''Thème et variations'' (''

Theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

and

Variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

'') is a 1932 composition by

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonical ...

for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

. It is considered as equally characteristic and immediately accessible as his

Quatuor pour la fin du temps ''Quatuor pour la fin du temps'' (), originally ''Quatuor de la fin du temps'' ("''Quartet of the End of Time''"), also known by its English title ''Quartet for the End of Time'', is an eight-movement piece of chamber music by the French composer ...

. The work was originally written as a wedding present for the composer's first wife, the violinist

Claire Delbos Louise-Justine Messiaen (née Delbos; 2 November 1906 – 22 April 1959), more commonly known under her pseudonym Claire Delbos, was a French violinist and composer, and first wife of the composer Olivier Messiaen. Biography Delbos was born ...

, whom he married on 22 June 1932. The young couple gave the first performance on 22 November the same year.Dingle, p. 49. The work is divided into six brief sections: * Thème – Modéré * Variation Number 1 – Modéré * Variation Number 2 – Un peu moins Modére * Variation Number 3 – Modéré, avec éclat * Variation Number 4 – Vif et passionné * Variation Number 5 – Tres modéré A typical performance lasts around ten minutes.

Sources

* Dingle, Christopher.
The Life of Messiaen
'.

References

Compositions by Olivier Messiaen Variations 1932 compositions Compositions for violin {{classical-music-stub