e real second theme comes in a solo tune on the flute, in the
major,

[Music: (Solo flute)
(Strings)]

with a gait something like the first.[A] Less and less we can resist the
genuine negro quality of these melodies, and, at the same time, their
beauty and the value of the tonal treasure-house in our midst.

[Footnote A: Again it is interesting to compare here the jubilee song,
"Oh! Redeemed," in the collection of "Jubilee and Plantation Songs," of
the Oliver Ditson Company.]

The whole of the first Allegro is thus woven of three melodious and
characteristic themes in very clear sonata-form. The second, Largo,
movement is a lyric of moving pathos, with a central melody that may not
have striking traits of strict African song, and yet belongs to the type
closely associated with the negro vein of plaint or love-song. The
rhythmic

[Music: _Largo_
(English horn solo)]

turns that lead to periods of excitement and climaxes of rapid motion,
are absent in the main melody. But

[Music: (Oboe and clarinets)
(Basses _pizz._ with _tremolo_ figures in violins)]

they appear in the episode that intervenes. Even here, in the midst, is
a new contrast of a minor lament that has a strong racial trait in the
sudden swing to major and, as quickly, back to the drearier mode. This
is followed by a rhapsody or succession of rapid, primitive phrases,
that leads to a crisis where, of a sudden, three themes sing at once,
the two of the previous Allegro and the main melody of the Largo, in
distorted pace with full chorus. This excitement is as suddenly lulled
and soothed by the return of the original moving song.

The Scherzo starts in a quick three-beat strum on the chord we have
pointed to as a true model trait of negro music, with the lowered
leading-note. The

[Music: _molto vivace_ (Fl. and oboes)
(Strings) (Cl't.)]

theme, discussed in close stress of imitation, seems merely to mark the
rapid swing in the drone of strange harmony. But what is really a sort
of Trio (_poco sostenuto_) is another sudden, grateful change to major,
perfectly true to life, so to speak, in this turn of mode and in the
simple lines of the tune. The lyric mood all but suppresses the dance,
the melody sounding like a new verse of the Largo. The trip has always
lingered, but not too much for the delicious change when it returns to
carry us off our feet.

The Scherzo now steals in again, quite a piece, it seems, with the Trio.
As the rising volume