Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/65

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53

both hands. Does all this too arise from thorough-bass?”

Exactly so, Miss; for all these passages are nothing but varied or arpeggioed chords: and, in all music, no bar occurs which does not repose on this foundation.

Even the fullest chords, which often consist of ten, nay, even of twenty or thirty notes, are for the most part formed from four essential, that is, really different notes. The rest are only duplications of them.

If we consider the following example in four parts,

\new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative { \time 4/4 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f << { c''2 b } \\ { e,1*1/2 f } >> <e c'>1 } \new Staff \relative { \clef bass <c g'>2 <d g> <c g'>1 \bar ".." } >>

and afterwards this,

\new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative { \time 4/4 \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f <c'' e g c>2 <d f g b> <c e g c>1 } \new Staff \relative { \clef bass <c, e g c>2 <d f g d'> <c e g c>1 \bar ".." } >>

we shall readily perceive that the second example is only an extended duplication of the first, that it consists of the same chords, and consequently contains only four real parts.