Distrustful, ulcerated, dismal,
A long waiter--
But suddenly a flash,
Brilliant, fearful. A lightning stroke
Leaps to heaven from the abyss:
--The mountains shake themselves and
Their intestines....

IV

As hate and lightning-flash
Are united, a _curse_!
On the mountains rages now Zarathustra's wrath,
Like a thunder cloud rolls it on its way.

V

Crawl away, ye who have a roof remaining!
To bed with you, ye tenderlings!
Now thunder rolls over the great arches,
Now tremble the bastions and battlements,
Now flashes palpitate and sulphur-yellow truths--
Zarathustra swears ...!

The composition is scored for three flutes, one piccolo, one bass
piccolo, seven oboes, one English horn, three clarinets in D flat, one
clarinet in G flat, one corno de bassetto, three bassoons, one
contra-bassoon, eleven horns, three trumpets, eight cornets in B, four
trombones, two alto trombones, one viol da gamba, one mandolin, two
guitars, one banjo, two tubas, glockenspiel, bell, triangle, fife,
bass-drum, cymbals, timpani, celesta, four harps, piano, harmonium,
pianola, phonograph, and the usual strings.

At the opening a long B flat is sounded by the cornets, clarinets and
bassoons in unison, with soft strokes upon a kettle-drum tuned to G
sharp. After eighteen measures of this, _singhiozzando_, the strings
enter _pizzicato_ with a figure based upon one of the scales of the
ancient Persians--B flat, C flat, D, E sharp, G and A flat--which starts
high among the first violins, and then proceeds downward, through the
second violins, violas and cellos, until it is lost in solemn and
indistinct mutterings in the double-basses. Then, the atmosphere of doom
having been established, and the conductor having found his place in
the score, there is heard the motive of brooding, or as the German
commentators call it, the _Quaelerei Motiv_:

[Illustration: Musical Score]

The opening chord of the eleventh is sounded by six horns, and the
chords of the ninth, which follow, are given to the woodwind. The rapid
figure in the second measure is for solo violin, heard softly against
the sustained interval of the diminished ninth, but the final G natural
is snapped out by the whole orchestra _sforzando_. There follows a
rapid and daring development of the theme, with the flutes and
violoncellos leading, first harmonized with chords of the eleventh, then
w