The Scherzo is a sparkling chain of dancing tunes of which the third, of more intimate hue, somehow harks back to the second theme of the first movement.

A Trio, a dulcet, tender song of the wood, precedes the return of the Scherzo that ends with the speaking cadence from the first Allegro.

A Serenata must be regarded as a kind of Intermezzo, in the Cantilena manner, with an accompanying rhythm suggesting an ancient Spanish dance.  It stands as a foil between the gaiety of the Scherzo and the jubilation of the Finale.

The Finale is one festive idyll, full of ringing tune and almost bucolic lilt of dance.  It reaches one of those happy jingles that we are glad to hear the composer singing to his heart’s content.

GIUSEPPE MARTUCCI.  SYMPHONY IN D MINOR.[A]

[Footnote A:  Giuseppe Martucci, 1856-1911.]

The very naturalness, the limpid flow of the melodic thought seem to resist analysis of the design.  The listener’s perception must be as naive and spontaneous as was the original conception.

There is, on the one hand, no mere adoption of a classical schedule of form, nor, on the other, the over-subtle workmanship of modern schools.  Fresh and resolute begins the virile theme with a main charm in the motion itself.  It lies not in a tune here or there, but in a dual play of responsive phrases at the start, and then a continuous flow of further melody on the fillip of the original rhythm, indefinable of outline in a joyous chanting of bass and treble.

A first height reached, an expressive line in the following lull rises in the cellos, that is the essence of the contrasting idea, followed straightway by a brief phrase of the kind, like some turns of peasant song, that we can hear contentedly without ceasing.

[Music:  (Cellos) (Lower reed, horns and strings)]

Again, as at the beginning, such a wealth of melodies sing together that not even the composer could know which he intended in chief.  We merely feel, instead of the incisive ring of the first group, a quieter power of soothing beauty.  Yet, heralded by a prelude of sweet strains, the expressive line now enters like a queenly figure over a new rhythmic motion, and flows on through delighting glimpses of new harmony to a striking climax.

[Music:  (Flute and oboe, doubled below in clarinet) (Horn) (Strings)]

The story, now that the characters have appeared, continues in the main with the second browsing in soft lower strings, while the first (in its later phase) sings above in the wood transformed in mildness, though for a nonce the first motive strikes with decisive vigor.  Later is a new heroic mood of minor, quickly softened when the companion melody appears.  A chapter of more sombre hue follows, all with the lilt and pace of romantic ballad.  At last the main hero returns as at the beginning, only in more splendid panoply, and rides on ’mid clattering suite to passionate triumph.  And then, with quieter charm, sings again the second figure, with the delighting strains again and again rehearsed, matching the other with the power of sweetness.