true Scherzo, though merely entitled Allegretto,--a
dainty frolic without the heavy brass, an indefinable conceit of airy
fantasy, with here and there a line of sober melody peeping between the
mischievous pranks. There is no contrasting Trio in the middle; but just
before the end comes a quiet pace as of mock-gravity, before a final
scamper.

A preluding fantasy begins in the mood of the early Allegro; a wistful
melody of the clarinet plays more slowly between cryptic reminders of
the first theme of the symphony. In sudden _Allegro risoluto_ over
rumbling bass of strings, a mystic call of horns, harking far back,
spreads its echoing ripples all about till it rises in united tones,
with a clear, descending answer, much like the original first motive.
The latter now continues in the bass in large and smaller pace beneath a
new tuneful treble of violins, while the call still roams a free course
in the wind. Oft repeated is this resonation in paired harmonies, the
lower phrase like an "obstinate bass."

Leaving the fantasy, the voices sing in simple choral lines a hymnal
song in triumphal pace, with firm cadence and answer, ending at length
in the descending

[Music: _Allegro risoluto_
_deciso_
(Strings, with added wood and horns)]

phrase. The full song is repeated, from the entrance of the latter, as
though to stress the two main melodies. The marching chorus halts
briefly when the clarinet begins again a mystic verse on the strain of
the call, where the descending phrase is intermingled in the horns and
strings.

There is a new horizon here. We can no longer speak with
half-condescension of Italian simplicity, though another kind of primal
feeling is mingled in a breadth of symphonic vein. We feel that our
Italian poet has cast loose his leading strings and is revealing new
glimpses through the classic form.

Against a free course of quicker figures rises in the horns the simple
melodic call, with answer and counter-tunes in separate discussion. Here
comes storming in a strident line of the inverted melody in the bassoon,
quarrelling with the original motive in the clarinet. Then a group sing
the song in dancing trip, descending against the stern rising theme of
violas; or one choir follows on the heels of another. Now into the play
intrudes the second melody, likewise in serried chase of imitation.

The two themes seem to be battling for dominance, and the former wins,
shouting its primal tune in brass and wo