Paganini's 24th caprice still remains to this day one of the most celebrated themes in classical music history. Many composers have used this theme to create variations and each composer attempted to produce stylistically unique variations on this piece. Hamelin's Variations on a Theme of Paganini stands out because his piece incorporates musical borrowing and many different composers' styles. His variations integrate music from different centuries, using pastiche and musical borrowing from figures such as Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. More provocatively, Hamelin's variations reach outside of Classical music, even adopting elements from salsa and friska. The spectrum of composers and styles included in this set are so radical and shocking that it creates a parody of not only Paganini's theme, but also the tradition of theme and variation pieces it has inspired. Due to its multiple variations juxtaposing extremely different styles, Hamelin's Variations on a Theme of Paganini presents the listener with a musical puzzle that is designed to invoke surprise. The juxtapositions of extremely different styles in these variations create disjointed variations with polystylism. The polystylism in this work diversifies his variations, while unifying these seemingly unbalanced movements through broad musical references. As such, both performers and listeners stand to benefit from a detailed, critical examination of the piece. I consider not just the musical sources themselves, but also the ways in which they interact, paying close attention to Hamelin's use of parody and humor.

The author of this thesis endeavours to create a comprehensive portrait of Hanuš Bartoň, a Czech contemporary composer, pianist, and academic educator. The thesis is focused on his compositions and his contribution as a pianist and a teacher with the aim to establish a practical source of information. This source ought to fulfil both its musicological potential, especially concerning the analysis of Czech classical music of the end of the 20th century up till now, as well as its potential in the field of education, noting Bartoň's works for children and his academic pedagogical contribution. The thesis is systematically organised into several parts. The main body starts with the composer's biography. The attention then moves to his compositions, which are systematically presented and commented on from the perspective of Bartoň's musical style development and its tendencies. His works adhere to the postmodern ideal considering the fact that the music deals in a specific way with the synthesis of stylistic elements. The scope of his oeuvre is relatively wide. It mostly encompasses instrumental pieces, although there are many others including, for example, musical-dramatic works, vocal pieces, electroacoustic music, and music for the theatre. The individual compositions and their performances are...