The closing movement, generally in 3-8, 6-8, or 2-4 time, has something of a dance tone, though not of set purpose. The rondo form, very freely treated, soon became predominant. The impressiveness of frequent repetition of the same melody, the freedom and ease with which the connecting phrases could be treated, the surprises to which ingenious returns to the theme gave rise, all made this easy form very appropriate to a closing movement. What was demanded from instrumental music was such a pleasant sense of enjoyment as should relax the mind without straining the attention, and a cheerful conclusion was considered essential. But by a singular inconsistency the last movement was sometimes made the field for the display of skill in counterpoint; masters of the art required that a genuine artist should know how to render cheerfulness and whimsicality, spirit and fun, even in the strictest forms. So it is customary to this day to introduce contrapuntal work into the scherzo, the proper field for musical wit and humour. This, too, is a production of German instrumental music. To the three original movements of the symphony the minuet was added as a fourth, suggested probably by the Suite. The Suite, whether for orchestra or clavier, came to perfection in the seventeenth century, and consisted of a succession of dances in the same key, but differing in time, rhythm, and expression, and for the most part highly characteristic. Mattheson enumerates them as follows: minuet, gavotte, bourrée, rigaudon, gigue, polonaise, anglaise (country-dances, ballads, hornpipes), passepied, sarabande, courante, allemande;[31] others give allemande, courante, gigue, passa-caille, gavotte, minuet, chaconne, the chief forms being allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. An introduction, prelude, fantasia, or overture, preceded the dances, consisting, after the French fashion, of a slow and a lively {INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.} (296)