“La Campanella” is written as a rondo, a form “in which the leading theme recurs between sections and then returns to complete the composition.” Rondos have the mesmerizing effect of moving you linearly and circularly through time, at the same time: By progressing from theme to theme through the development sections, the rondo consistently brings you around and back again to the music with which you began. That pattern of predictable return, that consistent cycling back, simultaneously constitutes the piece’s linear progression through time. It has the effect of changing and yet not, of
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