The dance was always a favorite musical form with Beethoven
in his lighter moments, and the variation form,--capable of a degree of
sprightliness, vivacity and originality in the right hands which give it
an entrancing effect, to which we come again and again with pleasure,
was something peculiarly his own at every stage of his artistic career.
His earliest essays in composition are in this form. Variations occupy a
prominent part in all his works, whether chamber-music, sonatas or
symphonies. They are introduced perhaps with best effect in the works of
his last years, in the Ninth Symphony, and in the last quartets.
He accepted the order with pleasure and began work on it at once on
reaching his summer quarters. This was congenial work, affording him
relief from the mental strain imposed on him by his labors on the Ninth
Symphony, which was then under way. A price of eighty ducats ($180) was
fixed by the publisher at the outset for the set, but the master enjoyed
his work so much, that the six, when completed, were increased to ten,
then to twenty, and twenty-five, and so on until the number grew to
thirty-three.
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