MUSIC lovers rank this work very high. It is serious and-often highly emotional, sometimes mystical, always deeply felt and extremely beautiful. It has three movements.
FIRST MOVEMENT. There is a slow Introduction. Note its opening Tune in the Lower Strings.
Then comes a quick passage in which that opening tune is extended and stiffened into something very vigorous and forceful-really the first main tune of the Movement.
Then the slow passage returns; the quick first main tune is heard again, and is now followed by a second main tune—a tender one, opening, in Strings alone, with a scale-wise ascent of four notes, by which it can easily be recognised whenever it returns.
This material is developed for a little time, and then there grows up an orchestral climax, and at its height there is a triumphant syncopated tune for Full Orchestra-a third main tune.
From this point on it is a matter of development, and then of recapitulation of the material heard, and listeners should by now be well acquainted with this.
The SECOND MOVEMENT moves at a gentle, but not slow speed. Plucked Strings and Harps begin with a tender melancholy. In a moment the Cor Anglais (Alto Oboe) creeps in with a graceful tune. A somewhat livelier mood ia represented by the middle portion of the Movement, and then the pensive mood returns.
THIRD MOVEMENT. (Not too quick.) This is a Movement of imposing strength and vigour. After five or six bars of Introduction, the Violoncellos enter with the joyous first tune.
The Second Tune, some little time later, cannot be missed ; it opens with a dignified phrase for Brass alone.
From these Tunes, and several from the preceding Movements, a magnificent Finale is evolved.