Themes And Variations

Glenn Gould: Beethoven~~32 Variations on an Original Theme

Gregor Piatigorsky: Schubert~~Theme and Variations

The central theme
of Anna Karenina ,
he said,
is that a rural life
of moral simplicity,
despite its monotony,
is the preferable
personal narrative
to a daring life
of impulsive passion,
which only leads
to tragedy.

That is
a very long theme,
the scout said.

It's a very long book,
Klaus replied.

Or maybe a daring life
of impulsive passion

leads to something else,
the scout said,
and in some cases
this mysterious person
was right.
A daring life
of impulsive passion
is an expression
which refers to people
who follow what is
in their hearts,
and like people who prefer
to follow their head,
or follow
a mysterious man
in a dark blue raincoat,
people who lead
a daring life
of impulsive passion
end up doing
all sorts of things.

--Lemony Snicket
The Slippery Slope