The maze and rigor of the fugue do not
prevent a frequent appearance of all the other themes, and even of the
full melodies, of which the fugal motives are built. At the climax of
the fugue, in the height of speed and noise, something very delightful
is happening, some furious romp, perhaps, of father and son, the mother
smiling on the game. At the close a new melody that we might trace, if
we cared, in earlier origin, has a full verse "quietly and simply"
(_ruhig und einfach_) in wood and horns, giving the crown
[Music: _Quietly and simply_ (Woodwind and horns)
(With sustained chord of cellos)]
and seal to the whole. The rest is a final happy refrain of all the
strains, where the husband's themes are clearly dominant.
CHAPTER XIX
ITALIAN SYMPHONIES
The present estate of music in Italy is an instance of the danger of
prophecy in the broad realm of art. Wise words are daily heard on the
rise and fall of a nation in art, or of a form like the symphony, as
though a matter of certain fate, in strict analogy to the life of man.
Italy was so long regnant in music that she seems even yet its chosen
land. We have quite forgotten how she herself learned at the feet of the
masters from the distant North. For music is, after all, the art of the
North; the solace for winter's desolation; an utterance of feeling
without the model of a visible Nature.
And yet, with a prodigal stream of native melody and an ancient passion
of religious rapture, Italy achieved masterpieces in the opposite fields
of the Mass and of Opera.
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