In 1878 this group of four Russian composers published a work they called Paraphrases. They subtitled the music "24 variations and 14 little pieces for piano on the 'theme favori et obligé' (which is shown above). They dedicated the work to "little pianists capable of executing the theme with one finger of each hand". The composers remained true to the promise that the little pianist's contribution is entirely limited to repetitions of this theme shown above). But the variations are ambitious and ingenious, not only wandering into remote keys (such as Db) and using disconcerting cross-rhythms; the latter have benn known to unnerve even experienced musicians who condescended to play the "easy" part.
When MusicWWW opened in July 2008, only about a thrd of this suite wasi ncluded. The work has been one of the most popular on the site so far, and so I am very happy tha it is now complete.
Comments are welcome. Please write to williamww@aol.com
Last modified: 07 February 2009.
