et.
This is in keeping with the intangible quality of music, and the
peculiar vagueness of its medium of expression; the quality which veils
its intrinsic purport from the mass of music admirers, and lends it
such exquisite and inexplicable charm to all hearers alike.

In a word, it is not the common practice for a composer to cut up his
melodic sentences into separately recognizable small particles, by
distinctly marking each component _figure_. Here and there it is done,
by way of contrast, or emphasis, or for a definite rhythmic effect,--as
shown in Ex. 2 and Ex. 6. But more generally the figures are so
closely interlinked that the whole sentence may impress the hearer as
one coherent strain, with an occasional interruption. The very minute
"breaks" between figures are often nearly or quite imperceptible; and
in many cases it is possible to define the figures of a motive in
various, equally plausible ways, simply because the "breaks" (which are
of course surely present, and become more and more apparent between the
larger members of a composition) are likely to be too inconsiderable
among these, smallest factors of the melodic form.

The following three guides may serve to indicate the extremities of the
melodic figures:--

(1) A brief rest, or a longer tone, usually marks the end of a figure.
This is fully illustrated in Ex. 6. See also Ex. 10, Ex. 12.

(2) Similarity of formation (rhythm and melodic direction) almost
invariably defines the mutually opposed, and therefore separable,
divisions of the melody,--both small and large. For example (the
figures are bracketed _a_):--

[Illustration: Example 7. Fragments of Czerny, Mendelssohn, and
Schumann.]

See also Ex. 1. The operation of this exceedingly important rule of
"corresponding formation" (about which more will be said later on) is
seen--on a larger scale--in Ex. 2, Ex. 5, and Ex. 6, where it defines
the whole _motive_.

(3) In default of more definite signs, the figures may be found to
correspond to the metric groups (that is, in lengths of whole or half
measures). Thus:--

[Illustration: Example 8. Fragments of Beethoven.]

This example illustrates the interlinking of the figures, and suggests
the difficulty that may be encountered in the effort to define melodic
figures. The difficulty is probably greatest in melodies of a lyric
character, where it is necessary to sustain the coherency of the
sentence; for instance, in many of the Songs