Variations of the time often took popular opera melodies as their themes, and Beethoven composed several such variations in the 1790s. However, it was not until 1800 that he first created independent piano variations based on his own themes.

As the title suggests, it is a relatively easy and small-scale set of variations. The theme is simple and approachable in both melody and harmony, and the bar structure merely repeats 8+8 bars.

However, it is noteworthy that this work is a set of variations on two themes, consisting of the main melody and the bass line of the theme. In each variation, care is taken to ensure that either the theme's melody or its bass line is relatively clearly audible. In Variation 1, the bass is retained as is; in Variation 2, while both hands are decoratively varied, the skeletal structure of the bass is preserved. Variations 3, 4, and 5 highlight the main melody, and the final Variation 6 again uses the bass in the root notes of the chords. The coda decoratively varies the first two bars, ultimately concluding the work with a dominant-tonic repetition.

The variation technique of using two themes is characteristic of the Piano Variations, Op. 35 (the 'Prometheus' or 'Eroica' Variations), composed two years later. Did Beethoven use these variations on his own theme as an experimental ground?