t any combination of notes is unusable. Most striking it is how
the same group of notes makes hideous waste in one case, and a true
tonal logic in another. Again, what was impossible in Mozart's time, may
be commonplace to-day.

You cannot stamp cacophony as a mere whim of modern decadence. Beethoven
made the noblest use of it and suffered misunderstanding. Bach has it in
his scores with profound effect. And then the license of one age begets
a greater in the next. It is so in poetry, though in far less degree.
For, in music, the actual tones are the integral elements of the art.
They are the idea itself; in poetry the words merely suggest it.

A final element, independent of the notes themselves, is the official
numbering of themes. Strauss indicates a first, second and third theme,
obviously of the symphony, not of a single movement. The whole attitude
of the composer, while it does not compel, must strongly suggest some
sort of guess of intending meaning.[A]

[Footnote A: At the first production, in New York, in obedience to the
composer's wish, no descriptive notes were printed. When the symphony
was played, likewise under the composer's direction, in Berlin in
December, 1904, a brief note in the program-book mentions the three
groups of themes, the husband's, the wife's and the child's, in the
first movement. The other movements are thus entitled:

II.--_Scherzo._ Parents' happiness. Childish play. Cradle-song (the
clock strikes seven in the evening).

III.--_Adagio._ Creation and contemplation. Love scene. Dreams and cares
(the clock strikes seven in the morning).

IV.--_Finale._ Awakening and merry dispute (double fugue). Joyous
conclusion.]

The "first theme" in "comfortable" pace, gliding

[Music: 1st Theme
_Pleasantly_
(Cellos and fagots)
_Dreamily_
(Oboe)
(Cellos, bassoons and horns)]

into a "dreamy" phrase, begins the symphony. Presently

[Music: _Peevishly_
(Clarinets)]

a "peevish" cry breaks in, in sudden altered key; then on a second,
soothing tonal change, a strain sings "ardently" in upward wing to a
bold climax and down to gentler cadence, the "peevish" cry still
breaking in. The trumpet has a short cheery

[Music: _With fire_
(Strings)]

call (_lustig_), followed by a brisk, rousing run in wood and strings
(_frisch_). A return of the "comfortable" phrase is quickly overpowered
by the "second theme," in very lively manner (_sehr lebhaft_), with an
answering phrase, _grazioso_, a