Page "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel" Paragraph 10

Of the overall concept of the work, Malcolm MacDonald writes " Some of Brahms's models in this monumental work are easy enough to identify.

In the scale and ambition of his conception both Bach's ' Goldberg ' and Beethoven's ' Diabelli Variations ' must have exercised a powerful if generalized influence ; in specific features of form Beethoven's ' Eroica ' Variations is a closer parallel.

But the overall structure is original to Brahms.

" And MacDonald suggests what might have been a more contemporary source of inspiration, the Variations on a Theme of Handel, Op.

26, by Robert Volkmann.

" Brahms might well have known that large and often admirable work, published as recently as 1856, which Volkmann based on the so-called ' Harmonious Blacksmith ' theme from the Air with Variations in Handel's E major Harpsichord Suite.