Variations d'automne

Description

Variations d'automne (Autumn Variations) is a contemporary piano piece registered as dating from 2007. Little can be confirmed about its composer, Magnenat, and the work does not settle how the piece came about or where the autumn of the title shows in the music. What follows describes what can be read from the score data and from the variation form itself.

A set of variations states a theme and then repeats it several times, changing the decoration of the melody, the rhythm, the shape of the accompaniment or the harmony. The data does not specify its key or time signature. It lasts just under two and a half minutes with 545 notes, a little under four a second on average. The range runs over four octaves, from F1 to B-flat 5, reaching deep into the bass.

It is an intermediate piece, and when learning variations, the quickest route is to know the theme itself thoroughly. Repeat the theme with A-B looping until the melody is in your ear, then compare how each variation reshapes it. With the playback speed lowered, it is also easier to follow how the notes of the theme are embedded in the ornamentation. The lowest note, F1, lies below a 61-key keyboard as written, but an octave shift fits every note on 61 keys.

Works written in theme-and-variations form, where a single melody is transformed in many different ways.