Against a free course of quicker figures rises in the horns the simple melodic call, with answer and counter-tunes in separate discussion.  Here comes storming in a strident line of the inverted melody in the bassoon, quarrelling with the original motive in the clarinet.  Then a group sing the song in dancing trip, descending against the stern rising theme of violas; or one choir follows on the heels of another.  Now into the play intrudes the second melody, likewise in serried chase of imitation.

The two themes seem to be battling for dominance, and the former wins, shouting its primal tune in brass and wood, while the second sinks to a rude clattering rhythm in the bass.  But out of the clash, where the descending phrase recurs in the basses, the second melody emerges in full sonorous song.  Suddenly at the top of the verse rings out in stentorian brass the first theme of all the symphony to the opening chord of the Finale, just as it rang at the climax in the beginning.

A gentle duet of violins and clarinet seems to bring back the second melody of the first movement, and somehow, in the softer mood, shows a likeness with the second of the Finale.  For a last surprise, the former idyll (of the first Allegro) returns and clearly proves the original guise of our latest main melody.  As though to assure its own identity as prevailing motto, it has a special celebration in the final joyous revel.

CHAPTER XX

EDWARD ELGAR.  AN ENGLISH SYMPHONY[A]

[Footnote A:  Symphony in A flat.  Edward Elgar, born in 1857.]

There is a rare nobility in the simple melody, the vein of primal hymn, that marks the invocation,—­in solemn wood against stately stride of

[Music:  (Andante nobilmente e semplice) (Woodwind) (Basses of strings, staccato)]

lower strings.  A true ancient charm is in the tune, with a fervor at the high point and a lilt almost of lullaby,—­till the whole chorus begins anew as though the song of marching hosts.  Solemnity is the essence here, not of artificial ceremony nor of rhymeless chant,—­rather of prehistoric hymn.

In passionate recoil is the upward storming song (Allegro) where a group of horns aid the surging crest of strings and wood,—­a resistless motion of massed melody.  Most thrilling after the first climax is the sonorous, vibrant stroke of the bass in the

[Music:  Allegro appassionato (Strings, wood and horns) (See page 308, line 10.)]

recurring melody.  As it proceeds, a new line of bold tune is stirred above, till the song ends at the highest in a few ringing, challenging leaps of chord,—­ends or, rather merges in a relentless, concluding descent.  Here, in a striking phrase of double

[Music:  (Violins and clarinets in succession) (Harp) (Strings, the upper 3d doubled in higher reed)]