odulations, and piquant antitheses, serve to make
the composition extremely vivacious and effective." He pulls apart the
brightly colored petals of the thematic flower and reveals the inner
chemistry of this delicate growth. Four different voices are
distinguished in the kernel.

"The third voice is the chief one, and after it the first, because they
determine the melodic and harmonic contents":

[Musical score excerpt of 'four different voices']

Kullak and Mikuli dot the C of the first bar. Klindworth and Von Bulow
do not. As to phrasing and fingering I pin my faith to Riemann. His
version is the most satisfactory. Here are the first bars. The idea is
clearly expressed:

[Musical score excerpt]

Best of all is the careful accentuation, and at a place indicated in no
other edition that I have examined. With the arrival of the
thirty-second notes, Riemann punctuates the theme this way:

[Musical score excerpt]

The melody, of course in profile, is in the eighth notes. This gives
meaning to the decorative pattern of the passage. And what charm,
buoyancy, and sweetness there is in this caprice! It has the
tantalizing, elusive charm of a humming bird in full flight. The human
element is almost eliminated. We are in the open, the sun blazes in the
blue, and all is gay, atmospheric, and illuding. Even where the tone
deepens, where the shadows grow cooler and darker in the B major
section, there is little hint of preoccupation with sadness. Subtle are
the harmonic shifts, admirable the ever changing devices of the
figuration. Riemann accents the B, the E, A, B flat, C and F, at the
close--perilous leaps for the left hand, but they bring into fine
relief the exquisite harmonic web. An easy way of avoiding the tricky
position in the left hand at this spot--thirteen bars from the
close--is to take the upper C in bass with the right hand thumb and in
the next bar the upper B in bass the same way. This minimizes the risk
of the skip, and it is perfectly legitimate to do this--in public at
least. The ending, to be "breathed" away, according to Kullak, is
variously fingered. He also prescribes a most trying fingering for the
first group, fourth finger on both hands. This is useful for study, but
for performance the third finger is surer. Von Bulow advises the player
to keep the "upper part of the body as still as possible, as any haste
of movement would destroy the object in view, which is the acquisition
of a loose wrist."