They bounce the melody around the band's high and low drums, or write skittering variations on the tune.

I wrote several variations that didn't even make it in.

He wrote variations of Bharuds in other languages.

Today I suppose he'd have written variations on Happy Birthday, but this is more fun.

Beethoven and Danzi also wrote variations on the same theme.

Schubert often wrote variations on tunes from his own songs.

Here the composer develops the subject by writing variations either melodically or harmonically.

Supposedly, the work was a response to a challenge from a friend to write variations on a theme that seemed impossible for that purpose.

"I had to use that motif again, to write variations on it."

Still others write several variations of key scenes (such as the opening) to discover what they want to say.