The problem of classifying variations according to technical plan and stylistic treatment centers on the determination of which elements of the theme (melody, harmonic scheme, structure) are retained in each component variation and the compositional methods (elaboration, embellishment, motivic fragmentation) which are applied.

Aaron Copland was born of Russian-Jewish parents on November 14, 1900. Harris Kaplan, his father, had acquired the American equivalent of his name when an immigration official at the British port of entry wrote it on his papers, and from then on the family name was "Copland." Sarah Mittenthal and Harris Copland met at a family social gathering in New York and were married in 1885. They lived in the upper stories of his department store in Brooklyn which remained the family home until 1924 and was where Aaron, the youngest of five, was born.