Theme and Variations on "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Theme and variations form has been popular with composers for centuries. The idea is simple: take a well-known melody and come up with new ways to play it, like changing the rhythms, adding notes, going from major to minor, etc. Charles Ives wrote a set of fascinating variations on "My Country Tis of Thee" for organ. Here is the band arrangement of the orchestral version:

Variations On "America" - US M...

Mozart used "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman," better known to anglophones as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," as the basis for a virtuosic piano piece:

Variations on Ah, vous dirai-j...

In music theory class, we tried our hand at doing something similar. Here are three variations on "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Enjoy!

Julie and Nick's version


Stuart and Ryan


Kenny and Nathan