CAVE CAVE DEUS VIDET / Attention ... Dieu vous voit / Beware ... God sees you : Musique composée par Joseph Dillon Ford pour Monsieur Franck Leblois / Music composed by Joseph Dillon Ford for Mr. Franck Leblois
The finale is based on the same theme heard in the preceding variations, but here the material loses its former grotesquery and is transformed into a winsome minuet-chorale evoking the central oculus in which Jesus appears with the words "Cave, cave deus videt" ("Beware, beware, [for] God sees [you]"). Ford's intention clearly was to portray God as a felicitous and benign entity even when confronted with the full array of vices to which human beings habitually fall prey. Accordingly, the key signature changes from C minor to C major and a joyous triple meter prevails. This final statement of the theme is interrupted, however, by a diabolical suggestion in the bassoon (to be played by a concealed contrabassoon whenever available), leaving the listener in suspense until order is happily restored by a lively codetta that brings the music to a bright and hopeful conclusion.
