Draws a comparison between the piano variation techniques of Beethoven and Copland with reference only to the two works discussed herein, Thirty-Two Variations and Piano Variations, with the intent of gaining from these isolated examples knowledge of the changes in variation writing from Beethoven's time to the present.

There are two major purposes in selecting Couperin's programmatic clavecin pieces for study; to prove their importance in the evolution of programmatic music and to prove the value of their study by the modern pianist. Due to the enormous number of Couperin's programmatic pieces, a detailed analysis of each piece will not be attempted in this paper. Instead, a general survey will be made.

Samuel Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a town on the outskirts of Philadelphia, on March 9, 1910. He was the son of Samuel Le Roy Barber and Marguerite Beatty Barber. His father came from a long line of tradesmen and professional people and was a doctor and prominent citizen in the Pennsylvanian town in which his son was born. Although no musical tendencies existed on the father's side, there were numerous accounts of musical abilities in his mother's family. Marguerite Beatty Barber was a talented pianist and the sister of the celebrated contralto, Louise Homer. At the age of six, Samuel Barber began to play the piano and a year later began to compose. Although his mother helped to write down some of his first compositions, neither she nor her husband made any attempt to develop a possible prodigy. Instead, they tried to encourage him to indulge in the activities of any normal American boy.