trapped in the car with the entire family on a very long road trip. We "entertained" our brothers and parents for hours and hours with our giggling.
Nevertheless, if a melody is simple and memorable, it's likely to be the perfect place to start for creating variations.
Variations: Frosting on the Cake
The composition we study in Let's Play Music during the Orange semester is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's, "Variations on 'Ah vous dirai-je, Maman!'" with his twelve variations of the tune. You know all about ABA form, but this is A-AI-AII-AIII-AIV….AXII form.
Just about every student of composition utilizes Theme and Variation to stretch their composing skills, and you can too. Actually, after Mozart composed variations on this particular tune in 1781, the SAME TUNE was used by several other composers to create their own variations, including: Bach, Schulhoff, Dohnanyi, Liszt, Rinck, and Cardon!
Variations are created by altering the rhythm, melody, harmony, pitch, tempo, or dynamics of the tune.
Mozart's Toolbox of Variations
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| Mozart |
Theme: First Mozart presents the theme, which sounds pretty much like "Twinkle."
What you can do: You could add the easiest ever extra notes…just double or triple notes of your theme by turning bugs into beetles. Do-do Re-re Mi-mi, etc. is a variation. Or to really make them running notes (moving up and down scales) you can add just about any baby steps, so long as you remember to hit your important melody notes sometimes. Maybe you'll have Do-re-mi-re Re-mi-fa-mi Mi-fa-sol-fa, etc. The bold notes are just reminders of what part of this new tune came from the theme.
What you can do: We didn't talk about your left hand part, but most of my students begin with block chords. There are many ways you could get some extra fun notes in there. You could start playing the low note of the chord, jump to the high note, and add a few baby steps down. Do-sol-fa-mi, Ti-sol-fa-mi, Do-sol-fa-mi replaces a slow Red, Yellow, Red. That sounds fast and fun!
Variation 4: You guessed it. Mozart plays triplets with the left hand.
What you can do: When you mastered Yankee Doodle recently, you got the feeling of having your hands take turns. Yeah, both hands don't always have to strike at the exact same! Play a creative rhythm to go along with some of your melody notes, then give the left hand a chance to play something with that rhythm. Take turns. Fun!
What you can do: If you want to stick to the Red, Yellow, and Blue chords, you can find a chord that includes each note of your melody. Do-Re-Mi-Fa could use Red-Yellow-Red-Blue. Now, to play those chords but make them sound like melody, choose an inversion of the chord so that the melody note is at the top. You can do it! You know how to play with inversions. Take your time. The right hand gets to play slowly in this variation so you can jump your hand around if you need to.
Variation 8: This variation is in C minor. That alone can make for an exciting change, but he also has the left hand echo the notes after the right hand plays.
What you can do: Whatever key you have written your composition in, you will add flats to change a few solfeggi. Do-Re-me-Fa-Sol-le-te-Do is the minor scale we presented in class a few times. (The minor solfeggi are pronounced 'may', 'lay' and 'tay'.) Figure out where your three flats need to be and you are ready to fly minor!
Variation 10: The left hand plays the melody, and the right hand embellishes. Mozart has the right hand rest on the beats when the melody notes are played by the left. It really helps those notes stand out.
What you can do: I have several students who love to "flip" their work and let the left hand carry the melody while the right hand does something else. The right hand could play a chord root, or a broken chord, or experiment with simple embellishments like Mozart does. I will play the left hand melody slowly and let the student use his right hand to experiment with possible ideas until we find something that sounds interesting.
What you can do: Your student experimented this semester with how to change the stylistic feel of a song by playing chords in a broken style, root-note-only, or even a two-handed marching style. You can take one melody all the way from a big loud parade march to a nice, slow, lullaby by changing the stylistic interpretation. Try some of the ideas from class on your song.
What you can do: Think of something special (loud? quiet? fast?) and slightly different to end your song with just the right feeling to send your audience home with.
This is not an exhaustive toolbox, but now you know some ways Mozart made his music interesting, so give them a try in your composing. If you hit a creative block, take a break to bake some cupcakes and they'll surely get your creative juices flowing.
- Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher
