A completing touch lies in the answering phrase of the chorale, where the answer of original motto is transformed into a masterful ring of cheer and confidence.
Later the chorale is sounded by the full band, with intermediate beats of rhythmic march.
The overture leads into the first piece of song, the chorale that forms a vital part of the musical texture as the opera proceeds.
Here begins the 'acoustic chorale', a sequence of six- or seven-pitch chords imbued with intervallic allusions to the acoustic overtone series.
Another chorale emerges low in the strings and swells into a gloriously rich passage of immediate emotional appeal.
The mysterious chorale figuration frames the slow movement, another closely-wrought threnody of enriched polymodal fabric.
