From Weber to Mendelssohn: Piano Variations in the Culture of Small Forms 

The initial decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a proliferation of piano variations on popular operatic themes and national airs. The versatility of this immensely popular genre fuelled domestic musical culture while constituting the calling cards of touring virtuosos across and beyond Europe. Comparative approaches to two variation sets on the same operatic theme by Weber (1812) and Henri Herz (1825) illuminate wider practices of dissemination, listening, and performance — domestically and in public spheres. The paper culminates with Felix Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses (1841): a work that marked a decisive departure from the prevailing operatic-variation tradition and influenced the genre’s subsequent development, in which small forms were increasingly transformed to serve larger, structural ends. 

By situating these works within the culture of small forms in the first half of the nineteenth century, this paper reflects on how variation sets mediated piano performance across concert platforms, operatic culture, and domestic music-making. In doing so, it invites reflection on how the practices embodied by small forms have shaped constructions of musical value, and the reception of the genre across the subsequent two centuries.

© Cheryl Tan, 2025