Come with us, &c.
"The question is sometimes raised whether in the primitive carol the chorus began, or whether, as in many of our own popular songs, it waited until the end of the first solo verse. Probably the former is of the greater antiquity; in any case, it is from it that the rondo[15] is derived."—Hadow, "Sonata Form."
An example of this primitive type of carol will be found in Figure XXII.
This is an ancient carol from the old province of Bas-Quercy (now Lot-et-Garonne) in the southwestern part of France.
The obvious weakness of this form, when applied to instrumental music, is its monotony. One would soon weary of a bald repetition over and over again of two phrases or two melodies to which no variety was imparted, such as the change of words supplies in the foregoing carol. In order to avoid this disadvantage the natural step to take would be to impart, by some means or other, variety to the music; and this was soon perceived by composers. The idea of a fixed part remained, i. e., the chief musical idea was retained in its original form, but the secondary melodies were varied. Once this change had taken place the rondo became a frequent medium of musical expression. Specimens of the early rondo may be found in Purcell's song, "I Attempt from Love's Sickness to Fly," and in Bach's, "Passepied en Rondeau," from the fifth English Suite. The formula for these two pieces is A, B, A, C, A.
Another interesting point is the plan of the harmony of the contrasting sections in the rondo. The first of these (B) would naturally follow the prevailing custom for "sections of contrast," and be in the dominant, or, if the piece were in minor, in the relative major (see Chapter II.); but the second (C) offered a further means of variety, and the instinct of composers led them to treat it in a free manner and not confine it to any one key. Each of the examples of rondo form referred to above adopts this method of procedure.
While this early form of the rondo possessed a certain charm, it was somewhat rigid in effect, since the various sections were separated from each other by a full close or complete pause. They were like little blocks that fitted together into a definite, if somewhat stiff pattern.
II. A RONDO BY COUPERIN.
The primitive rondo was chiefly cultivated by the French harpsichord composers of the early eighteenth century, of whom Couperin (1668-1733) and Rameau (1683-1764) were the most distinguished. Reference has been made in our chapter on "The Suite" to the "Ordres" of these composers, and to the perfecting, at the end of the seventeenth century, of the instrument for which they were written, the harpsichord. The strings of the harpsichord were not struck by hammers, as in the modern pianoforte, but plucked by quills, as the strings of a banjo are plucked by the fingers of the player. It has been said of the harpsichord that it produced "a scratch with a tone at the end of it." The tone produced in this primitive way was weak and of brief duration, so that composers not only had to keep re-enforcing a tone by striking it again, as in the trills and other ornaments so characteristic of their music, but had to avoid altogether any long sustained passages such as are common in modern music. They had also to substitute for the polyphonic style, the entire effectiveness of which depends upon the sustainment of its melodies, a homophonic or one-voiced style which, while distinct from that usual in modern piano music, was historically an important factor in its development.