Variations on a Melody 1700-1820 Composing Guide

Listen to these example themes and variations by Mozart. 

The first is for solo piano. It uses a simple, distinctive, and very familiar theme (melody) borrowed from another source / composer. It shows that the most simple, well-known melodies may have the greatest potential for development into many more complex and interesting variations (to which the listener still can easily relate). The theme is 24 bars long.

 The second is for solo clarinet and accompaniment (string quartet or piano). It uses a theme composed by Mozart himself. Like the familiar (borrowed) theme in the first example, Mozart's (newly composed) theme is still simple, with distinctive, repeated motifs, creating the opportunity for developing more complex (repeated) motifs in each variation. The theme is 16 bars long. 

It is strongly recommended that, like Mozart, your chosen theme is simple, with distinctive, repeated motifs, exactly 16 (or 24) bars long .

On beats 1 and 3 of each bar, try to use a note from the original theme. Sometimes you may prefer to use a different note from the same underlying chord.

Choose one or two new, distinctive rhythmic motifs. These might include: dotted notes, triplets, 4 semiquavers, quaver / 2 semiquaver pairs, syncopated patterns etc.

Join together the notes from the theme (beats 1 and 3) with these new distinctive motifs, moving mainly by step.

If you wish to move by jump, try jumping to and from another note from the underlying chord.

Repeat the steps you followed to compose your variation 1 melody, but now with a contrasting and repeating rhythmic motif, which you may also repeat as a melodic motif. Dotted quavers, triplets, pairs of semiquavers, pairs of quavers, syncopated semiquaver, syncopated quaver and other distinctive rhythms are all suitable.