The movement is in sonata form without a development and is characterised by its manipulation of modal expectations. It opens with a seven-bar C minor introduction of soft chords in the strings, grouped into a 3+3+1 bar pattern which contrasts with the clear 4+4 grouping of the main theme's funeral march. The march tread of the movement is suggested beginning at bar 8 by a series of throbbing chords on beats two and four, pulsing in the string and drum accompaniment under the grave winds and brass melody. An unexpected welling of emotion is heard just before the March section closes at rehearsal 70, followed by a transitory passage featuring a "sigh" motive (rehearsal 70) in the woodwinds. This transition modulates to the second theme in F minor opens with a lyrical but subdued string episode at 71. Then, as if Elgar had lost his sense of restraint, we hear a build-up of dynamic, an increase in tempo, and more imaginative scoring leading to a triumphant F major climax in the brass, marked "Nobilmente e semplice" (rehearsal 76). The "sigh" figure is again heard in the closing thematic area at rehearsal 78, as if to recall earlier grief, slowly melting into the recapitulation of the C minor March theme at rehearsal 79.