Musical Theme Between Paraphrasing, Variation, and Quoting

The idea of repeating musical themes in various configurations is a technique practiced since ancient times and is still valid today. Recognizing the ways of the motivic transformation and identifying the type of intervention on a work (paraphrasing, or quotation) reveals not only the composition process of the author but also makes possible the aesthetic description of the musical content. The learning objectives (like many disciplines) have undergone changes in the digital context of the pandemic year, so the main goal in the elaboration of specialized courses is maintaining students’ interest in music and especially encouraging their analytical introspection of scores and musical auditions.