Seven Variations on a Theme of Daniel Steibelt (2023)

A bit of new “Harmoniemusik” (music for wind band) from me today, just completed: “Seven Variations on a Theme of Daniel Steibelt.” No doubt you have probably never heard of Daniel Steibelt (1765-1823), and that’s a pity, because he was one of the best pianists and composers of his day. His main claim to fame nowadays is that he was unwise enough to challenge Beethoven to a piano playing duel, and he lost: Steibelt played first, then Beethoven, when it was his turn, took a piece of Steibelt’s music, turned it upside down, and improvised on it brilliantly and at length; Steibelt stormed out of the room and left Vienna, never to return. The tune of Steibelt’s I’ve chosen for this piece is from the last movement of his Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 6, No. 2, and I hope you’ll find it as delightful to hear treated this way as I did working with it. 

Seven Variations on a Theme of Daniel Steibelt (2023)

- Composed: May 14-18, 2023 at Austin.

- Scoring: 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in B-flat, 2 Horns in C, 2 Bassoons.

- Style:  Classical, ca. 1790-1800. 

- Duration:  8:10.

- Electronic Rendering by Finale 27 music notation software’s "Human Playback" with NotePerformer 4 artificial intelligence assisted interpretation.

Hi @J. Lee Graham,

This is for certain very joyful music! Very classical and it's enjoyable! I love this! This is a classical approach on variation as mostly the instrumentation and patterns are changed while the harnonic structure is maintained throughout the piece.

I just have the following concerns:

-I think for the theme itself both parts are quite similar since they both end on a PAC of C minor, and only difference is maybe the V and iv chord featuted in the second half, but they are quite common enough and you don't add some new chords in latter variation.

-I don't know if it will be hard for the bassoonist to play the var.3 with all thise rapid notes without much time to breath.

-I find the chord in b.96 a bit abrupt though, since it's your first time to do it but Var VI itself doesn't create significant change to fultill the expectation provided by the rest. The chord before Var VII is fine since there's a tempo change there.

-For the Largo marking of Var. VI you may just put Doppio piu lento on it I guess.

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

On 5/20/2023 at 6:19 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

This is for certain very joyful music! Very classical and it's enjoyable! I love this! This is a classical approach on variation as mostly the instrumentation and patterns are changed while the harnonic structure is maintained throughout the piece.

Hey @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu!  Thanks for giving this a listen.  

On 5/20/2023 at 6:19 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

-I think for the theme itself both parts are quite similar since they both end on a PAC of C minor, and only difference is maybe the V and iv chord featuted in the second half, but they are quite common enough and you don't add some new chords in latter variation.

I think I understand your concern here, but I was only following what the theme did.  

On 5/20/2023 at 6:19 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

-I don't know if it will be hard for the bassoonist to play the var.3 with all thise rapid notes without much time to breath.

This isn't the first time I've heard this.  I gave cleansing breaths every 8 measures, and catch breaths at least every 2 to 4 measures, hoping that would be enough.  I know a virtuoso bassoonist for whom I've written similar stuff in my Sinfonia Concertante, and she said it was challenging but doable.  This kind of thing happens in Harmoniemusik from time to time - a lot of the guys in Harmonies (wind bands) were highly proficient, if not virtuosi - but I may consider dividing this extended solo between Bassoon I and Oboe I.  

Thanks again!  

Ah blast!  I just found hidden parallel fifths in measure 7.  Just goes to show, no matter how long you've been at it, you can still make mistakes - and besides, the more parts you're writing for, the looser the rules get.  Still this particular spot I think needs to be corrected.  I might record a corrected and revised version of this piece and post it soon, we'll see.  

1 hour ago, J. Lee Graham said:

I just found hidden parallel fifths in measure 7.  Just goes to show, no matter how long you've been at it, you can still make mistakes - and besides, the more parts you're writing for, the looser the rules get.  Still this particular spot I think needs to be corrected.  I might record a corrected and revised version of this piece and post it soon, we'll see.  

Yup, you can always revise your works. One time I played Beethoven's opening fugue of his op.131 and was shocked to find a parallel fifth there! But ofc his piece is still a masterpiece if not THE masterpiece for me. I also remembered so well that I had corrected so many times the parallel octaves and fifths in the third movement of my Clarinet Quintet which is a five part fugue but still I can find some now. We can just try out best though by infinitely revising to the point that we are satisfactory of it despite some bad apples appear which will not affect the overall picture.

But for me this is an Octet and I don't think it really matters! For in b.7 even it's 4 part strcture the moment of parallel is only a semiquaver beat and this is not a strict piece, so it's up to you to decide!

Henry

Here is the corrected and revised, hopefully final version of my Variations.  In it I corrected a voice leading error and divided the solo line Var. III between Bassoon I and Oboe I, rather than overtax Bassoon I with the whole thing.  

Incidentally, my husband said of this piece that he couldn't imagine how it hadn't been the music for a Tim Burton film!  Ha!  

I listened to your most updated version and I just thought I'd add that I love variations pieces that are well done like you have here!  Although, I find myself longing for variations that aren't just figurational and melodic in your piece.  I liked the major variation, but you could have changed the order of the chords in the harmonic progression somewhere down the line too!  With each successive variations piece I compose, I find myself longing to expand the form and include more and more distantly related variations in my music.  But you seem to be happy with just staying squarely in the classical style, which I guess is fine.  Thanks for sharing!