Let us keep distinctly in mind, in all our study, these three modes of repetition, which are of radical importance to musical design: 1st, the imitation of a motive in a different "voice" or "part"; 2d, the transposition of a motive, in the same voice, to a higher or lower place in the scale; 3d, the restatement of a motive already once stated, after an intervening contrast. We shall constantly see these kinds of repetition—imitation, transposition, and restatement—used by the great composers to give their music that unity in variety, that variety in unity, without which music can be neither intelligible nor beautiful.
V. THE FIRST STEPS AS REVEALED BY HISTORY.
It must not be thought that these ways of varying musical motives without destroying their identity were quickly found out by musicians. On the contrary, it took centuries, literally centuries, to discover these devices that seem to us so simple. All savage races are musically like children; they cannot keep more than one or two short bits of tune in mind at the same time, and these they simply repeat monotonously. The first two examples in Figure II, taken from Sir Hubert Parry's "The Evolution of the Art of Music," give an idea of the first stage of the savage musician.
1.
![[PNG]](#5102994518728001825_pag11_score1.png.id-1299244933840791578.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
2.
![[PNG]](#5102994518728001825_pag11_score2.png.id-3577145035878911182.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}