# Development vs. variation?



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Dunno if this is a dumb question, but what's the difference between the two?


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Hmm..

Development can mean that small fragments are taken and used in many different ways throughout the piece.

I think variation exposes the subject more prominently and in a relatively similar form throughout, merely varying small parts which may just be the accompaniment.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

It's probably best to think of development as the extended use of a theme, or fragments of a theme, with the constant feeling of progression towards/away from a climax, while variation is a self-enclosed, somewhat altered restatement of a theme.


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## Very Senior Member (Jul 16, 2009)

*Development* is the term normally and most commonly used in describing the second part of "sonata form" which comprises exposition, development, recapitulation. The exposition consists of two themes in the tonic and the dominant respectively. The development takes both themes and elaborates them by making new combinations of figures and phrases while moving through a series of keys unrelated to the tonic. Recapitulation involves a restatement of both themes in the tonic. (There are variations (no pun intended) to this, but this is the gist of it).

*Variation* is a term describing the systematic presentation of a "theme" in different guises. A theme (here meant more generally than its specific use in sonata form) is musical material that forms the basic element in the structure of a composition. A piece can contain one or more themes. Each variation usually has the same number of measures (bars) as the theme to which it is related and is usually slightly more ornate than the initial theme. No development as such is involved as in the case of sonata form where separate themes are interweaved and involve modulation to foreign keys.


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