"
Hell's a-burning, burning, burning.
Friend of the tarantula, darkness, the odd number, the Devil,
prowling, runs about.
--My clock strikes midnight. If I should go to see Lucifer?--Hell's
a-burning, burning, burning; the Devil, prowling, runs about.
[Footnote A: A few translated verses may give an idea of the original
rhythm:
Hell's a-burning, burning, burning.
Cackling in his impish play,
Here and there the Devil's turning,
Forward here and back again,
Zig-zag as the lightning's ray,
While the fires burn amain.
In the church and in the cell
In the caves, in open day,
Ever prowls the fiend of hell.
But in the original the first and last lines of the first verse are used
as refrains in the succeeding verses, recurring alternately as the last
line. In the final verse they are united.--The prose translation is by
Philip Hale.]
In the maze of this modern setting of demon antics (not unlike, in
conceit, the capers of Till Eulenspiegel), with an eloquent use of new
French strokes of harmony, one must be eager to seize upon definite
figures. In the beginning is a brief wandering or flickering motive in
furious pace of harp and strings, ending ever in a shriek of the high
wood. Answering
[Music: _Presto (il piu possibile)_
(Woodwind)
(Strings with rhythmic chords in the tonic)
(With opposite descending chords)]
is a descending phrase mainly in the brass, that ends in a rapid jingle.
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