Tuesday, March 3, 2009

All roads lead to Rome, all Variations from one Theme

There are many ways of doing a thing, and there are many ways that you can improve/ innovate on an existing thing. The computer which was born to simply compute things now serve us with word processing/ communication/ data transfer etc etc etc functions! You name it, it can do it.

I think all these new ways of using an existing thing are similar to how composers create new tunes (variations) based on an existing melody (theme).

The famous Canon in D written by Pachelbel, is a classic example of variations on a theme. The song starts with a simple tune, which maps out into an intricate web of fuller melody.

Check out Jerry C's version on an electric guitar:




Not sure if this is Jerry C himself but the above video provides the best sound clarity among all the videos I checked out. The song starts and ends with the theme, sandwiching the variations in between.

For those who want to know what it originally sounds like, here's a version played by classical violins:


Piano version in a different key (C major), featured in the Korean movie "My Sassy Girlfriend":


So guess what, there can be variations not just in melody, but also in style, instruments used, genre and even mood! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment