MUSICAL COMPOSITION

COLOUR 125Throughout the trio the strings alternately talk toeach other and combine as would two singers in anopera, always having something interesting to say, and,when they have not, saying nothing at all, but wiselytrusting to those great antidotes of monotony, rests.In quartets and quintets for pianoforte and stringsthe same principles apply; the basis of writing beingfour-part and five-part respectively. The family ofstrings when they are combined must always be givenmusic which is complete in itself, and independent of,though dovetailing into, the pianoforte. The modelsfor all these combinations are in plenty - the trios ofMozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms; the quartetsand quintets of the same composers, and of Schumannand Dvor'-k; and for the combination of pianoforteand wind instruments (which follow exactly the samelines) the works of Mozart (clarinet trio and quintetfor pianoforte and wind), Beethoven (trio for pianoforte,clarinet and 'cello, quintet for pianoforte and wind,sonata for pianoforte and hom, etc.), Schumann (piecesfor pianoforte and oboe, and pianoforte and clarinet),Brahms (trio for pianoforte, violin and hom, sonatasfor pianoforte and clarinet), Saint Saens (caprice forpianoforte, flute, oboe and clarinet, a most interestingstudy even from the purely technical point of viewapart from its musical charm), and a host of otherworks great and small.The bearing of colour upon the treatment of voices,alone and in combination with instruments, requires achapter to itself.The secret of obtaining mastery of tints and ofmixing colours well is only gained by a wide knowledgeof musical works, and by using every opportunity