Musical Description

Alfredo Ramirez

Beethoven - Diabelli Variations, Op. 120

• Scoring
The piece is scored for solo piano.

• Dynamics
It starts in forte (pick up), followed by rows of 3 sforzando and 1 bar of forte dynamic,
this repeats twice. Until bar 9 we noticed a change, Sfz followed by piano, it repeated
this idea of strong and then soft leading to a crescendo to the end of the 1st 16 bar
section. The second half uses this idea again but with no crescendo at the end of the
piece.

• Rhythm
¾
Its is marked alla marcia maestoso. Alla marcia is a musical marking used to instruct
the performer to play it in the style of a march. And maestoso is used to convey
dignified and majestic music.
It uses a ⅛ , then 2/4, , ¼ motifs

• Melody
There is almost no melody to be found, most of the piece focuses on using harmonic
motifs.

• Harmony
Overall key C major
Beethoven's harmonic toolbelt is relatively simple, staying close to the harmonies of
the original waltz theme. However, he begins to introduce subtle harmonic
alterations,such as the notes C#, Bb and F#
• Texture
The homophonic used in this piece is mainly directed on the harmonic progression
itself and the interaction of the harmonies.

• Form
It uses Binary form, its an AA/BB structure. 8 bar ideas, in a total of 32 bars (no
repeats) 2nd ending sounds identical to 1st.