ly, if I remember, by Mr. Thomas; and it is in this
spirit that Brahms works here. Occasionally the spirit changes to
something tender, meditative; but this is only to gain strength.
Immediately it resumes, and is carried ever and ever to higher pitches
of force and meaning. Melody after melody appears in prominent places,
but under every one lies the harmonic foundation of the fundamental
subject. There are thirty-two of these variations in all.

The criticism which has been made upon Brahms, that a movement of this
kind has no proper place in symphony, is "not competent," as lawyers
say; for, setting aside the demonstrated fact that Brahms knew better
what could be done in symphony than any of his critics, there is plenty
of precedent for doing almost anything one cares to try in the fourth
movement of a symphony. The old practice had a rondo for the final
movement of the sonata. Beethoven rightly felt the insignificance of
this form and its half trivial spirit, and in many directions he sought
to get out of it, and to end his sonatas with a climax of the spiritual
interest. The same desire is shown in his symphonies and chamber
music. Brahms has here given us a manly, vigorous, strongly developed
piece. At least, it closes the symphony without loss of
vitality--whether with increasing elevation of spiritual meaning is for
each hearer to determine according to the measure of his capacity and
receptive ness. Inspiration is not a question of light being ready,
but of clear glass to shine through.

For virtuoso pianists an entirely new world remains to be conquered in
the works of Brahms. Beginning with those of his earliest period,
there is even then a marvelous novelty in the combinations and, above
all, a peculiarly rich and melodic quality of thought which rarely
forsakes him, even in the passages where at first sight it seems
impossible to make anything of the music beyond an extremely trying
exercise. The melodiousness of Brahms and the complexity of the forms
in which beautiful conceptions express themselves is even surpassed by
the endless variety of new forms and effects which these works reveal.
Passages which to the casual player seem dry and forbidding, when
properly interpreted, and played gently and melodiously as Brahms
demanded, reveal themselves full of an inner warmth and ideality such
as no recent master has surpassed or equaled.

From the piano-playing side these new effects rest upon the