subordinate ideas, brought in with whatever cleverness of
treatment the composer may find convenient, and the whole turned over
and diversified according to his fancy.

In certain aspects the musical forms bear a good deal of resemblance to
the quasi-geometric figures called arabesques, in which a certain line
or form is many times repeated; or to the arrangement of crystals which
the frost forms upon the glass of the window, when the simple
crystalline form of water is repeated in a great diversity of ways, and
larger figures and curious symmetries and suggestions are brought out.
In music of a serious construction the leading motives are diversified
in a great variety of ways by being made to appear in different chords
and intervals from the original form, and by being carried into other
keys, whereby the impression upon the ear is very materially modified,
at the same time without destroying the unity of the idea.

Musical forms in general may be divided into elementary and complete.
The elementary forms are those which are used as structural elements in
the larger or complete forms. Thus, a motive repeated becomes a
phrase; a phrase repeated or answered by counter-theme becomes a
section; a section repeated becomes a period; the period repeated or
modified becomes a two-period form or a period group, which may extend
to a considerable number of periods. Out of these elementary forms the
large forms are constructed. Beginning with the song form as the
principal subject, the rondo goes on with a second song form as second
subject, and so on to any extent desirable, according to the plan given
above. In analyzing a large piece of music to find these leading
subjects, the student should begin by first finding the great divisions
in the piece, such as, for instance, those where an entirely new melody
comes in a change of key, and the like. Having found the larger points
of joining, he should then proceed to find the dividing lines in the
smaller parts, which, in music, is rendered somewhat more difficult in
consequence of the entire absence of punctuation bringing out relations
of this kind. Not only are the marks wanting, but the bars confuse the
eye and make it more difficult to find the real point where the ideas
begin and end. The student, however, accustomed to memorizing his
music, and consequently to thinking about it, will soon be able to find
it by his intuition, in the same way that the reader knows whe