CORNELL

HORIZONTAL METHODS 139At one point in Wolf-Ferrari's " Jewels of the Madonna,"the composer has contrasted the key of E minor on theorchestra against the key of E flat in the brass on the stagein a novel way, but the passage is somewhat crude. Scarcelymore acceptable are the gruesome rushes of fifths in Strauss's"Elektra," even if we had time to listen to them as twostreams ; for the two planes of fifths are brought too closetogether for the principles of Polytony* to be admitted.Ex. 305.Allegro molto.^?",^tage.yj"-^\ })^})i J)v'K,J-Jvi)7 j^yP_^p^P ^prH-^^WOLF-FERRARI,"I G^m della Madonna'.'" f - - i #k4^^^(Orch.)(E minor.)t>--tf r,-^^Ex. 306.STRAUSS, "Elektra'.'The composer who has carried this technique of simultaneousharmonic streams furthest is Schonberg. In his" Fiinf Orchesterstiicke " we have several combined streamsof harmony, all founded on unusual chord-formations, and allproceeding more or less independently. His pedal-chords, andpedal-figures too, consist of unusual formations. In fact,Schonberg has done for the empirical system of chordbuildingaU that Debussy has done for the technique of thenatural harmonic series.* See p. 151.