Ulrich Kallmeyer
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Paganini
Duration: 30'
Instrumentation details:
violoncello
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Paganini
Translation, reprints and more
Ulrich Kallmeyer
Variationen und Fuge über ein Thema von Paganini
Available digitally
Orchestration: für Violoncello und Klavier
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Ulrich Kallmeyer
Violoncello (Variationen und Fuge über ein Thema von Paganini)
Available digitally
Type: Stimme
Sample pages
Work introduction
The variations for violoncello and piano have as their theme the melody "La Campanella", which appears in Paganini's Violin Concerto in B minor and which, as is well known, Liszt used as the basis for one of his piano etudes, where it is also a sequence of variations. In addition to conservative harmony and a meticulously precise sequence of the thematic progression, there are also some free-tonal variations. As in the violin sonata, this interrupted style is again to be understood in postmodern terms: the style consists in the fact that there is none. In the case of the present variations, this imposition is supplemented or extended by the topical question of whether such a work could not also be created by artificial intelligence? In 2023, my answer is certainly no, but this view may have to be revised in the near future.