It is only the true poetic rapture that
ensures the continuous absorption that drives in perfect sequence to
irresistible conclusion.
_SYMPHONY NO. 9_
_I.--Solenne._ Solemn mystery is the mood, amid trembling strings on
hollow unison, before the eight
[Music: _Misterioso_
(Eight horns with _tremolo_ strings on D in three octaves)]
horns strike a phrase in the minor chord that in higher echoes breaks
into a strange harmony and descends into a turn of melodic cadence. In
answer is another chain of brief phrases, each beginning
[Music: (1st violins)
(Lower reeds with strings _tremolo_ in all but basses)]
with a note above the chord (the common mark and manner of the later
school of harmonists[A]) and a new ascent on a literal ladder of
subtlest progress, while hollow intervals are intermingled in the pinch
of close harmonies. The bewildering maze here begins of multitudinous
design, enriched with modern devices.
[Footnote A: See Vol. II, note, page 104.]
A clash of all the instruments acclaims the climax before the unison
stroke of fullest chorus on the solemn note of the beginning. A favorite
device of Bruckner, a measured tread of _pizzicato_ strings with
interspersed themal motives, precedes the romantic episode. Throughout
the movement is this alternation of liturgic chorale with tender melody.
[Music: _Molto tranquillo_
(Strings) _espressivo_
(Oboes and horns)]
Bruckner's pristine polyphonic manner ever appears in the double strain
of melodies, where each complements, though not completes the other.
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