DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

86 FORM FORM
hag not only changed its characteristic rhythms
and time, but even its style and form.
The Scherzo is in fact the most free and independent
of all the movements of a modern instrumental
work, being characterised rather by its
sportive and playful style than by any fixed and
systematic distribution of subjects and keys.
Occasionally it falls into the same order of distribution
as a first niovement, but there is no
necessity whatever that it should do so, and its
whole character,—happiest when based upon the
incessant repetition in varying lights and circumstances
of a strongly rhythmic figure,—is
headlong abandon rather than the premeditated
design of the serious First movement. Beethoven
was the real creator of the modern Scherzo, for
all that a few examples exist prior to him ; for
these are essentially in unsophisticated dance
form, and belong to the old order of things,
but Beethoven's infinitely various Scherzi are all
marked by a certain intimate quality of style,
which has been the real starting-point of his
successors, rather than any definite formal basis.
Mendelssohn created quite a new order of Scherzi
of a light, happy, fairylike character, in which
his bright genial nature spontaneously expressed
itself. But to him the like remark applies, for
they are essentially characterised rather by spirit
than form. Schumann was fond of putting two
Trios in his Sclierzi ; as in two of his Symphonies,
and in the very popular pianoforte
QuintetinEfc>. Thiswas prefigured in Beethoven
by the repetition of the Trio in the Symphonies
in A and Bb.
The form of the Slow movement in Sonatas
and Symphonies is decidedly variable. It is more
commonly based on the same system as a first
movement, but owing to the length of time
necessary to go through the whole series of
sections in tlie slow tempo, it is common to
abbreviate it in some way, as by omitting the
portion usually devoted to ' development ' and
modulation, and passing by a short link only
from the presentation of the subjects to their
recapitulation—as in the slow movement of Beethoven's
Sonata in Bb, op. 106, and that of
Mozart's Quartet in Bb, No. 3. There are a few
instances of Slow movements in Rondo form—as
in Mozart's Sonatas in C minor, G major (1778),
and D (1777) ; Beethoven's Senate pathetique,
and that in G (op. 31, No. 1)—and several in
the form of a set of Variations. Another happy
form of this movement is a species of aria or
melody, cast in the old Rondo form, like the
example of Lully quoted at the commencement
of this article. Of this the beautiful Cavatina
in Beethoven's Bb Quartet (op. 130) is a very
fine example, its form being simply a section
consisting of the aria or melody continuously
developed, followed by a section consisting of
impassioned recitative, and concluding with a
return to the original section somewhat abbre-
viated. This form resolves itself practically into
the same formal basis as the Minuet and Trio or
Scherzo, though so different in character ; for
it depends almost entirely on the repetition of a
long complete section '«ith a contrasting section
in the middle. And the same simple basis will
be found to predominate very largely in music,!
even in such widely different classes as modern
Nocturnes, like those of Field and Chopin, and
Arias of the time of Handel, of which his ' Waft
her. Angels '
is a very clear example.
The idea of Variations was very early arrived
at by musicians ;
for Dr. Burney points out that
in the age of Queen Elizabeth there was a perfect
rage for this kind of music, which consisted ' in
multiplying notes, and disguising the melody of
an easy, and, generally, well-known air, by every
means that a spacca nota, or note-splitter, saw
pjossible.' This primitive kind of variation was
still a form of some sort, and is based upon the
same principle as that of gionnd basses, such as
are found in PurceU's 'Dido and Mnea.s,' and
were very popular in those days ; and of such
forms again as Bach's Passacaglia, or Chopin's
Berceuse in Db, or even the wonderful continuous
recitative on a constant repetition of a short
rhythmic figure in the bass, in Bach's Italian
Concerto. In all these cases the principle is
that of constant and continuous repetition as a
basis for superimpjosed variety. Into Variations
as Variations the question of Form does not enter,
or at least only in such a special way that its
consideration must be left to that particular
head. But as a form in itself it has been
employed largely and to a degi-ee of great importance
by all the gieatest masters in the department
of Instrumental Music ; as by Handel,
Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann,
and Brahms. In most cases sets of
Variations are not continuous, but each Varia-
tion is detached from its fellow, making a series
of little movements like the Theme, each in the
same key. But this is not invariable ; for on
the one hand, Beethoven jiroduoed a very remark-
able set of Variations on a Theme in F (op. 34),
in which the key changes for each variation ;
and on the other hand there are many examples
of Variations which are continuous, that is, run
into one another consecutively, without pause,
as in the last movement of Beethoven's Sonata
in C minor, op. HI, and (on a smaller scale)
the slow movement of Haydn's Quartet in B
minor, op. 64. ^ It is very common for sets of
Variations to have a grand Coda— frequently an
independent movement, such as a Fugue or free
Fantasia based upon some conspicuous figure
of the Theme ; as in Beethoven's Prometheus
Variations, op. 35, and Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques.
There can be no possible reason for
' This form is often called the Licd-form. .1 term orieinated by Dr.
Marx ; but being clearly a misnomer it has not been adopted by the
present writer.
2 [rt is impossible to refrain from mentioning Sir Hnbert Parry's
noble set of variations for pianoforte aolo in I) minor, and Ills
' Characteristic Variations ' for orobestra. In both which the variations
run on continuoiisly. Ed.]