The tune she used for the first of Three Favorite Airs, with Variations for the Harp, book 1 (publication date unknown: could be as early as 1794 or as late as 1825), however, is Welsh and very familiar: "Ar hyd y nos," known in English as "All Through the Night." Three of the four phrases in this simple tune are the same, and each has a perfect authentic cadence. Note the tight frame of tonic chords that results:
The frame goes further, though: the opening gesture is repeated in reverse to close, resulting in a rising cadence gesture (bracket):
In the first variation, Dussek applies ornamenting upper thirds to the G and A—(a) bar 3. In the final iteration of the theme phrase, these reach as far as D5—see the end of (b)—and generate the phantasm of a line from ^3.
Variation 2 reverts to, and strongly foregrounds, the rising line of the theme, in the first statement (a) and in the last (b):
The final variation adopts 16th note figuration. In the first statement (a) the line from G5 through A5 to Bb5 is clear from the accented position of the notes, the upper ornaments having even less effect than they did in variation 1. The final statement (b), however, breaks out of the tune altogether for the sake of a forceful and virtuosic ending. With circle notes, I have marked a conventional descent from ^5 over the bass.
