into the next musical section. Development The following portion of the piece can be interpreted as a large development-like section which encompasses several different phases of the climb. In "Wandering by the Brook", there is an increasing sense of energy—rushing passage-work gives way to cascading scale figures in the winds and strings and marks the beginning of the section which takes place "At the Waterfall" and "Apparition". The brilliant, glittering instrumental writing in this passage makes it one of the most "vividly specific" moments of tone painting within An Alpine Symphony. The later section "On Flowering Meadows" also makes extensive use of orchestral pictorialism—the meadow is suggested by a gentle backdrop of high string chords, the marching theme is heard softly in the cellos, and isolated points of color (short notes in the winds, harp, and pizzicato in the violas, representing small Alpine flowers) dot the landscape. In this section, a wavy motif in the strings appears and will feature more prominently at the summit as a majestic dotted rhythm. In the following section, which takes place "On the Alpine Pasture", the use of cowbells, bird calls, a yodeling motive first heard on the English horn, and even the bleating of sheep (depicted through flutter tonguing in the oboe and E clarinet) creates both a strong visual and aural image. The first horn and top strings introduce another secondary figure similar to the secondary motif during "sunrise", a secondary rhythm to be featured at the summit. As the climbers move along through the next two sections ("Through Thickets and Undergrowth on the Wrong Path" and "On the Glacier") the going gets a bit rougher, however, and when we get to "Dangerous Moments" the idea of insecurity and peril is cleverly suggested by the fragmentary nature of the texture and the use of the pointed second climbing theme. Suddenly, we are "On the Summit" as four trombones present a theme known as "the peak motive", the shape of which (with its powerful upward leaps of fourths and fifths) is reminiscent of Strauss's famous opening to Also Sprach Zarathustra. This passage is the centerpiece of the score, and after a solo oboe stammers out a hesitant melody the section gradually builds up using a succession of themes heard previously in the piece, finally culminating in what Del Mar calls the "long-awaited emotional climax of the symphony": a return of the sun theme,