Variations for Orchestra | |
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by Arnold Schoenberg | |
![]() Arnold Schoenberg in 1927 by Man Ray | |
Native name | German: Variationen für Orchester |
Other name | Orchestral Variations |
Key | Atonal |
Period | 20th-century music |
Genre | Musical modernism |
Style | Twelve-tone technique |
Form | Variations |
Composed | 1926 Germany – 1928 : |
Movements | 12 sections |
Premiere | |
Date | December 1928 |
Location | Berlin |
Conductor | Wilhelm Furtwängler |
Performers | Berlin Philharmonic |
Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31 (1926–28) is an orchestral set of variations on a theme, composed by Arnold Schoenberg and is his first twelve-tone composition for a large ensemble. Premiered in December 1928 by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, it was greeted by a tumultuous scandal.[1]
The theme of the piece is stated in measures 34–57.[2] The orchestration includes a flexatone.[3] The piece features the BACH motif (B♭–A–C–B♮).[4][5] The tone row in its four permutations (labeled Prime, Retrograde, Inversion, and Retrograde Inversion) are shown below.
Schoenberg opened a lecture on the composition with the following tyranny of the majority defense of less common aesthetics: "Far be it from me to question the rights of the majority. But one thing is certain: somewhere there is a limit to the power of the majority; it occurs, in fact, wherever the essential step is one that cannot be taken by all and sundry."[6]
The piece has been arranged for two pianos by Charles Wuorinen and this arrangement was set to a ballet, Schoenberg Variations (1996), by Richard Tanner of the New York City Ballet.[7]
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