Music: An Art and a Language

Twelfth Night, Shakespeare remarks—“I did think by the excel- lent constitution of thy leg that it was formed under the star of ...

quality of its themes, in its marvellous descriptive power and in the boldness of its orchestral effect remains unsurpassed. [Fo ...

Chapter 12 CHAPTER VII THE OLDER RONDO FORM One of the earliest instrumental forms to be worked out[77] was the Rondo, which is ...

so our illustrations are taken chiefly from his works and from those of his successors. Although there need be no arbitrary limi ...

beautiful, clear-cut example of the form; with an interpolated modulatory passage between the first episode and first return, an ...

and his Rondo, already cited,On the Lost Farthing. (See Sup- plement No. 38). Although there is a certain stiffness in this form ...

Chapter 13 CHAPTER VIII THE VARIATION FORM Monotony, as previously suggested, is more unendurable in mu- sic than in any of the ...

treatment consisted of dressing up the theme with stereotyped embellishment-figures and of systematic rhythmic animation— produc ...

by the striking example for organ in C minor by Bach on the following theme: [Music] Whoever has heard this majestic theme, whic ...

so that at times (as in his op. 34) each variation is in a new key; a frequent omission of the rigid stops at the end of each va ...

ing individuality given to the different transformations of the theme—two of the changes being to a Waltz and a Mazurka. (2), Th ...

the fantastic accents on weak beats in measures 18, 22, 23, and 24.) In the third variation comes a complete contrast in mood; t ...

the next Variation a strong contrast is afforded by the Funeral March, the minor mode being used for the first time. The last Va ...

Chapter 14 CHAPTER IX THE SONATA-FORM AND ITS FOUNDERS, EMMANUEL BACH AND HAYDN We have now set forth, with representative illus ...

will often in the creations of his imagination show a marked pref- erence for one theme over the other; just as, in the family g ...

Orchestra, of whom we shall speak further when we come to the orchestra as a medium. In many of Stamitz’s Symphonies we find the ...

is meant a composition generally in three or four movements, e.g., First Movement, Slow Movement, Minuet or Scherzo and Finale; ...

[Footnote 92: The form is also sometimes used independently, as in Brahms’sRhapsody in G minorand often, of course, in the Overt ...

[Footnote 95: “Art is not more a riot of the passions than it is a debauch of the senses; it contains, no doubt, sensuous and em ...

invariable custom to repeat the Exposition, and in Classic Sym- phonies we always find a double bar with marks of repeat and two ...