The solemnly jubilant orchestral prelude, the entry of the full double chorus with loud and sustained Alleluias, lead to the principal theme of the first movement, already suggested in the prelude, and derived--though this is hardly appreciable by the unpractised ear of a general audience--from the Prussian national air, which is identical with England's 'God save the King.' This theme or some portion of it almost invariably accompanies the phrase, '_Salvation, honour_, etc., _unto the Lord_,' which, with its surrounding Alleluias, forms the text of the first portion of the movement, constructed entirely from diatonic harmonies. The words '_For righteous and true are his judgments_' are set to the broad themes of the middle portion, to which some heightened effect is imparted by very sparing use of the more familiar chromatic chords. The third section is a varied repetition of the first with a coda. The movement is sustained at the white heat of jubilation until the beginning of the close, when a few tranquil bars, in the course of which the voices die away to rest, and the instruments are subdued to a _pianissimo_ that becomes ever softer, prepare for the glorious outburst with which the chorus terminates. The second movement has three varying sections: '_Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, great and small._ '_Alleluia, for the Almighty God hath entered into his kingdom._ '_Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him._' The first section opens with pure melodious beauty and lofty serenity, and displays in its course numerous points of imitation, direct and by inversion, which are easily discoverable by the student. It is succeeded by a blast of trumpets, an outburst of Alleluias, and the announcement of the Lord's reign by the voices of the two choirs which enter successively on a sounding tonic pedal; the basses imitating the basses, then the tenors the tenors, and so on, at half a bar's distance. This proclamation section is appropriately concise and of superb grandeur. We hear in it 'as it were the voice of a multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings'; whilst the third section, partly woven, by various kinds of imitation, from the phrases of 'Nun danket Alle Gott,' which is sounded prominently by the flutes and trumpets, is animated by a singularly naïve spirit of light-hearted happiness and rejoicing. '_And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse: and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war._ '_And he treadeth, the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God._ '_And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name called a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords. Alleluia. Amen._'