eans unusual to
find consecutive members of the same phrase beginning at different
points in the measure. This results, apparently, in motives of
irregular, unsymmetric lengths; but no confusion is possible if the
student will recollect and apply the rule that the objective point (the
heart, so to speak) of each motive is the first primary accent it
contains; counting from these points, all irregularities of melodic
extent become purely accidental and harmless. For illustration (the
preliminary tones are marked _a_):--

[Illustration: Example 14. Fragments of Mozart, Beethoven, and
Mendelssohn.]

In No. 1, the first motive evidently ends with the longer tone,
_g_-sharp. In No. 2, each one of the four motives differs from the
others in length; the sum of them is, however, exactly 24 beats, or 8
measures; hence, each one is _actually_ a two-measure motive, counting
from accent to accent. The upper numbers indicate the _actual, vital_
beginning of each motive.

This very natural, and fairly common, inequality increases the
difficulty of analysis somewhat. A knowledge of the principal chords,
and familiarity with their manner of employment in composition, greatly
facilitates the task, because the harmonic design furnishes in many
cases the only unmistakable clue to the extremities of the melodic
members. The difficulty finally vanishes only when the student has
learned to appreciate the declamatory quality of all good melody, and
can detect its inflections, its pauses; can _feel_ which (and how many)
of its tones are coherent and inseparable, and where the points of
repose interrupt the current, and thus divulge the sense of the melodic
sentence.

LESSON 3.--Analyze the third Song Without Words of Mendelssohn (A
major, the so-called Hunting Song); first of all, locate the principal
melody,--it is not always the uppermost line of tones; then divide this
melody into its melodic motives, marking the "breaks" which separate
each from the following one; the figures may be noted, also, but only
mentally. No. 35 may also be analyzed in the same manner.

CHAPTER IV. THE PHRASE.

THE PHRASE.--It is not altogether easy to give a precise definition of
the phrase. Like so many of the factors which enter into the
composition of this most abstract, ideal, and intangible of the arts,
the phrase demands considerable latitude of treatment, and will not
readily submit to strict limitations or absolute technical cond