Labor Day has come and gone. This is a time of great celebration to those of us with school-aged kids … because we can finally be rid of them again. School’s in!

Johannes Brahms was awarded an honorary doctorate degree when he was 47; as a “thank-you”, he composed the Academic Festival Overture. By using a number of popular college songs, Brahms captures all the important elements of university learning – beer, wine, and hazing rituals.

I know it sounds tacky, or clichéd, but, like a good book, music can transport you to worlds you never knew existed.

Read a good book, and you are right there in the action. When the characters cry, you weep with them; when they are overjoyed, you are elated too. And when the action is intense, you stay up all night reading until the conflict is resolved.

Listen to some Salsa, and you are in Havana, with a Mohito in your hand. Listen to a Gamelan ensemble, and you can practically smell the incense of a Buddhist temple. Listen to one of Brahms‘ Hungarian Dances, and all of a sudden you are an Eastern European peasant, with a killer ‘stache and an awesome hat, or maybe a ridiculously flowery dress.

Lace up those boots and get your Csárdás on!

Today we’re going to have a very serious lesson in music. So sit down and open your notebooks and prepare to learn about something very deep and complex and difficult. Now, you may not understand it at first, but that’s to be expected – I, who am educated, and have read books with many polysyllablic words in them, can help you.

I’m ready. Bring it on.

Today’s musical lesson is about the form known as Theme and Variation. First, the composer presents a musical theme. Then, the composer varies the theme. These are called variations.

… that’s it?

Yes, that’s all.

… anything else?

Nope. A composer will vary the theme in any way s/he pleases. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s not. If you like, you can analyze the ways the theme is varied, or you can just sit back and enjoy the music for what it is.

… class dismissed?

No, not yet. First, listen to Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn.