Tiffany writes:
Throughout the variations, accents and length of notes (stylistically) seem to be very important to highlight their differences. To me, the motive most appears in the variations through the repeated rhythm as well as the continuous return of the initial theme in the motive (the first few intervals are often heard, tying together the different variations). It doesn?t sound, however, that there is a clear distinction between the variations. I did lose my place occasionally in the score as the piece progressed.
Coincidentally playing a few Copland orchestral works at the moment, I must agree that rhythm is one of the most important aspects of Copland's writing. In pieces like Buckaroo Holiday it's used as way to vary the themes; here it's used instead to tie the piece together. As hard as it is to follow the theme and variations during the piece, it would be much harder without the rhythmic cues.
To me the biggest difference between the Copland and, say, the Goldberg variations is the seamless harmony. There are many other ways in which the transitions differ, but I remarked in
CompositionJournal1 about the secondary structure the abrupt harmonic shifts give to Goldberg. By contrast, Copland sets up each transition to be harmonically compatible, missing not only the empty space but the immediacy of the change.
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