MUSICAL COMPOSITION

MELODIES AND VARIATIONS 57From this we can proceed to rhythmical changes.When to this wide field are added the varyings ofpace, of modulation, of changes of key (major andminor), of seriousness and of humour, and of ranges offorce, the composer will appreciate the enormous storeof materials upon which he can draw.We will now analyse a most interesting set ofvariations on a most uninteresting theme, the twentyfourPianoforte Variations on the Arietta "Vieni&more" of Righini, by Beethoven. So silly is the airwhich he has set himself to vary that we are almosttempted to consider the work as a specimen of whathis waggish nature could do with the most unpromisingmaterials he could find. (Compare the waltz for whichthe publisher Diabelli tormented him and every otherViennese composer to write variations.) Childish,