32 Variations on an Original Theme in C minor, WoO, 80, Ludwig van Beethoven

Me at the piano working on the Beethoven 32 Variations with my teacher, Mr. Cosmo.

I’ve been working on Beethoven’s 32 Variations recently, and what I have discovered is that there is so much more to learn in them than just the music. My biggest challenges with the work have been looking at each variation as carefully as possible, and then making sure each of them stands out on its own. I therefore decided that the best thing for me to do was to look at the original theme, then after speaking with my teacher, Cosmo Buono (I call him “Mr. Cosmo”) decide how each is different from the original theme, in order to make them all as unique as I can. Mr. Cosmo says that to do that I have to think of them like you would pearls in a necklace. Each pearl is beautiful on its own, but each one is slightly different from the others. So what I have done is to “disconnect” the variations from the “necklace,” look at them individually, and treat each variation like a little solo work. Once I put them all back together, the piece works much better for me, and actually makes it come alive.

Another thing I noticed is that what makes each of the variations special is that each one prepares the listener for the one that is to follow, so in playing one of them, I am also thinking of how exactly this is accomplished. In that way, each variation becomes even more unique, because Beethoven has given each of them the job of relating to the next variation in a special way.

Playing this work for me then is extremely satisfying because I get to do a lot of thinking about how to make every variation really stand out on its own, and the message of the entire piece.

Another thing I imagine is that I am at an art gallery and there are 32 people looking at the same painting. I ask each of them what they think about the painting, what it makes them think of, what they like about it, what they don’t like about it, and they each give me their opinion. In this way it is like I am playing the opinions of people about the same painting. For me, this is a way to take into consideration the different moods, the different emotions, and all of the different nuances of the painting, but from the perspective of 32 different people focused on the same image. I’m finding this approach very helpful.

For those of you who are studying the piano as I am, I encourage you to look inside of every piece you play in order to find as much meaning as possible. By that I mean make sure you understand why the composer wrote it, and what it is he or she is trying to say. Music is always inspired by a person, an event, or something which makes the composer decide it is worth writing about, and the more you know about that source of inspiration, and the connection between that inspiration and the work itself, the better you can deliver the message of the work to an audience.