Brahms, Developing Variation, and the Schoenberg Critical Tradition

graciously provided Hutchins with "Some Problems for the Department," a list of "a few ... subjects with which classes could become busy." As might be expected, Schoenberg included mainly compositional and analytical topics, such as "methods of transition" and a "'systematic cataloguing of features of rhythm." He also proposed a subject suggestively called "developing variation."' Although Schoenberg discussed developing variation only sporadically-and often aphoristically-in his critical writings, he clearly considered it one of the most important compositional principles of Western music from the common-practice era to his own day. It is thus worthwhile to gather and examine his scattered remarks in order to form a clear picture of the term and the concept. In one essay Schoenberg explains: