ng of up-leaping harmonies. The whole has certainly more of concrete
beauty than many of the labored attempts of the present day.

The prelude dies down with an exquisite touch of precious
dissonance,--whether it came from the heart or from the workshop. The
strange and tragic part is that with so much art and talent there should
not be the strong individual idea,--the flash of new tonal figure that
stands fearless upon its own feet. All this pretty machinery seems
wasted upon the framing and presenting, at the moment of expectation, of
the shadows of another poet's ideas or of mere platitudes.

In the midst of the broad sweeping theme with a

[Music: (Strings, with cl't and oboe)
_Very broadly_
(G string)]

promise of deep utterance is a phrase of horns with the precise accent
and agony of a _Tristan_. The very semblance of whole motives seems to
be taken from the warp and woof of Wagnerian drama. And thus the whole
symphony is degraded, in its gorgeous capacity, to the reechoed rhapsody
of exotic romanticism. It is all little touches, no big thoughts,--a
mosaic of a symphony.

[Music: (Horns)]

And so the second theme[A] is almost too heavily laden with fine detail
for its own strength, though

[Music: (Violins, reeds and horns)
_Poco piu lento_
_dolce_
(_Pizz._ of lower strings)]

it ends with a gracefully delicate answer. The main melody soon recurs
and sings with a stress of warm feeling in the cellos, echoed by glowing
strains of the horns. Romantic harmonies bring back the solemn air of
the prelude with a new counter melody, in precise opposite figure, as
though inverted in a mirror, and again the dim moving chords that seem
less of Bruckner than of legendary drama. In big accoutrement the double
theme moves with double answers, ever with the sharp pinch of harmonies
and heroic mien. Gentlest retorts of the motives sing with fairy
clearness (in horns and reeds), rising to tender, expressive dialogue.
With growing spirit they ascend once more to the triumphant clash of
empyraean chords, that may suffice for justifying beauty.

[Footnote A: We have spoken of a prelude, first and second theme; they
might have been more strictly numbered first, second and third theme.]

Instead of the first, the second melody follows with its delicate grace.
After a pause recurs the phrase that harks from mediaeval romance, now
in a stirring ascent of close chasing voices. The answer, perfect in its
timid halting desce