_III.--Adagio._ _Feierlich,--awesome_ indeed are these first sounds, and
we are struck by the originality
[Music: _Molto lento (Solenne)_
(Violins, G string)
_broadly_
(Strings with choir of tubas, later of trombones and contrabass-tuba)]
of Bruckner's technic. After all we must give the benefit at least of
the doubt. And there is after this deeply impressive _introit_ a
gorgeous Promethean
[Music: (Woodwind and low brass with _tremolo_ strings)
(3 trumpets)
(4 horns)]
spring of up-leaping harmonies. The whole has certainly more of concrete
beauty than many of the labored attempts of the present day.
The prelude dies down with an exquisite touch of precious
dissonance,--whether it came from the heart or from the workshop. The
strange and tragic part is that with so much art and talent there should
not be the strong individual idea,--the flash of new tonal figure that
stands fearless upon its own feet. All this pretty machinery seems
wasted upon the framing and presenting, at the moment of expectation, of
the shadows of another poet's ideas or of mere platitudes.
In the midst of the broad sweeping theme with a
[Music: (Strings, with cl't and oboe)
_Very broadly_
(G string)]
promise of deep utterance is a phrase of horns with the precise accent
and agony of a _Tristan_. The very semblance of whole motives seems to
be taken from the warp and woof of Wagnerian drama. And thus the whole
symphony is degraded, in its gorgeous capacity, to the reechoed rhapsody
of exotic romanticism.
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