Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed his 12 Variations on the 'Follies of Spain' in 1778. The Follies ('la Folía' in Spanish) is one of the oldest melodies in record in western music, serving as a sort of stock material for the creation of sets of variations. Carl Philipp Emanuel's Variations are written for keyboard in the key of D minor, with the theme and the 12 variations reaching an average performance time of 8 minutes. The set was first published in 1938, catalogued as H. 263.
