me running thirds in the bass, which are very troublesome; and in the
course of this second book a variety of highly ingenious technical
effects are unfolded, almost any one of which affords practice for a
very good player for quite a long time. In fact, from a technical
point of view, a moderately accomplished pianist might spend perhaps a
year in mastering these variations, and at the end of the time would be
unable to play them with any artistic effect, unless exceptionally
gifted. At the same time, in spite of the technical complication and
the apparent absorption in technical treatment of the instrument which
these variations show, they each and every one have a legitimate
musical object, and when played with a sufficiently masterly
technic--as, for instance, by Joseffy, Godowsky, or Rosenthal--they are
among the most interesting examples of the evolution of piano playing.

Similar qualities also show themselves in the earliest set of
variations upon a theme of Schumann's, and in the beautiful variations
upon an original theme in D major, opus 21; but perhaps even better
than anywhere else in the variations upon a theme of Haendel, opus 22,
where the beautiful, the musically fresh and pleasing, and the
technically unforeseen meet and intermingle with one another.

The Haendel variations begin somewhat modestly, and as the theme is in
the major mode and the harmonies limited almost entirely to tonic and
dominant, Brahms was almost compelled to be simple and melodious at
times. He contents himself in the earlier variations with rhythmic
complications, which are very ingenious and delightful, particularly in
the second variation, where a chromatic movement in two's is
accompanied in the soprano by a triplet formation. It is doubtful
whether any pianoforte work of recent times affords such a brilliant
illustration of how much can be done in art by a fortunate combination
of constructive ability of the most masterly character with high
ideality as Brahms has given in these variations upon the Haendel theme.
They are, at the same time, musical, melodious, rhythmically
interesting. The student will do well if he desires a lesson in
musical evolution to refer to the variations in their original form as
written by Haendel. They can be found in the Haendel "Lessons for the
Harpsichord," edited by Kohler, in the Peters edition. Haendel gives
but five variations, and these are all of very moderate difficulty.
Neverthel