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I'm working on Mozart's Variations on the theme, "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" (a.k.a. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", or "Baa Baa Black Sheep")

Lots of fun. :p


No questions, yet... just thought I'd let you know what I'm working on, since it seems like it's going to be a great piece to work on, and see if you guys had any comments about it.

By the way....


Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Papa veut que je raisonne,
Comme une grande personne;
Moi, je dis que les bonbons
Valent mieux que la raison.

Ah! Let me tell you, Mother,
What's the cause of my torment?
Papa wants me to reason
Like a grown-up.
Me, I say that candy has
Greater value than reason.

What's really fun is to try to improvise variations of your own on the theme.
When someone asks if you play, start playing the theme and watch them sigh and then break out with a torrent of octaves, with the melody and harmony still easily heard.
It's fun.

I wrote 31 variations on Mary Had a Little Lamb this week (keeping the melody the same but changing the left hand accompaniment). They aren't as good as Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle, though.

i love that song

seriously.. it's just a delightful piece

I also added a few more variations to the theme, making it a bit more virtuostic.

Hehee, it is quite a great piece to learn, especially MINE. MINE MINE MINE!!

By the way, I doubt the child-friendly version was what Mozart had in mind, both because of his reputation as anything but a puritan, and because it's probably a nineteenth-century version.
You can find (online and on paper) slight variations of the original eighteenth-century bergère song, but more or less here goes (and sorry about the poor translation):

Ah ! vous dirai-je, maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Depuis que j'ai vu Silvandre
Me regarder d'un air tendre,
Mon coeur dit à tout moment:
Peut-on vivre sans amant?

Ah! Shall I tell you, Mother,
What's the cause of my torment?
Ever since I've seen Silvandre
looking at me with a tender eye,
my heart is saying every moment:
Can you live without a lover?

L'autre jour, dans un bosquet
Il me cueillait un bouquet;
Il en orna ma houlette,
Me disant: Belle brunette,
Flore est moins belle que toi,
L'amour moins épris que moi.

The other day, in a grove
he picked a bunch of flowers for me;
he adorned my shepherd's crook with it
telling me: Pretty brunette,
Flora is less beautiful than you,
and Love less enraptured than I.

Je rougis et par malheur
Un soupir trahit mon coeur;
Le cruel, avec adresse,
Profita de ma faiblesse:
Hélas! maman, un faux pas
Me fit tomber dans ses bras.

I blushed and by misfortune
a sigh betrayed my heart;
the cruel man, with dexterity,
profited from my feebleness:
Alas! Mother, a mis-step
made me fall in his arms.

Je n'avais pour tout soutien
Que ma houlette et mon chien;
Amour, voulant ma défaite,
Ecarte chien et houlette:
Ah! qu'on goûte de douceur
Quand l'amour prend soin d'un coeur!

I had no support other than
my crook and my dog;
Love, desiring my defeat,
removed the dog and the crook:
Ah! How we taste of sweetness
when love takes charge of a heart!

Thanks, Giacomo.

I was wondering why the rhythm in the French version I found didn't quite match up with the tune of the song!

Quite a different story in the one you've provided...

now don't forget Baa baa black sheep and ABCDEFG

These variations are indeed fun to play!

Slightly off-topic, but listen to this:
http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Twinkle.mp3

You might like to hear the Dohnanyi variations for piano and orchestra too. After a wonderful orchestral introduction the piano comes in with just a one-finger melody and from then on it expands, expands, and EXPANDS!!! It's wonderful to listen to and must be fun to play as well. I have the Julius Katchen recording.

I do, for fun, Mary Had a Little Lamb with some 'variations' that cause the listeners to laugh. It's fun to do when asked to play and they expect something really virtuosic and you start with the simple melody and see the expressions on their faces.

Has anyone here played the "Chopstick Variations"?

They're also a ton of fun, and surprisingly difficult.

Is this theme the same as "A-B-C-D-E-F-G"?

chopsticks variations? I was kinda looking for that. Any links available? Any kind forumer willing to send it to me?