Scan 119
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
6 lines. Read by computer on 7 September 2026. Printed page 91. See the scan on archive.org.
1begin a soft tremolo which grows in strength and suggests passion, and then gradually, softly, dies away. Now the violin and 'cello take up the discourse, and plaintively tell us of troubles which are about to beset our hero, and the solo instruments in a more spirited movement depict the rage, the madness of his despair, plaintively wail of hopelessness, and at last the entire orchestra takes up the theme. It is this theme that is heard in the first act in Max's solo. A serious, contemplative passage follows, which terminates in victorious music, and we feel some one has overcome, and at the same time sorrowfully, that one has been overcome, for the music does not speak as it does later of glorious triumph; in it there is faltering, and it is only might conquering for the nonce. Then comes an indescribable haunting passage as though one were being pursued by an evil spirit, and we hear it again when Caspar is successful in securing Max's promise to use the charmed bullets.
3Relief from these rather tense passages comes in the form of a beautiful air, one which occurs in the second act, when Agathe hears her lover coming, and involuntarily the audience relaxes with the change from the gloom of the minor key to that of the major, and feels as the composer intended, that the pure love of Agathe is to triumph over all evil.
5But again, as though to remind us that trouble is ever present and difficulties always to be overcome, the orchestra takes up the gloomy theme, again in a minor key, that of B flat, but soon modulates into D sharp minor, and now the 'cello seems to pursue the soft tremolo of the violin with sure and triumphant modulation, exulting again over Caspar's victory, but only for a moment, and then pure sweet tones of Agathe's love song are heard and bid all doubt and terror flee, love will conquer; and we are not disturbed even by the return of the passage telling of Max's fear and feelings of suspense. For the closing movement there seems to be a discussion among
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