MUSICAL COMPOSITION

38 MUSICAL COMPOSITIONfirst four notes and the wife (B) in the last two bars.These are the children. The whole section after thedouble-bar, which is (in miniature) Sachs' Aftersong,sums up all the material before it, so that 1/ none ofit is lost," while it expresses related ideas in a newway.To this theme Beethoven has written a bass somelodic and suggestive that he has used it apart fromthe melody as a theme in itself:So perfectly do they fit that they can be treatedwith the melody below and the bass above (in doublecounterpoint) as agreeably to the ear as in theiroriginal position.To Sachs' advice it is possible to add one clause,which is absent from his criticism probaHy becausethe melody he was listening to possessed the quality towhich we allude, sense of climax. All good themesare in curves, and tend towards one striking momentwhich forms the culminating point of the melody. Itneed not necessarily be a climax of height: it needonly be the outstanding main feature of the wholemelody. It must come in the right place, neither tooearly nor too late. In the theme given abovethe climax comes at the pause and following fournotes. It is here attained by the force of themelody itself, and not by its being a higher note thanthe rest.