until at last it loses coherence
and fades away much as a wreath of smoke might do. The golden glory
surrounding and interpenetrating it indicates as before the radiation of
its vibrations, which in this case show the dominant yellow in much
greater proportion than did Mendelssohn's gentler music.

[Illustration: PLATE G. MUSIC OF GOUNOD]

The colouring here is far more brilliant and massive than in Plate M,
for this music is not so much a thread of murmurous melody as a splendid
succession of crashing chords. The artist has sought to give the effect
of the chords rather than that of the separate notes, the latter being
scarcely possible on a scale so small as this. It is therefore more
difficult here to follow the development of the form, for in this much
longer piece the lines have crossed and intermingled, until we have
little but the gorgeous general effect which the composer must have
intended us to feel--and to see, if we were able to see. Nevertheless
it is possible to discern something of the process which builds the
form, and the easiest point at which to commence is the lowest on the
left hand as one examines the Plate. The large violet protrusion there
is evidently the opening chord of a phrase, and if we follow the outer
line of the form upward and round the circumference we may obtain some
idea of the character of that phrase. A close inspection will reveal two
other lines further in which run roughly parallel to this outer one, and
show similar successions of colour on a smaller scale, and these may
well indicate a softer repetition of the same phrase.

Careful analysis of this nature will soon convince us that there is a
very real order in this seeming chaos, and we shall come to see that if
it were possible to make a reproduction of this glowing glory that
should be accurate down to the smallest detail, it would also be
possible patiently to disentangle it to the uttermost, and to assign
every lovely touch of coruscating colour to the very note that called it
into existence. It must not be forgotten that very far less detail is
given in this illustration than in Plate M; for example, each of these
points or projections has within it as integral parts, at least the four
lines or bands of varying colour which were shown as separate in Plate
M, but here they are blended into one shade, and only the general effect
of the chord is given. In M we combined horizontally, and tried to show,
the characteristics