of primal tune. And
presently another variant of graceful episode brings a delicious
lilt,--_tender, but expressive_.

[Music: _Grazioso_
_espressivo_
(Strings)]

With all the subtle design there is no sense of the lamp, in the gentle
murmur of quicker figure or melodious flow of upper theme. Moving is the
lyric power and sweetness of this multiple song. As to themal
relation,--one feels like regarding it all as inspired madrigal, where
the maze and medley is the thing, where the tunes are not meant to be
distinguished. It becomes an abandoned orgy of clearest counterpoint.
Throughout is a blending of fugue and of children's romp, anon with the
tenderness of lullaby and even the glow of love-song. A brief mystic
verse, with slow descending strain in the high wood, preludes the
returning gambol of running strings, where the maze of fugue or canon
is in the higher flowing song, with opposite course of answering tune,
and a height of jolly revel, where the bright trumpet pours out the
usual concluding phrase. The rhythmic episode, in whimsical change, here
sings with surprise of lusty volume. So the merry round goes on to a big
resonant _Amen_ of final acclaim, where the little phrase steals out as
naturally as in the beginning.

Then in quicker pace it sounds again all about, big and little, and
ends, after a touch of modern Gallic scale, in opposing runs, with a
last light, saucy fling.

Mahler, we feel again, realizes all the craving that Bruckner breeds for
a kernel of feeling in the shell of counterpoint. Though we cannot deny
a rude breach of ancient rule and mode, there is in Mahler a genuine,
original, individual quality of polyphonic art that marks a new stage
since the first in Bach and a second in Beethoven. It is this bold revel
in the neglected sanctuary of the art that is most inspiriting for the
future. And as in all true poetry, this overleaping audacity of design
is a mere expression of simplest gaiety.

CHAPTER XVIII

RICHARD STRAUSS[A]

[Footnote A: Born in 1864.]

Much may be wisely written on the right limits of music as a depicting
art. The distinction is well drawn between actual delineation, of figure
or event, and the mere suggestion of a mood. It is no doubt a fine line,
and fortunately; for the critic must beware of mere negative philosophy,
lest what he says cannot be done, be refuted in the very doing. If
Lessing had lived a little later, he might have extended the principle