Emanuel and Johann Christian Bach wrote them, and from these two Haydn
got the hint which he turned to such splendid account. Abel, Stamitz
and Wagenseil wrote them, and achieved nothing in particular. These
groups consisted of three or four movements, and we need not linger long
over them. It goes without saying that all the movements were short;
they consisted either of simple tunes or of series of harmonic
progressions broken up into figures or patterns. Of real development and
climax there is none; of such things as well-defined, characteristic
first and second subjects there is little sign. The themes were of the
formal mathematical type developed during the fugal period--a type that
"worked" easily, and in a way effectively, in the fugue itself, but was
unnecessary and, indeed, tiresome when contrapuntal working was not the
aim and object. The endless variants on this kind of thing, for
example--
[Illustration: some bars of music]
were simply a snare, and kept writers from seeing the importance of
singing and singable melody in the coming style. To show the difference
between the old and the new at once, let me here give two bits of themes
from Mozart and Haydn. They are in appearance not so far removed from
the contrapuntal type of theme, and while they sing themselves they yet
served their inventors capitally for contrapuntal treatment.
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