ever, in various fresh aspects, and in the end it
enters into the famous quadruple motive of "sulphur-yellow
truth"--_schwefelgelbe Wahrheit_, as we shall presently see. Its first
combination is with a jaunty figure in A minor, and the two together
form what most of the commentators agree upon denominating the
Zarathustra motive:

[Illustration: Musical Score]

I call this the Zarathustra motive, following the weight of critical
opinion, but various influential critics dissent. Thus, Dr. Ferdinand
Bierfisch, of the Hochschule fuer Musik at Dresden, insists that it is
the theme of "the elevated mood produced by the spiritual isolation and
low barometric pressure of the mountains," while Prof. B. Moll, of
Frankfurt a/M., calls it the motive of prowling. Kraus himself, when
asked by Dr. Fritz Bratsche, of the Berlin _Volkszeitung_, shrugged his
shoulders and answered in his native Hamburg dialect, "_So gehts im
Leben! 'S giebt gar kein Use_"--Such is life; it gives hardly any use
(to inquire?). In much the same way Schubert made reply to one who asked
the meaning of the opening subject of the slow movement of his C major
symphony: "_Halt's Maul, du verfluchter Narr!_"--Don't ask such
question, my dear sir!

But whatever the truth, the novelty and originality of the theme cannot
be denied, for it is in two distinct keys, D major and A minor, and they
preserve their identity whenever it appears. The handling of two such
diverse tonalities at one time would present insuperable difficulties to
a composer less ingenious than Kraus, but he manages it quite simply by
founding his whole harmonic scheme upon the tonic triad of D major,
with the seventh and ninth added. He thus achieves a chord which also
contains the tonic triad of A minor. The same thing is now done with the
dominant triads, and half the battle is won. Moreover, the
instrumentation shows the same boldness, for the double theme is first
given to three solo violins, and they are muted in a novel and effective
manner by stopping their F holes. The directions in the score say _mit
Glaserkitt_ (that is, with glazier's putty), but the Konzertmeister at
the Gewandhaus, Herr F. Dur, substituted ordinary pumpernickel with
excellent results. It is, in fact, now commonly used in the German
orchestras in place of putty, for it does less injury to the varnish of
the violins, and, besides, it is edible after use. It produces a thick,
oily, mysterious, far-away effect.

At