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Scan 35
The Violin Music Of Beethoven, 1902
2 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1modulating back to the dominant of the original key, and forms a curious leading over to the final variation. The advance in style is not nearly so marked in this variation section as in the previous movement. In fact, it is not until we come to the great Kreutzer sonata and its wonderful Andante that Beethoven reveals his full powers in the metamorphosis of theme which in this particular form so plainly shows either a composer's individuality or his adherence to a few conventional patterns. For, although the variations—a large proportion of them being quite early works—of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and other classic composers of their times, are far removed from the odious vulgarity and "cheap" effects of the publisher's hacks who used to be, and perhaps still are, commissioned to torture some popular air into a convenient medium for the practice of scales and arpeggi; yet a certain recognisable similarity of treatment, though not always easy to define, is to be seen, so that, glancing at some of these variations at random, we cannot be immediately sure of the composer if previously unacquainted with the work. The eight bar sections with repeats were closely adhered to; in the second or third variations a continuous counterpoint in quavers (triplets) was pretty sure to make its appearance, and towards the end a slow one in the tonic or relative minor; frequently in the form of a funeral march, followed by a sprightly allegretto or allegro in six-eight time. But they never presented the air in its native simplicity, and clothed with the same harmonies in each variation, with uninterrupted scales and arpeggi which look as though to save time the writer had exercised his scissors upon an instruction book. The great masters gradually felt their way in exploring the possibilities lying hidden in some simple theme, its capabilities for new and beautiful harmonies, and for expansion—i.e., the development of some short phrase suggested by the theme, into an entire movement. Often only the harmonies remind us of the actual theme; in Beethoven's piano variations in F, Op. 34, a fresh key is chosen for each variation. A certain Oxford professor, (may his
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