Mozart, Variations on “Ah! Vous dirai je maman”

I have “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on the brain. Having two small grandchildren in the house can do that as the melody takes on an important developmental role.

But the tune “Ah! Vous dirai je maman” has also proved useful to me as I work on the upcoming Music Theory course for Professor Carol. I try to use musical examples in many cases that I think everyone will know and, frankly, that is not as easy as it used to be. So many songs that used to be mainstays of our culture have fallen by the wayside. The days when kids sang standard folk songs at school and summer camp seem to be over. “Twinkle, Twinkle,” at least for now, endures.

The anonymous tune dates from about 1740, which means it was not yet a mainstay when Mozart composed his variations in 1780. And perhaps Mozart deserves credit for popularizing it. But it has certain melodic characteristics that make it well suited to children and memorization: e.g., its repetition, stepwise descents, and A-B-A form. (Those things make it useful for music theorists as well.)

It can also serve as a good introduction to the form of Theme and Variation. Mozart’s treatment of this form tends to retain the melodic elements, setting the melody to different accompaniments and embellishing it. One of the variations moves to the parallel minor (Variation VIII), an almost obligatory custom of the time. But throughout, the original melody is not difficult to discern, and that makes it easier to understand what Mozart is doing. (In the Romantic era, composers would find more obscure ways to vary the theme.)