[Music:  (Trio) Poco meno mosso (Strings)]

of the ballad appears over a drone, as of bagpipe, through all the harmony of the madrigal.  Strangest of all is the playful last refrain in the high piccolo over the constant soft strumming strings.

The Andante, in pure lyric mood, is heavily charged with a certain Oriental languor.  The clarinet

[Music:  (Clarinet) Andante (Strings with harp)]

leads the song, to rich strum of harp and strings, with its note of sensuous melancholy.  Other, more external signs there are of Eastern melody, as in the graceful curl of quicker notes.  Intermediate strains between the verses seem gently to rouse the slumbering feeling,—­still more when they play between the lines of the song.  The passion that is lulled in the languor of main melody, is somehow uttered in the later episode,—­still more in the dual song of both

[Music:  (Violins doubled below) (Horns and bassoons doubled above in wood) (Strings and horns)]

melodies,—­though it quickly drops before a strange coquetry of other strains.  Yet the climax of the main song is reached when the lighter phrase rings fervently in the high brass.  Here the lyric beauty is stressed in a richer luxuriance of rhythmic setting.  Once more sings the passionate tune; then in midst of the last verse of the main song is a quick alarm of rushing harp.  The languorous dream is broken; there is an air of new expectancy.  Instead of a close is a mere pause on a passing harmony at the portals of the high festival.

With a clear martial stress the “Russian Theme” is sounded (in low strings), to the full a national

[Music:  Allegro moderato Finale Theme Russe (Cellos with basses in lower 8ve.)]

tune of northern race.  Enriched with prodigal harmony and play of lesser themes it flows merrily on, yet always with a stern pace, breaking out at last in a blare of warlike brass.

Nor does the martial spirit droop in the second tune, though the melodies are in sheer contrast.  In faster rhythm, the second is more festal so that the first returning has a tinge almost of terror.  An

[Music:  (Cl’t) (Strings)]

after-strain of the second has a slightest descent to reflective feeling, from which there is a new rebound

[Music:  (Cellos) (Strings and harp with sustained chord of horns)]

to the buoyant (festal) melody.

Here in grim refrains, in dim depths of basses (with hollow notes of horns) the national tune has a free fantasy until it is joined by the second in a loud burst in the minor.

Now the latter sings in constant alternation with the answering strain, then descends in turn into the depths of sombre musing.  There follows a big, resonant dual climax (the main theme in lower brass), with an edge of grim defiance.  In the lull we seem to catch a brief mystic play of the first motto of the symphony (in the horns) before the last joyous song of both melodies,—­all with a power of intricate design and a dazzling brilliancy of harmony, in proud national celebration.