shadowy: flowing but not too fast
this is a pretty self explanatory movement, but fascinating to listen to. it's in d minor, but shifts around spookily, dropping out into different keys, turning everywhere. one music critic described it as a "most morbid and sarcastic mockery of the Viennese waltz." the movement is full of things that go "bump" in the night, weird shrieks from the winds and shadowy flautando scales from the strings. there are a variety of effects such as what we've come to know as the bartok pizz (pizzing so hard that the string hits the wood),
3:17 begins a little more lilting but still somewhat grim middle trio section; this only lasts a couple minutes, but swoops and slides forward and backward with sudden intrusions of fast in a melody that keeps trying to be stately but can never manage it. note the prominent viola solos.
5:10 theme comes back.
5:48 sudden halt with a bang of the timpani; music gradually restarts again, but understated and spooky. it gradually adds layers until it builds up to another climax.
movement ends with a timpani and pluck out of nowhere.
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