ethoven. The cases of Clementi and Rust,
however, are not quite parallel. With the former it was mere
foreshadowing; with exception of a few passages in which there was
note resemblance between the two composers, the music still bore
traces of Clementi's mode of thought and style of writing. But with
Rust, there are moments in which it is really difficult to believe
that the music belongs to a pre-Beethoven period.

The sonata[92] in D minor (1788) opens with a vigorous yet dignified
Allegro; the graceful Adagio is of eighteenth century type; it is in
the key of the relative major, but closes on the dominant chord of D
minor, leading without break to a final Allegro, full of interesting
details. The movement concludes with an impressive _poco adagio_ coda,
in which Rust makes use of the principal theme of the opening
movement. We will venture on one quotation, although a few bars,
separated from the context, may convey only a feeble impression--

[Music illustration]

The sonata in D major, composed six years later, opens with an
interesting Allegro. The second movement, in B minor, bears the
superscription "Wehklage" (Lamentation). Rust's eldest son, a talented
youth, who was studying at Halle University, was drowned in the river
Saale, 23rd March 1794. Matthisson, the "Adelaide" poet, sent to the
disconsolate father a poem entitled "Todtenkranz fuer ein Kind," to
which Rust sketched music, and on that sketch is based this pathetic
movement, which sounds like some tone-poem of the nineteenth century.
Here is the impressive coda:--

[Music illustration]

There follows a dainty, old-fashioned Minuet, and a curious movement
entitled "Schwermuth und Frohsinn" (Melancholy and Mirth);[93] though
after the "Wehklage" these make little impression.

During four years (1792-96), Rust was occupied with a sonata in C
minor and major. The work is a remarkable one. It opens with an
energetic Recitativo in C minor, interrupted for a few bars by an
Arioso Adagio in C major. Then comes a Lento in six-four time based on
the celebrated Marlbrook song, a dignified movement containing, among
other canonic imitations, one in the ninth. It leads by means of a
_stringendo_ bar to a brilliant Allegro con brio, a movement of which
both the music and the technique remind one of Beethoven's bravoura
style. A second section of the sonata commences with the recitative
phrase of the opening of the work, only in A minor. This leads to a
highl