[Music:  Molto lento (Solenne) (Violins, G string) broadly (Strings with choir of tubas, later of trombones and contrabass-tuba)]

of Bruckner’s technic.  After all we must give the benefit at least of the doubt.  And there is after this deeply impressive introit a gorgeous Promethean

[Music:  (Woodwind and low brass with tremolo strings) (3 trumpets) (4 horns)]

spring of up-leaping harmonies.  The whole has certainly more of concrete beauty than many of the labored attempts of the present day.

The prelude dies down with an exquisite touch of precious dissonance,—­whether it came from the heart or from the workshop.  The strange and tragic part is that with so much art and talent there should not be the strong individual idea,—­the flash of new tonal figure that stands fearless upon its own feet.  All this pretty machinery seems wasted upon the framing and presenting, at the moment of expectation, of the shadows of another poet’s ideas or of mere platitudes.

In the midst of the broad sweeping theme with a

[Music:  (Strings, with cl’t and oboe) Very broadly (G string)]

promise of deep utterance is a phrase of horns with the precise accent and agony of a Tristan.  The very semblance of whole motives seems to be taken from the warp and woof of Wagnerian drama.  And thus the whole symphony is degraded, in its gorgeous capacity, to the reechoed rhapsody of exotic romanticism.  It is all little touches, no big thoughts,—­a mosaic of a symphony.

[Music:  (Horns)]

And so the second theme[A] is almost too heavily laden with fine detail for its own strength, though

[Music:  (Violins, reeds and horns) Poco piu lento dolce (Pizz. of lower strings)]

it ends with a gracefully delicate answer.  The main melody soon recurs and sings with a stress of warm feeling in the cellos, echoed by glowing strains of the horns.  Romantic harmonies bring back the solemn air of the prelude with a new counter melody, in precise opposite figure, as though inverted in a mirror, and again the dim moving chords that seem less of Bruckner than of legendary drama.  In big accoutrement the double theme moves with double answers, ever with the sharp pinch of harmonies and heroic mien.  Gentlest retorts of the motives sing with fairy clearness (in horns and reeds), rising to tender, expressive dialogue.  With growing spirit they ascend once more to the triumphant clash of empyraean chords, that may suffice for justifying beauty.

[Footnote A:  We have spoken of a prelude, first and second theme; they might have been more strictly numbered first, second and third theme.]

Instead of the first, the second melody follows with its delicate grace.  After a pause recurs the phrase that harks from mediaeval romance, now in a stirring ascent of close chasing voices.  The answer, perfect in its timid halting descent, exquisite in accent and in the changing hues of its periods, is robbed of true effect by its direct reflection of Wagnerian ecstasies.