The simplest variation type is the variation set.
Scientists are often confounded by baffling "noise" in the molecules that make up living organisms, unpredictable variation set among unfathomable sophistication.
To add a modicum of variety, it also includes shoot-outs with other submarines and a variation set in convincingly stormy seas.
If Beethoven had been born a century earlier or a century later, he would surely have called this variation set "Passacaglia".
Just when you thought grimy gang drama had run out of steam, along comes this dystopian variation, set in a recession-ravaged London 2015.
Mr. Arciuli's idea of presenting the Monk variations as a progression from morning to midnight did not entirely work: Nothing in the music suggested the different times of day, but the suite worked nicely as an extended variation set.
An evocative modern-dance choreographer, Ms. Essner will presnt dances including an exploration of rhythm and variation, set to music by Steve Reich, and a new work influenced by her Buddhist practice.
Incorporating some chanting and song (the original music is by Patricia Ju and Carlos Ricketts, with choreography and staging by Bruce Hawkins), the fables include a tortoise-and-hare variation, set in Scotland, in which a hedgehog wins a race by his wits.
The Chaconne that closes the Partita No. 2, a variation set built on a dance pattern, is as sublime as any of the sonata movements, although the huge Fugue in the Sonata No. 3 is surely a formidable challenger.
Its picturesque opening movement, an extended battle scene, is built on assertive shifting rhythms and changeable balances, and the finale, an expansive variation set, has a lurching episodic quality that makes it gripping for a listener but perilous to play.
