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After a moving verse in the strings, with an expressive strain in some voice of the woodwind or a ripple of the harp, it is sung in tense chorus of lower wood and horns, soon joined by all the voices but the martial brass, ending with a soft echo of the strings.
Now various strains sound together, the main funeral melody in the woodwind. In the close recurs the full flow of funeral song, with the hymnal harmonies. In the refrain of the stormy duet the sting of passion is gone; the whole plaint dies away amid the fading echoes of the trumpet call. The second movement, the real first Allegro, is again clearly in two parts.
His name was John Stumpy." "John Stumpy!" As Mr. Aaron Woodwind uttered the name, all the color forsook his face. "Yes, sir. And he claimed to know you," I went on, my curiosity amused over the merchant's show of feeling. "It's a falsehood! I never heard of such a man," cried Mr. Woodward, but his face belied his words.
In solemn fugue the original motto is reared from its timid phrase to masterful utterance, with splendid stride. Or rather the theme is blended of the first two phrases, merging their opposite characters in the new mood of resolution. The strings prepare for the sonorous entrance of woodwind and horns.
But the main mood is a revel of gambols and pranks of rhythm and harmony on the first phase. In the middle is a sudden shift of major tone and intimate humor, to a slower pace. With still a semblance of dance, a pensive melody sings in the cellos; the graceful cadence is rehearsed in a choir of woodwind, and the song is taken up by the whole chorus.
The first trumpet motive now sounds with this clanging phrase and soon the original call abounds in other brass. The deep descending notes of the horns recur and the full song of the funeral melody much extended, growing into a duet of cellos and high woodwind, and further into hymnal song on a new motive. So the various melodies recur with new mood and manner.
Now the chief melody returns for a richer and varied setting with horns and woodwind. At last the first violins, paired in octave with the cello, sing the full melody in a madrigal of lesser strains. An epilogue answers the prologue of the beginning.
He had extraordinary dexterity of finger for one who had had so little training, and his hands, with their great stretch, made light work of octaves and even tenths. His knowledge of the music enabled him to wake the singing bird of memory in his head, and before long flute and horn and string and woodwind began to make themselves heard in his inner ear.
Now unmuted and unrestrained in conflict of crashing chords, the trumpet blows again the motto of the roving sea. In various figures is the pelagic motion, in continuous coursing strings, in the sweeping phrase of the woodwind, or in the original wave-motion of the horns, now unmuted. The main burden is a plaint
In any case I shall go over for the two last general rehearsals and for the first performance, and shall send you an accurate account. Rietz is said to be very careful with the orchestral rehearsals, taking the woodwind, the brass, and the strings separately.
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