PART II. PARTING
MARCH TEMPO; Agitato
"War has broken out, and the lover must take his departure." As from a distance, the march is heard, at first softly; it increases in volume and emphasis, coming nearer and nearer. There is an interruption (Agitato), "which graphically depicts the parting of the lovers [an impassioned dialogue between violins and 'cellos] and Lenore's grief and despair." The march is resumed, gradually diminishes, and dies away in the distance.
PART III. REUNITING IN DEATH
Allegro
This, as has been said, is the only portion of the symphony which is explicitly derived from Bürger's poem. I quote Mr. George P. Upton's spirited commentary: "It opens with a plaintive theme ... suggestive of Lenore mourning for her lover as she wakes from troubled dreams. Then follows an intimation of her fate in a brief phrase for the trombones. The Trio[120] of the march tells the story of her despair, for the army has returned without her lover. Her blasphemy and the remonstrances of her mother are clearly indicated. The recurrence of the first theme lands up to a rhythmical figure for the viola, representing the tramp of the steed bearing the spectre bridegroom. The bell tinkles softly, and Lenore descends to meet her lover. Then the 'cellos take up the figure, retaining it to the close. The terrible ride begins. The bassoons and oboes carry on the dialogue between the spectre and his bride. One after another the constantly intensified and impetuous music pictures the scenes of the ride, the 'cellos and other strings keeping up their figure. A gloomy dirge tells us of the funeral train, and a weird theme in triple time of the spectres' dance about the gibbet, accompanied by wild cries of the night birds. More and more furious grows the ride until the graveyard is reached, when, after a moment of silence following the transformation, a chorale strain is heard, with a sad and tender accompaniment. The wretched maiden has at last found rest."
FOOTNOTES:
[115] Only eleven of the twelve are known to-day. A five-movement symphony in E minor, composed at Weimar in 1854, performed at a concert there on April 20, 1855, is not listed among Raff's works; the work remained unpublished, and the manuscript score is not extant.
[116] There is no end to the variety in which the legend of the Wild Hunt is preserved. Its best-known incarnation is to be found in the ballad of Gottfried August Bürger, Der Wilde Jäger, paraphrased by Scott in his "Wild Huntsman." See pages 106-7 for a description of César Franck's tone-poem, Le Chasseur Maudit ("The Wild Huntsman"), based on this legend.
[117] "Dame Hulda," or "Holda," or Frau Holle: a goddess who was at first benign, then a seductress of men, later the sovereign temptress of the "Venusberg" (the Venus of Wagner's "Tannhäuser"). "She became," says the inimitable Mr. Hale, "a wanton in league with Satan. She was still beautiful in front, but had a tail behind, as the master whom she served; 'to go with Holle' was to join a witch party; and at last she was an ugly old woman, long-nosed, snag-toothed, with bristling, thickly matted hair. All children that die unbaptized go to Holda, and they shriek behind her when she rides, clothed and in a coach, in company with the Wild Huntsman and Wotan."
[118] Gottfried August Bürger, born at Wolmerswende, near Halberstadt, January 1, 1748; died at Göttingen, in poverty, June 8, 1794. "Lenore" was published in 1773.