Prev | Current Page 141 | Next

Goepp, Philip H., 1864-1936

"Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies"

; constant stroke of harp)
(Clarinets)]
it bears a burden of elemental, all-contenting emotion. In the main, the
whole movement is one lyric flight. But there come the moods of musing
and rhapsodic rapture. In a brief fugal vein is a mystic harking back to
the earlier prelude. In these lesser phrases are the foil or
counter-figures for the bursts of the melody.
It is the first motive of the main tune that is the refrain in ever
higher and more fervent exclamation, or in close pressing chase of
voices. Then follows a melting episode,--some golden piece of the melody
in plaintive cellos, 'neath tremulous wood or delicate choirs of
strings.
But there is a second tune, hardly less moving, in dulcet group of
horns amid shimmering strings and harp, with a light bucolic answer in
playful reed.
[Music: _Molto tranquillo_
(Violins)
_dolce_ (Horns)
(With arpeggic harp)]
And it has a glowing climax, too, with fiery trumpet, and dashing
strings and clashing wood.
Gorgeous in the warm depth of horns sound now the returning tones of the
first noble melody, with playful trill of the wood, in antiphonal song
of trumpets and strings. And there are revels of new turns of the tune
(where the stirring harmony seems the best of all) that will rise to a
frenzy of tintinnabulation. A quicker counter-theme lends life and
motion to all this play and plot.
A big, solemn stride of the middle strain (of main melody) precedes the
last returning verse, with all the tender pathos of the beginning.


Pages:
129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153