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But before the end sounds a broad hymnal line in the brass with a dim thread of the fugue, and the figures steal away in solemn stillness. For though it is longer in the strings, the brief motion is ever accented in the wood. Thus relentless is the themal coherence. III. The Adagio has one principal burden, first borne by violins, that rises from the germ of earlier lyric strains.
If we cared to interpret, we might find in the Finale a realized aspiration. The truth is the humors of the themal phrases, as of the movements, jar: they are on varying planes. The coarser vein of the last is no solace to the noble grief of the foregoing. Again the change or series of moods is not clearly defined. They seem a parade of visions.
Moreover they show so strikingly the dual quality that one might say, as a man may see double, Bruckner sang double. Processes of augmenting and inverting abound, together with the themal song in the bass. Yet there is not the sense of overloaded learning. There is everywhere a clear and melodious polyphony.
A clash of all the instruments acclaims the climax before the unison stroke of fullest chorus on the solemn note of the beginning. A favorite device of Bruckner, a measured tread of pizzicato strings with interspersed themal motives, precedes the romantic episode. Throughout the movement is this alternation of liturgic chorale with tender melody.
It may be worth while, too, to see how pairs of themes ever occur in Strauss, the second in answer, almost in protest, to the first. Again, we may find whole groups of phrases expressive of one idea, as of beauty, and another of anxious pursuit. Thus we escape too literal a themal association.
A hymnal verse of the theme enters in the wood answered by impetuous strings on a coursing phrase. The antiphonal song rises with eager stress of themal attack. A quieter elegy leads to another burst, the motive above, the insistent sigh below. The climax of fugue returns to the heroic main plaint below, with sighing answers above, all the voices of wood and brass enforcing the strings.
Indeed, a chain of dulcet strains seems to rise from the past. The fine themal relevance may be pursued in infinite degree, to no end but sheer bewilderment. The truth is that a modern vanity for subtle connection, a purest pedantry, is here evident, and has become a baneful tradition in the modern symphony. It is an utter confusion of the letter with the spirit.
This themal manner is quite analogous to the harmonic style of Franck, a kaleidoscope of gradual steps, a slow procession of pale hues of tone that with strange aptness reflect the dim religious light of mystic musing. More and more expressive are the stages of the first figures until we have a duet molto cantabile in the strings.
It is here that the symphony is in danger from an exotic style that had its origin in German music-drama. From this point the Rachmaninow symphony languishes in the fountain of its fresh inspiration, seems consciously constructed with calculating care. There is, after all, no virtue in itself in mere themal interrelation, in particular of lesser phrases.
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