Saturday, October 26, 2013

Variation 16


Adagio
6/4 time



Variation 16 continues without pause from Variation 15. There is nothing climactic about this final variation which is very slow and very simple, consisting mainly of prolonged octaves in the bass in dotted half notes and dotted whole notes. The melody line of Schumann's theme is, surprisingly, not used, replaced by the bass octaves echoing of the lush melody of Variation 10, which in turn originated in the bass line of Schumann's theme. The effect is deeply contemplative, perhaps elegiac.



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