—­From Longfellow’s translation.]

A tumult on a sigh (from the first phrase) rises again and again in gusts.  In a violent paroxysm we hear the doom of the monotone in lowest horns.  The fateful phrases are ringing about, while pervading all is the hope-destroying blast of the brass.  But the storm-centre is the sighing motive which now enters on a quicker spur of passionate stride (Allegro frenetico, quasi doppio movimento).  In its winding

[Music:  Alla breve Allegro frenetico (quasi doppio movimento) (Theme in violins and cellos) (Woodwind and violas)]

sequences it sings a new song in more regular pace.  The tempest grows wilder and more masterful, still following the lines of the song, rising to towering height.  And now in the strains, slow and faster, sounds the sigh above and below, all in a madrigal of woe.  The whole is surmounted by a big descending phrase, articulate almost in its grim dogma, as it runs into the line of the first legend in full tumult of gloom.  It is followed by the doom slowly proclaimed in thundering tones of the brass, in midst of a tempest of surging harmonies.  Only it is all more fully and poignantly stressed than before, with long, resonant echoes of the stentorian tones of lowest brass.

Suddenly we are in the dulcet mood (Quasi Andante, ma sempre un poco mosso) ’mid light waving strings and rich swirling harp, and soothing tones of flutes and muted horns.  Then, as all other voices are hushed, the clarinet sings a strain that ends in lowest notes of expressive grief (Recit., espressivo dolente)—­where we can almost hear the words.  It is answered by a sweet plaint of other wood, in

[Music:  Quasi Andante, ma sempre un poco mosso dolce teneremente (Clarinets and bassoons)]

questioning accents, followed by the returning waves of strings and harp, and another phrase of the lament; and now to the pulsing chords of the harp the mellow English horn does sing (at least in the score) the words,—­the central text of all: 

[Music:  Poco agitato (English horn, with arpeggic flow of harp) Nes-sun mag-gior do-lo-re che ri-cor-dar-si del tem-po fe-li-ce.[A]]

[Footnote A:  “There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.”—­From Longfellow’s translation.]

Other voices join the leader.  As the lower reed start the refrain, the higher enter in pursuit, and then the two groups sing a melodic chase.  But the whole phrase is a mere foil to the pure melody of the former plaint that now returns in lower strings.  And all so far is as a herald to the passage of intimate sentiment (Andante amoroso) that lies a lyric gem in the heart of the symphony.  The melting strain is stressed in tenderness by the languor of harmonies, the delicate design of elusive rhythm and the appealing whisper of harp and two violins,—­tipped by the touch of mellow wood.