]
After a pause in the furious course of the second theme, a quick piping
phrase sounds _lustig_ (merrily) in the clarinet, answered by a chord of
ominous
[Music: _Molto allegro_
(Clar.)
_lustig_]
token. But slowly do we trace the laughing phrase to the first theme.
And here is a new whim. Though still in full tilt, the touch of demon is
gone in a kind of ursine clog of the basses. Merely jaunty and clownish
it would be but for the mischievous scream (of high flute) at the end.
And now begins a rage of pranks, where the main phrase is the rogue's
laugh, rising in brilliant gamut of outer pitch and inner mood.
At times the humor is in the spirit of a Jean Paul, playing between
rough fun and sadness in a fine spectrum of moods. The lighter motive
dances harmlessly about the more serious, intimate second phrase. There
is almost the sense of lullaby before the sudden plunge to wildest
chaos, the only portent being a constant trembling of low strings. All
Bedlam is let loose, where the rogue's shriek is heard through a
confused cackling and a medley of voices here and there on the running
phrase (that ever ends the second theme). The sound of a big rattle is
added to the scene,--where perhaps the whole village is in an uproar
over some wholesale trick of the rogue.
And what are we to say to this simplest swing of folk-song that steals
in naively to enchanting strum of rhythm. We may speculate about the
Till as the
[Music: (_Gemaechlich_)]
people saw him, while elsewhere we have the personal view.
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