wood-notes of flute, oboe d'amore, English horn, and the lower
clarinets; below sings gently the second theme, quite transformed in
feeling. Those upper notes, with a touch of impassioned yearning, are
not new to our ears. That very rising phrase (the "dreamy" motive), if
we strain our memory, was at first below the more vehement (second)
figure. So
[Music: _Adagio_]
now the whole themal group is reversed outwardly and in the inner
feeling. Indeed, in other places crops out a like expressive symbol, and
especially in the phrase, marked _gefuehlvoll_, that followed the second
theme in the beginning. All these motives here find a big concerted song
in quiet motion, the true lyric spot of the symphony.
Out of it emerges a full climax, bigger and broader now, of the first
motive. At another stage the second has the lead; but at the height is a
splendid verse of the maternal song. At the end the quiet, blissful tune
sings again "_sehr innig_."
_Appassionato_ re-enters the second figure. Mingled in its song are the
latest tune and an earlier expressive phrase _(gefuehlvoll)_. The storm
that here ensues is not of dramatic play of opposition. There are no
"angry" indications. It is the full blossoming in richest madrigal of
all the themes of tenderness and passion in an aureole of glowing
harmonies. The morning comes with the stroke of seven and the awakening
cry of the child.
The Finale begins in lively pace (_sehr lebhaft_) with
[Music: (Double Fugue) 1st theme
(Four Bassoons)
_marcato_]
a double fugue, where it is not difficult to see in the first theme a
fragment of the "baby" motive. The second is a remarkably assertive
little phrase from the cadence of the second theme (quoted above). The
son is clearly the hero, mainly in sportive humor, although he is not
free from parental interference. The maze and rigor of the fugue do not
prevent a frequent appearance of all the other themes, and even of the
full melodies, of which the fugal motives are built. At the climax of
the fugue, in the height of speed and noise, something very delightful
is happening, some furious romp, perhaps, of father and son, the mother
smiling on the game. At the close a new melody that we might trace, if
we cared, in earlier origin, has a full verse "quietly and simply"
(_ruhig und einfach_) in wood and horns, giving the crown
[Music: _Quietly and simply_ (Woodwind and horns)
(With sustained chord of cellos)]
and seal to the
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