Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel

Johannes Brahms

General Info

Year: 1861
Duration: c. 26:00
Difficulty: VII (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Masters Music Publications
Cost: Score & Parts - $80.00 | Score Only - Unknown

Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II (doubling piccolo)
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III (III doubles Bass Clarinet)
Bassoon I-II-III (III doubles contrabassoon)
Horn in F I-II-III

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B♭ major, HWV 434.

The great music writer Donald Tovey has ranked it among "the half-dozen greatest sets of variations ever written". Biographer Jan Swafford describes the Handel Variations as "perhaps the finest set of piano variations since Beethoven", adding, "Besides a masterful unfolding of ideas concluding with an exuberant fugue with a finish designed to bring down the house, the work is quintessentially Brahms in other ways: the filler of traditional forms with fresh energy and imagination; the historical eclectic able to start off with a gallant little tune of Handel's, Baroque ornaments and all, and integrate it seamlessly into his own voice, in a work of massive scope and dazzling variety."

- Program Note from Wikipedia

Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Works for Winds by This Composer

This composer primarily wrote orchestral music. Other transcriptions of his work include:

Adaptable Music

Allegro (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Watkin) (1876/2003)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Deterling) (1869/2020)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Stanton) (1869)
St. Anthony Chorale and Variation VI (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Brand) (1873/1991/2007)

All Wind Works

Academic Festival Overture (arr. Allen) (1880/2019)
Academic Festival Overture (arr. Safranek) (1880/1914)
Academic Festival Overture (tr. Hindsley) (1880/1914/197-?)
Academic Festival Overture (tr. Patterson) (1880/2012)
Allegro (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Watkin) (1876/2003)
Begräbnisgesang (ed. Whitwell) (1858/2014)
Blessed Are They (arr. Buehlman) (1868/1970)
Blessed Are They (arr. Kreines) (1868/xxx)
Blessed Are They Who Mourn (arr. Hanna) (1868)
A Child's Lullaby (arr. Swearingen) (1868/1996)
Clarinet Sonata No. 1 (1894)
Der Jäger (tr. Schuetter) (1859-60/2010)
Famous Melodies of Brahms (arr. Ployhar) (1970)
Finale from Brahms Symphony No. 1 (arr. Bobrowitz) (1862-76/2019)
Finale from "Symphony No. 1" (arr. Butts) (1862-76/)
Finale from "Symphony No. 1" (arr. Johnson) (1862-76/)
Finale from "Symphony No. 1" (arr. Nelson) (1862-76/1972)
Finale from "Symphony No. 1" (arr. Wilcox) (1862-76/)
Finale from "Symphony No. 1" (arr. Williams) (1862-76/2008)
Four Serious Songs (arr. Langslet) (1897/2017)
Funeral Hymn (arr. Westover) (1858/2018)
How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place (tr. Williams)
Hungarian Dance No 5 (arr. Laurendeau) (1869/1905)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Deterling) (1869/2020)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (arr. Longfield) (1869/1996)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (arr. Mahl) (1869/1911)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (arr. Stalter) (1869)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Stanton) (1869)
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (tr. Thompson) (1869/2018)
Hungarian Dance No. 6 (arr. Laurendeau) (1869/1905)
Hungarian Dance No. 6 (arr. Longfield) (1869/2005)
Hungarian Dance No. 6 (arr. Halle) (1869/1905)
Hungarian Dance No. 6 (arr. Price) (1869/1940)
Hungarian Dance No. 7 (arr. Hildreth) (1869/1919)
Hungarian Dances Nos 3, 5, 11 and 16 (arr. Sheen) (1869/1985)
Hungarian Dances No 7-8 (arr. Brockton) (1922)
Hymn of Freedom (tr. Gardner) (1876/1950/1995)
Nänie (tr. Smith) (1881/2020)
Oyama (arr. Laurendeau) (1905)
Piano Quintet in F minor (tr. Stroble) (/2020)
Prelude and Scherzo (arr. Hubbell) (c. 1857/1981)
Romanza (tr. Paxton) (c. 1865-1873/2020)
Serenade No. 2 in A major (ed. Smith) (1860/2012)
Sleep Gently, My Child (arr. Mahaffey) (1892/2001)
St. Anthony Chorale and Variation VI (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Brand) (1873/1991/2007)
Symphony No. 1 Theme (arr. Feldstein and Clark) (1876/2006)
Symphony No. 4 (arr. Wirgler)
Three Chorale Preludes (arr. Boyd; ed. Fennell) (1896/1996)
Three Hungarian Dances (arr. Singleton) (1858-1868/2009)
Tragic Overture (tr. Kreines) (1880/)
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (1862)
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (tr. Kreines; ed. Johnson) (1862)
Variations on a Theme by Haydn (tr. Duthoit) (1873/1938)
Variations on a Theme by Haydn (tr. Hindsley) (1873/197-?)
Variations on a Theme by Haydn (tr. Popkin) (1873/1996)

Resources

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Wikipedia Accessed 28 October 2017