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In the opening bars of the movement, just before the introduction of this tone-figure, he uses an ancient ecclesiastical style, the Plagal, a mode that obtained centuries before Palestrina.
The fact that this motive is given four times rhythmically and melodically intact, besides recurring frequently throughout the composition in one or another of the accepted forms of modification, argues that this melodic germ was a familiar tone-figure to the singer, one that he could apply to most any syllable on which he wished to dwell.
It is at this point that the symphonic thought begins, which at the first bar calls to mind celestial harmonies. Here we have the tone-figure, as in the Lohengrin Prelude, given by the violins and flutes in the highest register, beginning in faintest pianissimo.
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