e figures steal away in solemn
stillness.

[Footnote A: It is of the first two notes of the symphony that the fugal
theme is made. For though it is longer in the strings, the brief motion
is ever accented in the wood. Thus relentless is the themal coherence.
If we care to look closer we see how the (following) chant is a slower
form of the fugal theme, while the bass is in the line of the
dance-tune. In the chant in turn we cannot escape a reminder, if not a
likeness, of the second theme of the first movement.]

_III._--The Adagio has one principal burden, first borne by
violins,--that rises from the germ of earlier

[Music: _Adagio_
(Strings with added harmony in bassoons and horns)]

lyric strains. Then the clarinet joins in a quiet madrigal of tender
phrases. We are tempted to find here an influence from a western
fashion, a taint of polythemal virtuosity, in this mystic maze of many
strains harking from all corners of the work, without a gain over an
earlier Russian simplicity. Even the Slavic symphony seems to have
fallen into a state of artificial cunning, where all manners of greater

[Music: (Solo clarinet)
_espress._
(Divided strings) _dolce_]

or lesser motives are packed close in a tangled mass.

It cannot be said that a true significance is achieved in proportion to
the number of concerting themes. We might dilate on the sheer inability
of the hearer to grasp a clear outline in such a multiple plot.

There is somehow a false kind of polyphony, a too great facility of
spurious counterpoint, that differs subtly though sharply from the true
art where the number entails no loss of individual quality; where the
separate melodies move by a divine fitness that measures the perfect
conception of the multiple idea; where there is no thought of a later
padding to give a shimmer of profound art. It is here that the symphony
is in danger from an exotic style that had its origin in German
music-drama.

From this point the Rachmaninow symphony languishes in the fountain of
its fresh inspiration, seems consciously constructed with calculating
care.

There is, after all, no virtue in itself in mere themal
interrelation,--in particular of lesser phrases. One cogent theme may
well prevail as text of the whole. As the recurring motives are
multiplied, they must lose individual moment. The listener's grasp
becomes more difficult, until there is at best a mystic maze, a sweet
chaos, without a clear melodic thought