Scan 225
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
8 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 193. See the scan on archive.org.
1Here all the movements or parts are subservient to one principal theme called the first subject, found at the beginning of the rondo, always returning to this first subject, the style and key of which determines the character of the entire composition, and we will always rightfully expect in this form that there will be a return to the first subject and in elaboration of the form a reiteration of it throughout the composition.
3The first rondo form is naturally the simplest and consists only of the first subject and the repetition of the first subject in the same key separated by a passage in a different key, technically known as a transition, digression, an episode or intermezzo, an Italian word derived from the Latin intermedius, meaning coming between, the same word being used for selections played between the acts in early Italian tragedies; it is also at the present time given to independent composition of the same general character, so that the word transition, signifying being in transit, gives perhaps the clearest, most unmistakable meaning.
5The second rondo form consists of a first subject, a transition, a second subject, another transition, and a return to the first subject.
7The third rondo form consists of the first subject, a transition, the second subject, a transition, the first subject, a transition, the third subject, a transition, and a return to the first subject. In this long form the intermediate subjects and transitions are condensed or shortened in order not to extend the bounds of the entire composition beyond a reasonable length. Some of those writers who used the term episode instead of transition make a distinction, that is, a rondo contains more than one episode, and the name intermezzo is applied to the passages, but it is impossible to find any reason for this distinction, as there is no difference in the form of the different connecting links between the subjects and many writers use the words episode or intermezzo interchangeably in connection with the rondo so that the word transition seems to be the most distinct and definite.
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