ons we come upon the Beethoven faculty
of diversifying a musical theme in the form of variations. The
examples here given represent certain of the simpler phases of this
part of his art, and if the student is ambitious in this direction he
might read for himself the variations upon the waltz in C, or the
famous thirty-two variations, in which endless varieties are obtained
from a very simple theme. A still more highly developed example of
this art is found in the last sonata of all, opus 111; but these are
too difficult for our present use.

The theme and variations in C, from the Sonata in G, opus 14, are easy
and pleasing. The theme itself affords a very pretty contrast between
the staccato of the first period and the close legato of the second
period. Then the sweetness of it is relieved by the strong
syncopations which break it up, toward the end (measures 17 and 18).
The first variation has the melody in the tenor, unchanged excepting to
make it legato. The right hand deals mainly with syncopated repeated
notes.

The second variation is much more broken. The left hand plays the bass
upon the beat, while the right hand comes in with a chord containing
the melody at the half beat. The third variation brings the melody
again in the bass, with an accompaniment figure in sixteenths for the
right hand. At the end there is a lovely coda of six measures.
Throughout these variations the harmony and the melody have not been
changed. Only the place of the melody and the rhythm of the accessory
accompanying figures have been changed.

A still more remarkable illustration of this phase of the Beethoven
genius is found in the andante and variations which form the second
movement of the Sonata Appassionata, opus 57. Here the variations are
not indicated in the notation, but the player has to find them for
himself, which is easy enough, because the two periods of the theme,
each of eight measures, are exactly repeated in the following
variations.

The theme itself has a church-like character, almost "sacred." This is
due to the first harmonic step from tonic to subdominant and back
again, in the manner of the "Amen" cadence so well known in anthems.
In the second period there is an intense and almost strained expression
due to the chord of 4-2, the seventh low in the bass. The first
variation plays the melody in the same place as in the theme, and in
the same chords; but the bass enters a half beat later and holds