List of variations on a theme by another composer explained

Many classical and later composers have written compositions in the form of variations on a theme by another composer.

This is an incomplete list of such works, sorted by the name of the original composer. The list does not include variations written on composers' own or original themes, or on folk, traditional or anonymous melodies.

Many of these works are called simply "Variations on a Theme of/by ...". Other works, which often involve substantial development or transformation of the base material, may have more fanciful titles such as Caprice, Fantasy, Paraphrase, Reminiscences, Rhapsody, etc. These other types of treatments are not listed here unless there is evidence that they include variations on a theme.

Adam de la Halle

Adolphe Adam

Dionisio Aguado y García

Antoine Albanèse

Charles-Valentin Alkan

Le Festin d'Alkan RSS 337 (piano; 1988 - 97). The third movement consists of multiple variations on themes by Alkan. The composer's note states "This work encapsulates my idea that composition, transcription and variation are all essentially the same thing".[1] [2]

Alexander Alyabyev

Louis Angely

Thomas Arne

Daniel Auber

Marx Augustin

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Béla Bartók

Antoine-Laurent Baudron

Arnold Bax

Ludwig van Beethoven

Jack Behrens

Vincenzo Bellini

Alban Berg

Luciano Berio

Charles Auguste de Bériot

Hector Berlioz

Phantastiche Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz (Fantastic Appearances of a Theme by Berlioz), Op. 25, for symphony orchestra (1914 - 1917; the theme is the "Song of the Flea" from La damnation de Faust)

Leonard Bernstein

Henri-Montan Berton

Francesco Bianchi

Sir Henry Bishop

Georges Bizet

François-Adrien Boieldieu and Sophie Gail

Johannes Brahms

Frank Bridge

Benjamin Britten

Anton Bruckner

Friedrich Burgmüller

William Byrd

Antonio de Cabezón

André Campra

Michele Carafa

Luigi Carlini

Thomas of Celano

Thomas is disputed as the author of the words

Luigi Cherubini

Frédéric Chopin

Muzio Clementi

Henri Cliquet-Pleyel

Giuseppe Concone

Arcangelo Corelli

François Couperin

Nicolas Dalayrac

Franz Danzi

Claude Debussy

Edison Denisov

Nicolas Dezède

Anton Diabelli

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

Gaetano Donizetti

The Doors

John Dowland

Ernst Christoph Dressler

Guillaume Du Fay

Jean-Pierre Duport

Antonín Dvořák

Werner Egk

Manuel de Falla

Giles Farnaby

Johann Christian Fischer

Stephen Foster

King Frederick II "The Great" of Prussia

Girolamo Frescobaldi

Baron von Fricken

Johann Jakob Froberger

Sophie Gail

Wenzel Robert von Gallenberg

Noel Gay

George Gershwin

Reinhold Glière

Mikhail Glinka

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Sir Eugene Goossens

Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Christian Ernst Graf

Alexander Gretchaninov

André Grétry

Edvard Grieg

Jakob Haibel

Fromental Halévy

George Frideric Handel

Howard Hanson

Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Joseph Haydn

Ferdinand Hérold

Edward Burlingame Hill

Johann Adam Hiller

Friedrich Heinrich Himmel

Paul Hindemith

Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Anselm Hüttenbrenner

Nicolas Isouard

Clément Janequin

Joseph Joachim

Zoltán Kodály

Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz

Johann Kuhnau

Josef Labor

Constant Lambert

Orlande de Lassus

Charles-Gaston Levadé

Franz Liszt

Arthur de Lulli

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Martin Luther

Stanyslav Lyudkevych

Cyrus McCormick

Sir George Macfarren

Sir Alexander Mackenzie

Guillaume de Machaut

Gustav Mahler

Heinrich Marschner

Nikolai Medtner

Étienne Méhul

Felix Mendelssohn

Giacomo Meyerbeer

Thelonious Monk

Claudio Monteverdi

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Modest Mussorgsky

Alonso Mudarra

Wenzel Müller

Neidhart von Reuental

Carl Nielsen

Jacques Offenbach

George Onslow

Seán Ó Riada

Sergio Ortega

Johann Pachelbel

Ferdinando Paer

Niccolò Paganini

See also Variations on a Theme of Paganini (disambiguation)

Giovanni Paisiello

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Bernardo Pasquini

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giuseppe Persiani

Astor Piazzolla

Ildebrando Pizzetti

Ignaz Pleyel

Manuel Ponce

John Powell

Henry Purcell

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Carl Reinecke

Django Reinhardt

Vincenzo Righini

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Pierre Rode

Gioachino Rossini

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Camille Saint-Saëns

Antonio Salieri

Giovanni Battista Sammartini

Gaspar Sanz

Giuseppe Sarti

Erik Satie

Benedikt Schack

Arnold Schoenberg

Franz Schubert

William Schuman

Clara Schumann (née Wieck)

Robert Schumann

Alexander Scriabin

John Stafford Smith

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Beatrice Sosnik

John Philip Sousa

Louis Spohr

Daniel Steibelt

Johann Strauss II

Igor Stravinsky

Franz Xaver Süssmayr

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Thomas Tallis

Francisco Tárrega

Giuseppe Tartini

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Georg Philipp Telemann

Yann Tiersen

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Giuseppe Verdi

Georg Joseph 'Abbé' Vogler

Richard Wagner

Count Ferdinand von Waldstein

Sir William Walton

Carl Maria von Weber

Joseph Weigl

Variations sur Pria ch'io l'impegno (from L'amor marinaro) (keyboard, 1798).[33]

Peter Winter

Hugo Wolf

Paul Wranitzky

Frank Zappa

Notes and References

  1. http://www.ronaldstevensonsociety.org.uk/scores_instrumental.htm Ronald Stevenson Society website
  2. http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/694 Mark Gasser, "Ronald Stevenson, Composer-Pianist: An Exegetical Critique from a Pianistic Perspective", PhD diss. ([Western Australia]: Edith Cowan University, 2013)
  3. Website of Schneider Musik
  4. http://www.georgschumanngesellschaft.de/de_werkverzeichnis.html Georg Schumann Gesellschaft
  5. Neos 20807/08
  6. http://www.ensemble-modern.com Ensemble Modern
  7. http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Louise_Farrenc IMSLP: List of compositions by Louise Farrenc
  8. http://www.mus.ulaval.ca/roberge/srs/05-varia.htm Sorabji Resource Site
  9. http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/200451 Presto Classical
  10. http://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_Theme_by_Concone_(Swinstead%2C_Felix) IMSLP
  11. http://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_Theme_by_Corelli,_Op.56_(Rinck,_Christian_Heinrich) Rinck: Variations on a Theme by Corelli (IMSLP)
  12. http://imslp.org/wiki/Fantasy_and_Variations,_Op.81_(Spohr,_Louis) IMSLP: Fantasia and Variations on a Theme by Danzi, Op. 81
  13. https://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_theme_by_Grieg_(Gieseking%2C_Walter) IMSLP
  14. http://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/hinton/scores.php Sorabji Archive
  15. Grainger refers to these variations in his notes to his piano piece Handel in the Strand, but they do not seem to have been published.
  16. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4175667 National Library of Australia
  17. http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usimg/0/08/IMSLP03947-Moscheles_Handel-Variationen_Op.29.pdf IMSLP
  18. http://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_on_Hummel%27s_Celebrated_Waltz_(Gelinek,_Joseph) IMSLP
  19. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/improvisations-on-theme-by-constant-lambert-9780193669864?cc=us&lang=en& Oxford University Press
  20. http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/special-collections/documents/Cedric_Thorpe_Davie_catalogue.pdf Cedric Thorpe Davie, Catalogue of Works
  21. Howard Reich, "U.S. Premiere Of Liszt Piano Duet Justifies Long Wait, Twins' Work Chicago Tribune (1 December 1986).
  22. http://www.matthewquayle.com/Pieces/Round_Midnight_Variations.html Matthew Quayle
  23. http://www.btommyandersson.com/?page_id=1902 B. Tommy Andersson website
  24. http://www.editionhh.co.uk/shop/item.aspx?itemid=438 Published by Edition HH Ltd., UK
  25. http://www.editionhh.co.uk/hh172cat.htm Published by Edition HH Ltd., UK
  26. http://imslp.org/wiki/6_Variations_on_%22Ein_M%C3%A4dchen_oder_Weibchen%22_from_Mozart%27s_%22Die_Zauberfl%C3%B6te%22_(Gelinek,_Joseph) IMSLP
  27. http://www.mus.ulaval.ca/roberge/srs/04-sourc.htm#_1973_1988 Sorabji Resource Site
  28. http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.110957 Naxos
  29. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716042338/http://seraphimtrio.com/trio-biography.html Seraphim Trio
  30. http://seraphimtrio.com/press-bio.html Seraphim Trio
  31. http://www.mus.ulaval.ca/roberge/srs/01-homag.htm Sorabji Resource Site
  32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8Qamb-4-s Performance
  33. http://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_sur_%27Pria_ch%27io_l%27impegno%27_(Gelinek,_Joseph) IMSLP
  34. http://imslp.org/wiki/Variations_on_a_Theme_by_Weigl,_Op.5_(Moscheles,_Ignaz) IMSLP