with Fate, it shall never pull me down”—to be compared only
with Browning’s “God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,”
and the peroration to Whitman’sMystic Trumpeter, “Joy, joy,
over all joy!” No adequate attempt could be made to translate
the music into words. The Symphony is extremely subjective;
indeed, autobiographic. For all historical details as to its com-
position, the reader is referred to the Grove essay,[152] and for
eulogistic rhapsodies nothing can surpass the essay of Berlioz,
that prince of critics. We shall content ourselves with a few
comments of a structural nature and then trust the student to
seek a performance of the work by a good orchestra. Of the
first movement (Allegro con brio)[153] the dominant character-
istics, especially in comparison with the wealth of material in
theHeroic, are conciseness and intensity. It starts at once, with-
out prelude, with the motive—one of the tersest in music—from
which is developed, polyphonically, the first theme,e.g.
[Music[A]]
[Footnote 151: This interpretation of d’Indy is based upon the
prevalence in the movement of the conventional martial rhythm
[Music] and carries, we must acknowledge, considerable weight.
It is, however, distinctly subjective and prevents no one from
gaining quite a different impression. We should be more in-
clined to accept the views of the noted French scholar had he
not been so wide of the mark, while speaking of the Seventh
Symphony, as to deny any appearance of dance-rhythm in the
first movement But the Irish composer, Villiers Stanford, has
shown conclusively that the theme is based upon the rhythm of
an Irish Hornpipe. Thus do the wise ones disagree! Meanwhile,
we others have themusic itself.]
[Footnote 152:Beethoven and his Nine Symphoniesby Sir George
Grove.]
[Footnote 153: Beethoven’s favorite mark of tempo and expres-
sion.]
[Footnote A: There are also somepholding notes on the bas-
soons.]
Everything is concentrated in the highest degree and the assault
upon our consciousness is of corresponding power. A tempestu-
ous transition leads to two shortsfchords and then in measure
59, announcedff by the horns, appears the first phrase of the