How to ACTUALLY compose a Theme & Variations and impress your crush.

[@dannuttle9005]

You show C/E in "College Hornpipe" as viio6/V. Is it a 6 chord because of the natural E? (Maybe technically an Fb?) But then you show Adim/C as viio6. There is no natural E/Fb here. Why is this a dim6? Also, is the house next to yours up for sale? 😀For that matter, why is this shown as C/E? It's Adim6, correct? (I am easily confused.)

[@Zarty-Music]

Good catch! that C/E chord is a V6/V (or a V65/V if we count the B flat in the melody as it's dominant seventh). Either way, it's definitely not viiº6/V, which should display a G in the bass and E, B flat above it. My bad. The Adim/C chord (i believe you are talking about the one in the second version at 10:41) is missing the Eflat, but it's still an implicit diminished triad and it behaves like so, with the A and C resolving to B flat in the melody. Thanks for the feedback!

[@dannuttle9005]

@@Zarty-Music OK so the C/E is actually (I think) a secondary dominant leading to F. And the Adim is a passing chord that functions as a secondary dominant (an implied F7) leading to Bb. If so...I actually understand the harmony of this passage. But if I could ask just one question more. Why do you consider C in the bass, and A and C in the treble, to be a viio chord? It could also be thought of as F7/C. Is it because the root note is at least present for the dim chord? Or maybe a 3rd in the bass is a stronger indication than a 5th? I'm not trying to nitpick; I try to analyze pieces on my own and I have much difficulty trying to decide how two notes are actually functioning. I get tangled up in doubt. Maybe I should lean toward the choice that has the chord's root in the music. But I have seen several pieces where I know a chord is the V7, although the root is not present. Come to think of it, though...they usually have the 3rd in the bass. Maybe that is another strong factor in identifying the chord?

[@Zarty-Music]

@@dannuttle9005 the C/E chord is indeed a secondary dominant leading to F (V), the Adim is a dominant (not secondary) as It leads to the tonic. Those are really good questions. In classical music, the viiº diminished triad is considered a V7 without root (weaker), so you are not wrong about It. However, since they are used in different ways, they are also given different tags. viiº chords were usually avoided in cadences as they were considered too weak. Also they usually appear in first inversion, and in four part voicing with a duplicated third instead of the root.

[@maxin7036]

Best channel for us . Nerds trying to compose classical music

[@lmichaelgreenjr]

Great video. Only halfway through but this is very high quality, especially with the analysis of the Mozart. I find form to be an incredibly vital topic for composers and it is greatly under-discussed.

[@Zarty-Music]

I couldn't agree more! form is, after all, the difference between an actual composition and an improvisation. Awesome channel btw, you earned a new subscriber here!

[@kristian6566]

Great video!! Nice overview, I learned a lot. Feels like you put a lot effort into these.

[@Zarty-Music]

Thank you!

[@givze2208]

Needs more attention, got my head to wrap around it a bit more thanks to this

[@alexshi-ban6825]

Yeah, another video! I waited it!

[@RexPotam]

A good one, thank you. One more idea to explore may be the change of register. Melody on the right hand and harmony on the left gets a bit boring after a while. But thanks, some good tips in there.

[@Zarty-Music]

Good idea! Thanks for the feedback.

[@tiagoleal9653]

What a wonderfully thought out, well written explanation on the theme and variations. As a professional musician and hobbyist composer, it was a pleasure to watch and it certainly helped me gain further insight into the form. I understand people are reluctant to adapt to a new era where we use AI to help us further our aims and to aid us with our work. It is certainly still novel at this time of history (at least to me) to hear an AI generated voice in what is evidently a very well prepared (and even more obviously prepared by a human) presentation on a very interesting topic. To have people dismiss your effort and the pedagogical value of your entire video solely because of an AI generated voice... It must be a bit disheartening, at least it would be for me. Regardless, I hope you keep creating more highly instructive content like this! And the icing on the cake is your wonderful composition, which is a joy to listen to, either in the context of the subject of the video, or solely by its own merit as a piece of art music. Congratulations, and I'm looking forward to watching more content from you!

[@Zarty-Music]

Thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate it! and also I'm glad you liked my little composition! I understand the concern about the AI tools, which are in my opinion an amazing resource but sadly overused by some. Anyhow, I'm currently doing the voice-over myself for my latest videos, which is hard for me because I'm not a native english speaker, but I'm trying my best :D

[@Nekog1rl]

Now I want to compose a more baroque set of variations on this hornpipe!

[@JanCarlComposer]

I am not sure whether you really need a binary, rounded binary etc. form. Just any music piece that is suitable for variations would suffice IMO. I agree on the length and complexity of the underlying piece.

[@Zarty-Music]

I agree. In the video I was specifically talking about the normative formal choices during the classical period (last part of the 18th century), so these guidelines don't necessarily apply in other contexts.

[@CptCascadia]

quite interesting🙂

[@franciscoaragao5398]

Muito bom, obrigado.

[@franciscoaragao5398]

Esperamos mais mais análises. Voz de IA são bem-vindas. :)

[@GlaceonStudios]

If composing variations as a slow movement in a larger work, would it be better to have fewer variations, since all of them will take up more space, or would it be okay to put as many as necessary? I know that grazgorilla used a variation slow movement in his tutorial Romantic symphony, though since the theme was about 2 minutes long he only used two variations; it's a shorter movement than the scherzo, I believe.

[@Zarty-Music]

Good question. Everything depends on the context and your criteria as composer. From a historial perspective, in the classical period a minimum number of variations would always be expected. I don't recall any example of only two variations being used, but in slow movements less number of variations were indeed acceptable (Haydn sometimes used 4). The Romantic era was much more flexible with regards to form than the classical period, so I'd expect anything there. And finally, from a purely artistic perspective, I'd say you do as many as you see fit!

[@koboldgeorge2140]

The AI voice is really annoying

[@Zarty-Music]

Duly noted. I might explore other options in the future.

[@djbabymode]

How much of this video is AI? The thumbnail and voice clearly use AI, which leads me to assume the majority of the video was "written" by ChatGPT (or something) and is therefore not worth watching.

[@Zarty-Music]

My content speaks for itself. You can watch the video and judge by yourself. Or you can, of course, assume whatever you want and move on.

[@__lasevix_]

Okay then, I see this is not worth my time now! ​@@Zarty-Music

[@Zarty-Music]

@@__lasevix_ Good, farewell.

[@musicfriendly12]

Uhm, I think none of the "actual" content is AI generated... I believe that the only thing AI generated is some aspects of the presentation, even there the use of AI wasn't exaggerated or unfiltered... It's no big deal.

[@Zarty-Music]

@@musicfriendly12 That's right, I use a text to speech software for the voice, and the thumbnail girl is ai generated, both are pretty obvious. Everything else was hours of edition and hard work (I use power point and a cheap video edition software). In future videos I'll try voicing them myself to avoid these kind of arguments.