FIGURE X. EXAMPLES OF AUGMENTATION AND DIMINUTION.
It will be well worth the reader’s while to play through the entire fugues cited, noting the marvelous skill and subtlety with which Bach weaves his fabric.
In augmentation and diminution the original accents of the motif are for the most part retained—it is only the durations that are altered. More transformative still, therefore, are those devices which actually shift the accents of the motif, its most salient and identifying features. The most important of these, which we may call “shifted rhythm,” is seldom found in Bach; for its frequent and exhaustive application we must look to Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. As its name indicates, “shifted rhythm” consists in bodily shifting or transposing the motif in such a manner that its heavy beats become light, and its light ones heavy. In order to complete our account of the chief means of exploiting motifs, a few examples of shifted rhythm may find place here, even though they are not taken from Bach.
FIGURE XI. EXAMPLES OF SHIFTED RHYTHM. From the Minuet of MOZART’S String Quartet in C-Major.
From the First Movement of BEETHOVEN’S Eighth Symphony.