Sir Hubert Parry has pointed out that the fundamental idea of variations in instrumental music is co-ordinate with the canto fermo and counterpoint of the early choral composers.
In choral music the canto fermo system almost died out when maturer principles of structure were discovered; but variation-form has never fallen into disuse at any period since its invention.
When the canto fermo is in notes of equal length and is sung without intermission, it is of course as rigid a mechanical device as an acrostic.
Nor were these two principles, the canon and the canto fermo, likely, by combination in their strictest forms, to produce better artistic results than separately.
I send you a specimen of the mode in which they render the canto fermo, regardless both of the words and the sense.
There is really nothing in these art-forms which is not continuous with the universal practice of writing counterpoint on a canto fermo.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "canto fermo" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
