Page:Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Grove).djvu/18

 of the restlessness implied in the hurrying already noticed is visible here again in the change of the phrase in the last four bars of the quotation, and the more rapid repetition of the arpeggios in the accompaniment.

It may be mentioned, en passant, that this subject is maintained by Séroff, a Russian critic, to be "identical" with the theme of the Finale (No. 37), and that this curious identification is adopted by Lenz as "a thematic reference of the most striking importance, vindicating the unity of the entire work, and placing the whole in a perfectly new light." (Lenz, Beethoven, eine Kunst-Studie, 4ter Thiel, p. 179.) This is too strong a statement, as is also that of a writer in the Orchestra of May 1, 1874, who calls attention to the "form and figure" of the "announcement" of the "vocal portion of the work." But it is certainly very remarkable, not only that so many of the melodies in the Symphony should consist of consecutive notes, but that in no less than four of them the notes should run up a portion of the scale and down again, seeming to point to a consistent condition in Beethoven's mind throughout this work. But to return.

The second subject has a codetta in the Wind instruments, which finishes it, not in B-flat, but in G minor. After which, the following stormy phrase is started by the Violins in E-flat,—