[Sidenote:  The free fantasia or “working-out” portion.]

[Sidenote:  Repetition.]

The second division is now taken up.  In it the composer exploits his learning and fancy in developing his thematic material.  He is now entirely free to send it through long chains of keys, to vary the harmonies, rhythms, and instrumentation, to take a single pregnant motive and work it out with all the ingenuity he can muster; to force it up “steep-up spouts” of passion and let it whirl in the surge, or plunge it into “steep-down gulfs of liquid fire,” and consume its own heart.  Technically this part is called the “free fantasia” in English, and the Durchfuehrung—­“working out”—­in German.  I mention the terms because they sometimes occur in criticisms and analyses.  It is in this division that the genius of a composer has fullest play, and there is no greater pleasure, no more delightful excitement, for the symphony-lover than to follow the luminous fancy of Beethoven through his free fantasias.  The third division is devoted to a repetition, with modifications, of the first division and the addition of a close.

[Sidenote:  Introductions.]

[Sidenote:  Keys and Titles.]

First movements are quick and energetic, and frequently full of dramatic fire.  In them the psychological story is begun which is to be developed in the remaining chapters of the work—­its sorrows, hopes, prayers, or communings in the slow movement; its madness or merriment in the scherzo; its outcome, triumphant or tragic, in the finale.  Sometimes the first movement is preceded by a slow introduction, intended to prepare the mind of the listener for the proclamation which shall come with the Allegro.  The key of the principal subject is set down as the key of the symphony, and unless the composer gives his work a special title for the purpose of providing a hint as to its poetical contents ("Eroica,” “Pastoral,” “Faust,” “In the Forest,” “Lenore,” “Pathetique,” etc.), or to characterize its style ("Scotch,” “Italian,” “Irish,” “Welsh,” “Scandinavian,” “From the New World"), it is known only by its key, or the number of the work (opus) in the composer’s list.  Therefore we have Mozart’s Symphony “in G minor,” Beethoven’s “in A major,” Schumann’s “in C,” Brahms’s “in F,” and so on.

[Sidenote:  The second movement.]

[Sidenote:  Variations.]

The second movement in the symphonic scheme is the slow movement.  Musicians frequently call it the Adagio, for convenience, though the tempi of slow movements ranges from extremely slow (Largo) to the border line of fast, as in the case of the Allegretto of the Seventh Symphony of Beethoven.  The mood of the slow movement is frequently sombre, and its instrumental coloring dark; but it may also be consolatory, contemplative, restful, religiously uplifting.  The writing is preferably in a broadly sustained style, the effect being that of an exalted hymn, and this has led to a predilection for a theme and variations as the mould in which to cast the movement.  The slow movements of Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth Symphonies are made up of variations.