| Variations for Orchestra | |
| Native Name: | German: Variationen für Orchester |
| Other Name: | Orchestral Variations |
| Composer: | Arnold Schoenberg |
| Form: | Variations |
| Key: | Atonal |
| Period: | 20th-century music |
| Genre: | Musical modernism |
| Style: | Twelve-tone technique |
| Movements: | 12 sections |
| Premiere Date: | December 1928 |
| Premiere Location: | Berlin |
| Premiere Conductor: | Wilhelm Furtwängler |
| Premiere 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]