Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (french: Variation sur une valse de Diabelli), S.147, is a variation by

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

composed in 1822 and published in late 1823 or early 1824 as Variation No. 24 of Part II of ''

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein ''Vaterländischer Künstlerverein'' was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria. It was published in t ...

'', a collection of variations by 50 composers. All the variations were based on a waltz composed by

Anton Diabelli Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote ...

, who also published the work. It was this same invitation from Diabelli to write a variation that inspired

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

to write his 33 ''

Diabelli Variations The ''33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli'', Op. 120, commonly known as the ''Diabelli Variations'', is a set of variations for the piano written between 1819 and 1823 by Ludwig van Beethoven on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli. It for ...

'', Op. 120, which formed the entirety of Part I of ''Vaterländischer Künstlerverein''.

Genesis

This is Franz Liszt's first known and published work. He might have composed it at the instigation of Carl Czerny, his piano teacher, who also composed a variation and a

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

for the set. Liszt was virtually unknown at the time of publishing and he was listed as "Franz Liszt (Knabe von 11 Jahren) geboren in Ungarn" (11-year-old boy, born in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

). At the time Diabelli issued his invitations to write the variations (May 1819), Liszt was aged only seven, but by the time of publication, he had turned 12. He was the only child composer to write a variation for the set.

Form

The variation is written in C minor, in time, in the form of an

étude An étude (; ) or study is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidl ...

. It keeps to the original theme, "in a flowing style of chord passages in an abundance of notes but without any lofty sentiment" in the words of Liszt's biographer

Lina Ramann Lina Ramann (July 24, 1833 – March 30, 1912) was a German writer and teacher known for her books on the Hungarian composer and pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can ...

. Liszt was one of the few of the 50 composers who varied either the time signature or the key signature from Diabelli's original. He changed Diabelli's C major to C minor, and changed time to .

References

* Ramann, Lina (1882). ''Franz Liszt, artist and man. 1811-1840''. London: W.H. Allen & Co. (pp. 62, 132-33)

External links

* Compositions by Franz Liszt Compositions for solo piano Collaborations in classical music 1822 compositions Variations Compositions in C minor {{classical-composition-stub

Genesis

Form

See also

References

External links