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FIGURE XXXII. First phrase of Variation by Rameau.

What has been said in our last chapter of Couperin's harpsichord pieces applies to these variations of Rameau. There is in them a kind of refinement and delicacy that characterizes all the French music of that period. The theme itself is less na?e than that of the "Courante Jewel," and more suggestive of the slow movement themes of the sonatas of later composers. In fact, this has in it little of the real Gavotte, its meditative quality is too strong and its rhythms too weak.

These two compositions admirably illustrate the general striving for some ordered means of expression in secular music that characterizes the seventeenth century. It was a time of groping. Sacred music had largely occupied the attention of composers, and few paths had been opened for those who desired other means of expression, so that the problem of secularization was the all-important one. It must also be kept in mind that this particular advance could not take place until musical instruments and the technique of playing them had been perfected. As late as 1571 Ammerbach's "Orgel oder Instrument Tabulatur" was published, forbidding the use of either the thumb or little finger in organ playing, and writers of the seventeenth century speak of certain uses of the thumb in playing as "daring innovations." Couperin in his "L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin," published in Paris in 1717, advocates a system of fingering that still uses the thumb in a clumsy manner, and it was not until John Sebastian Bach's method of tuning by "equal temperament" and his new system of fingering came into use that music for the harpsichord and clavichord was freed from the old incubus of an awkward mechanical technique. For it is obvious that an art can never reach anything like perfection as long as its working materials are inadequate. In piano playing, for example, one could not use chords spread out far beyond the grasp of the hands until the sustaining pedal had been invented. While these conditions existed, composers naturally turned their attention to sacred music and to the opera, where there were fewer limitations.

Among the many examples of the variation form produced in the time of Couperin and Rameau the most important are those of Bach and Handel. Since we are here dealing with the precursors of the sonata and symphony and with the development of homophonic music, we shall not discuss Bach's celebrated "Goldberg Variations," which are masterly examples of his intricate and vivid polyphony, but shall turn to a set of variations in more modern form by Handel. The reader may, however, consult the second Sarabande accompanying Chapter V for an example of Bach's method of elaborating a given theme.

III. HANDEL'S "HARMONIOUS BLACKSMITH."

Our chapter on the suite has given the order in which the various dances usually appeared, and mention was there made of the exceptions occasionally to be found among the works of adventurous composers.