richer orchestration, the idea being carried to greater
length, and rendered more significant in every way, as befits its
dramatic character. In both cases, however, the orchestral figure is
introduced by the same instruments, and in much the same manner.

The Mass in D furnishes another instance where the celestial harmonies
are introduced to still better purpose than in the Benedictus. It is in
that portion of the Credo, beginning with the Et incarnatus. The
delicate ethereal nature of this music, as indicated by the violins and
flutes in the highest positions, is so transcendental, so imbued with
spirituality, as almost to evade analysis. By the magic of Beethoven's
art the impression is conveyed that the listener overhears far-off angel
voices from other spheres, when the heavens were opened for the descent
of the Son of God to earth. The instruments give out the merest
intimations of sound, scintillations that suggest it rather. In the
opening bars of the movement, just before the introduction of this
tone-figure, he uses an ancient ecclesiastical style, the Plagal, a mode
that obtained centuries before Palestrina. Harsh and strident,
inharmonious, are the tones, which in the opening Adagio typify the
dread, the foreboding and dismay, that can be supposed to have been felt
by the Son of God when the time came to give up a beatific state and
enter on the actualities of earthly existence. The sin of the world is
already being borne in anticipation. Suddenly we are in the midst of
celestial harmonies, delicate gradations and mergings of tones,
subtleties of expression, ethereal, evanescent, that come faintly at
first on the senses, giving us revelations of spiritual heights, of
transcendent states and conditions of the soul. Mankind is here afforded
a glimpse beyond the veil. These strains continue until the words _et
homo factus est_ (and was made man) are reached. At this point the
melodies are suddenly cut off, the doors are closed, and we are excluded
from further participation in things not meant for mortal ears. A change
of tonality and time further accentuates the changed conditions that
prevail as the story goes through the events of the crucifixion, death
and burial of Christ.[I]

[I] Beethoven's love of strongly defined contrasts is nowhere better
illustrated than here. The sharp discordant tones, which characterize
the opening bars of the movement, are simply pushed aside by the new. It
is the subjugation