Kakadu Variations

The Variations on "I am the Schneider Kakadu " Op 121a in g-Moll/G-Dur are a set of variations for piano trio by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Formation

Despite the publication of the work in 1824, its formation is already estimated to be about 1802 /03. This dating goes back to the music researcher Bernd Edelmann, who bases his conjecture with stylistic point of view.

This op was 121 in temporal proximity to Beethoven's piano works Variation op 34 and the Eroica Variations, Op 35

About the Music

The theme of the work is from the song I am the Schneider Kakadu from the 1794 musical comedy premiered The Sisters of Prague of Wenceslas Müller. Miller Kakadu song again similar in melody of the aria A girl or young woman from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.

Initiated the work is still before the onset of the actual theme of a serious g - minor chord. Bernd Edelmann sees this as a contradiction to the usual conventions of the genre. After two tones sigh quavers d ³ and d impart an ironic undertone ² the serious character of the introduction. Even during the introduction, the theme is developed until it, with some predesigned seventh chords, sounds entirely from bar 38ff. .

According to the musicologist Wolfgang Osthoff form " painful owning " a caricature contrast to the cheerful and carefree topic. The 24 bars of the theme consist of three equal-length sections.

Conventionally designed Figuralvariationen represent the variations 1-4 dar.

Variation 9 is an Adagio espressivo in G Minor. Its principle to distribute the subjects head in the broken record on the strings, can already be found in the trio The flocks Shall leave the mountains from George Frideric Handel's oratorio Acis and Galatea, as well as Handel's Trio Sonata in G minor, HWV 387, the musical basis of the trio. The baroque character of this variation is underlined by its contrapuntal elements.

Variation 10 is initially a conventional Figuralvariation, leaves this framework but with the piano that rises with its up to d4. It follows a four-part fugal whose Four Note g1 -a1 -b1- c ² is a variation on the theme though, but now even processed motifs. From bar 398 the main theme returns in the function of a recapitulation and summarizes the elements of the variations as contrapuntal contrary motion openwork work together.

In the final coda, the theme is heard again.