The whole is a reflective prologue to the Finale:  a deep meditation from which the song may roll forth on new spring.  The hymn has suddenly entered with a subtly new guise; for the moment it seems part of the poignant sigh; it is as yet submerged in a flood of gloom and regret; and the former phrases still stride and stalk below.  In a wild climax of gloom we hear the former sob, earlier companion of the stalking figure.

Hymnal strains return,—­flashes of heavenly light in the depths of hell, and one passionate sigh of the melting cadence.

Allegro,—­we are carried hack to the resolute vigor of the earlier symphony, lacking the full fiery charm, but ever striving and stirring, like Titans rearing mountain piles, not without the cheer of toil itself.  At the height comes a burst of the erst yearning cadence, but there is a new masterful accent; the wistful edge does not return till the echoing phrases sink away in the depths.

A new melody starts soaring on the same wing of

[Music:  (Strings and clarinets) Allegro cantabile (Staccato strings con 8ve.)]

blended striving and yearning of which all this song is fraught.  In its broader sweep and brighter cheer it is like the queenly melody of the first movement.

The Titan toil stirs strongly below the soft cadence; the full, fierce ardor mounts heavenward.  Phases now alternate of insistent rearing on the strenuous motive and of fateful submission in the marching strain, that is massed in higher and bigger chorus.  As gathers the stress of climax, the brass blowing a defiant blast, the very vehemence brings a new resolution that is uttered in the returning strenuous phrase.

Again rises the towering pile.  At the thickest the high horns blow loud a slow, speaking legend,—­the farewell motive, it seems, from the end of Adagio, fierce energy struggling with fatal regret gnawing at the heart.

Gripping is the appeal of the sharp cry almost of anguish into which the toiling energy is suddenly resolved.  Again the fateful march enters, now in heroic fugue of brass and opposite motion of strings and reed,—­all overwhelmed with wild recurring pangs of regret.

And so “double, double, toil and trouble,” on goes the fugue and follows the arduous climb (into the sad motto in the horns), each relieving the other, till both yield again to the heart-breaking cry.

The cheerier melody here re-enters and raises the mood for the nonce.  Soon it falls amid dim harmonies.  Far in the depths now growls the dull tread, answered by perverted line of the hymn.