ith chords of the thirteenth, and finally with chords of the fifteenth.
Meanwhile, the tonality has moved into D minor, then into A flat major,
and then into G sharp minor, and the little arpeggio for the solo violin
has been augmented to seven, to eleven, and in the end to twenty-three
notes. Here the influence of Claude Debussy shows itself; the chords of
the ninth proceed by the same chromatic semitones that one finds in the
_Chansons de Bilitis_. But Kraus goes much further than Debussy, for the
tones of his chords are constantly altered in a strange and extremely
beautiful manner, and, as has been noted, he adds the eleventh,
thirteenth and fifteenth. At the end of this incomparable passage there
is a sudden drop to C major, followed by the first statement of the
_Missgeschick Motiv_, or motive of disaster (misfortune, evil destiny,
untoward fate):

[Illustration: Musical Score]

This graceful and ingratiating theme will give no concern to the student
of Ravel and Schoenberg. It is, in fact, a quite elemental succession of
intervals of the second, all produced by adding the ninth to the common
chord--thus: C, G, C, D, E--with certain enharmonic changes. Its
simplicity gives it, at a first hearing, a placid, pastoral aspect,
somewhat disconcerting to the literalist, but the discerning will not
fail to note the mutterings beneath the surface. It is first sounded by
two violas and the viol da gamba, and then drops without change to the
bass, where it is repeated _fortissimo_ by two bassoons and the
contra-bassoon. The tempo then quickens and the two themes so far heard
are worked up into a brief but tempestuous fugue. A brief extract will
suffice to show its enormously complex nature:

[Illustration: Musical Score]

A pedal point on B flat is heard at the end of this fugue, sounded
_fortissimo_ by all the brass in unison, and then follows a grand pause,
twelve and a half measures in length. Then, in the strings, is heard the
motive of warning:

[Illustration: Musical Score]

Out of this motive comes the harmonic material for much of what remains
of the composition. At each repetition of the theme, the chord in the
fourth measure is augmented by the addition of another interval, until
in the end it includes every tone of the chromatic scale save C sharp.
This omission is significant of Kraus' artistry. If C sharp were
included the tonality would at once become vague, but without it the
dependence of the whole go