as it awakens the echoes from mountain after mountain on some
of the high passes in the Bernese Oberland. This is certainly
what the episode recalls to any one who has ever heard those
poetic tones and their echoes. A short, solemn, even ecclesi-
astical interruption by the trombones and bassoons is of more
thematic importance. As the horn-tones gradually die away, and
the cloud-like harmonies in the strings sink lower and lower—
like mist veiling the landscape—an impressive pause ushers in
the Allegro.”
[Footnote 263: See also a similar eulogy by Weingartner in his
The Symphony since Beethoven.]
After the flute has repeated this theme there is an interpolation
of an important choral-like phrase (referred to above),e.g.
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for it is later used as the climax of the Finale—in fact, of the
whole work—and its tone of religious fervor, accentuated by
the scoring for trombones and bassoons, is a clear indication of
the ideal message which Brahms meant to convey. The body
of the movement, Allegro non troppo ma con brio, begins with
a majestic, sweeping theme[264] of great rhythmic vitality and
elasticity announced by the strings,e.g.
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[Footnote 264: There is a statement in many books that this is a
reminiscence of the theme in the Finale of the Ninth Symphony.
How such a legend started it is difficult to say; it must be due
to what the late W.F. Apthorp called “purblind criticism.” For
my part I see a resemblance in only one measure—save that
both melodies are in quadruple rhythm—between the theme of
Brahms and the following:—
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It is at once repeated with richer scoring and then some exciting
transitional passages lead, after a slight phrase taken from the
chief theme of the prelude, to the second theme, animato, in G
major,e.g.
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This has some rhythmical expansion and then a quieter part,
dolce e piano, beginning measure 71. Some rushingffpassages