At last the paroxysm abates, throbbing ever slower, merging into the tender song of the Dream that now rises to the one great burst of love-passion.  But it ends in a wild rage that turns right into the war-song of the beginning.  And this is much fuller of incident than before.  Violins now ring an hostile motive (the former rumbling phrase of basses) from the midst of the plot against the main theme in trumpets.  Instead of the former pageantry, here is the pure frenzy of actual war.  The trumpet melodies resound amidst the din of present battle.  Instead of the other gentler episodes, here is a more furious raving of the mad Queen (in the hurried main motive), where we seem to see the literal dogs of war let loose and spurred on,—­each paroxysm rising to a higher shock.

Great is the vehemence of speed and sound as the dull doom of destruction drones in the basses against a grim perversion of the yearning theme above, that overwhelms the scene with a final shriek.

Slowly the dream of love breathes again, rises to a fervent burst, then yields to the fateful chant and ends in a whisper of farewell.

CHAPTER XVII

MAHLER[A]

[Footnote A:  Gustav Mahler, 1860-1911.]

In Mahler the most significant sign is a return to a true counterpoint, as against a mere overlading of themes, that began in Wagner and still persists in Strauss,—­an artificial kind of structure that is never conceived as a whole.

While we see in Mahler much of the duophonic manner of his teacher, Bruckner, in the work of the younger man the barren art is crowned with the true fire of a sentient poet.  So, if Bruckner had little to say, he showed the way to others.  And Mahler, if he did not quite emerge from the mantle of Beethoven, is a link towards a still greater future.  The form and the technic still seem, as with most modern symphonies, too great for the message.  It is another phase of orchestral virtuosity, of intellectual strain, but with more of poetic energy than in the symphonies of the French or other Germans.

In other forms we see this happy reaction towards ancient art, as in the organ music of a Reger.  But in the Finale of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony there is a true serenity, a new phase of symphony, without the climactic stress of traditional triumph, yet none the less joyous in essence.

We cannot help rejoicing that in a sincere and poetic design of symphony is blended a splendid renaissance of pure counterpoint, that shines clear above the modern spurious pretence.  The Finale of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is one of the most inspired conceptions of counterpoint in all music.  In it is realized the full dream of a revival of the art in all its glorious estate.

SYMPHONY NO. 5

  I.—­1. Funeral March.
      2. In stormy motion (with greatest vehemence).
 II.—­3. Scherzo (with vigor,—­not too fast).
III.—­4. Adagietto (very slowly).
      5. Rondo-Finale (allegro).