by MARGARETA HARVEY-SAMUEL
Brahms wrote two sets of variations in the key of D major, which he published in 1861 as Op. 21. In his study of Brahms, William Murdoch points out that ' these two sets are rarely performed in public-rather are they looked upon as preparatory studies for the two wonderful sets that were to come later, which were finally to stamp Brahms as the greatest master of Variation form since Beethoven, and place him on the same level as Bach and Beethoven in wealth of ideas and individuality of conception. We also find in these two sets the beginning of a new technique—the big skips, the cross-rhythms, the interweaving of parts, and the constant use of split octaves.
Much of the writing can hardly be called pianistic, unless one wishes to be uncomfortable, and perhaps it is ineffective from the standpoint of the public, but the study of them is interesting, if only on account of the development of Brahms's point of view and the gradual evolution of a new style '.