The meaning of "Heiliger Dankgesang" is not gratitude as relief. It is gratitude as convalescence: the ability to make a line again after the body has become uncertain. That is why the movement's first entries feel so careful. At 0:01 and through the early ruptures around 0:42, the quartet does not celebrate survival. It measures whether singing is possible.

The later resets make that claim sharper. The 5:25-5:34 silence cluster and the larger 10:38-10:46 quiet do not cancel the thanksgiving; they test whether thanks can survive interruption. The music keeps returning, but each return is more exposed because the listener now knows how easily the sound can thin away. By the terminal decay after 15:53, the piece has made its hardest argument: recovery is not a triumphant state. It is a disciplined continuation, a fragile song of thanks that still feels the weight of every note.