Mahler Mania, Rebooted

[Crudblud]

Here's to late-night revelations.  My early experience of the score of Mahler's Sixth Symphony was through the Eulenberg score edited by Redlich, who wrote an introductory essay on the work.  At the time, I had little experience in either score reading or analysis, so I was inclined to accept his statements as fact, but among other suspect things stated in the essay, there were two that stuck with me:

- That the finale cannot be in sonata form because the chorale never returns

- That the slow movement's only connection to the rest of the work is how distant it is in terms of key

The first of these is wrong, because the chorale does indeed form a key structural piece of the finale by transforming into the second theme group of the allegro.  As I discovered when mapping out the movement, it is structured in a modified sonata form, but with a lengthy intro and a two-part development, the second part of which begins with the false recapitulation of the introduction.

The second is also wrong, as I discovered when analyzing the movement in greater detail.  E-flat major, the key of the movement, is reached at the heart of the opening allegro movement, and E-flat minor appears in the latter parts of the first movement and the scherzo.  Although the major-minor motif is not present in this one movement, a minor-major motif inverting it is.  Several other elements of the movement's themes and development are more or less closely related to the other movements, but I had never figured out what connection, if any, the opening theme had to the rest of the work until now.

In the middle of the second theme of the first movement, Mahler places a jaunty march variation of the theme, and the associated motif becomes the foundation of the retransition to the recapitulation later in the movement.  Seeing as it links the first and second themes, it's a very logical choice.  Interestingly, this section does not return in the recapitulation, as the second theme is reduced entirely to a single gesture.  It does, however, return in the coda, in the key of e-flat minor (very distant from A minor/major).

The theme of the Andante Moderato is, in  fact, directly derived from the head motif of this section, with only the minor alteration of a major to a minor second (though Mahler composed the inner movements first and thus the derivation goes the other way).

Redlich really should have taken Schoenberg seriously when the latter said that there was absolutely nothing extraneous in this work.

This is great. I knew there was *something* going on there, but I could never quite put my finger on it. Mahler's economic use of materials never fails to astound.

[Mirror Image]

This is great. I knew there was *something* going on there, but I could never quite put my finger on it. Mahler's economic use of materials never fails to astound.

+1 Mahlerian's write-ups on Mahler are quite pleasing to read and informative too!

[Mahlerian]

This is great. I knew there was *something* going on there, but I could never quite put my finger on it. Mahler's economic use of materials never fails to astound.

Agreed.

+1 Mahlerian's write-ups on Mahler are quite pleasing to read and informative too!

Many thanks.

[Pat B]

Just watched Mahler 1 with Tennstedt in Chicago. A few of the tempo changes are a bit much for me, but otherwise an excellent performance. Well-directed video, too, with very few shots where I wished to see something else.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I love the 6th but just don't get the 5th. 

[ritter]

I love the 6th but just don't get the 5th. 

That makes two of us...yep, the adagietto is beautiful, and I think the ending is rather fanatstic, but there's something in the structure of the Fifth I don't quite grasp...

[Mahlerian]

That makes two of us...yep, the adagietto is beautiful, and I think the ending is rather fanatstic, but there's something in the structure of the Fifth I don't quite grasp...

I don't know if this will help, but I did a full analysis of the Fifth a few years ago.  I bet I could do better now, but here's a summary.

Mahler parsed out the structure into three parts for a good reason-it shows the way the material of the work is used.  Each part's movements share themes and motifs (there are recurring motifs developed across the entire span of the work, too).

Part 1
I, II - The funeral march acts as an extended introduction to the second movement, which is the traditional sonata form, and the main movement of Part 1.  I say traditional, but it's actually a movement so strange in trajectory and so short for the contrasts involved that it cannot stand on its own.  It links to both the third and the fifth movements.  The first theme of the Scherzo is a transformation of the main theme of the movement, and the rhetoric of the Scherzo appears near the end of the development.  The connection to the finale is more obvious; the chorale that will appear at the end of the work begins to form before it is submerged into darkness, in the key of D major which will be the ending key of the work.

Part 2
III - The Scherzo is the longest and most complex movement, and it needs to be here because it is the dramatic linchpin of the Symphony, bursting out of the gloom and tragedy of the second movement and forging on despite countless interruptions and threats of violence.  It is the first movement in D major, and the work becomes oriented towards that key for the rest of the Symphony.

Part 3
IV, V - As in Part 1, the first of these movements acts as an introduction to the second, and also shares some material with it.  The Adagietto in F is the only movement in a flat key (though of course they appear incidentally), and balances out the excessive sharpness of the first movement.  Likewise, in terms of orchestration, here we have an emphasis on strings in contrast to the wind and brass-heavy preceding movements.  Its middle section especially is taken up and developed further in the finale.  The Rondo-Finale brings the work back around to the D major of the Scherzo, but not beset by the same tendency to violence and reorientation; this movement charges straight forward, and when the chorale appears again it simply proceeds right to the end, with only a sudden unison B-flat interrupting the momentum before the final cadence.

[ritter]

Many thanls for that, Mahlerian!. Will try to listen to the Fifth sometime soon, taking your comments into account...

[Mahlerian]

Many thanks for that, Mahlerian!. Will try to listen to the Fifth sometime soon, taking your comments into account...

No problem.  More generally, the work is filled with the motivic tic of a large leap (ninth, tenth, etc.) acting as an appoggiatura, and this is in all of the movements.  The span of the leap changes depending on the moment, but it's a prominent feature of the work.  The most important climaxes are initiated with versions of this motif.

[Pat B]

The Adagietto in F is the only movement in a flat key (though of course they appear incidentally), and balances out the excessive sharpness of the first movement.

Excessive sharpness?

[Mahlerian]

Excessive sharpness?

The first movement is in C# minor (four sharps), as most know, which is tonally very far away from D major (two sharps), the goal of the symphony.  In traditional symphonic writing, any movement towards the dominant (sharp) side is balanced by a corresponding movement towards the subdominant (flat) side, and Mahler's use of tonal areas generally corresponds to this principle.  Throughout his works, he was very careful in his treatment of tonal relationships, using keys to intimate things to come as well as mark off important formal divisions.

[Pat B]

The first movement is in C# minor (four sharps), as most know, which is tonally very far away from D major (two sharps), the goal of the symphony.  In traditional symphonic writing, any movement towards the dominant (sharp) side is balanced by a corresponding movement towards the subdominant (flat) side, and Mahler's use of tonal areas generally corresponds to this principle.  Throughout his works, he was very careful in his treatment of tonal relationships, using keys to intimate things to come as well as mark off important formal divisions.

Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't aware of this notion of balance, but it makes sense.

In terms of sharps and flats, F is slightly more distant from D than C#m is. But F is D's parallel minor's relative major...

[Mahlerian]

Yet another person can't follow Mahler and claims that his music is nonsense:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/07/mahler-said-his-time-would-come-the-question-now-for-me-is-when-it-will-go/

The fact that a critic hasn't grasped the connections between the movements of the symphonies does not in any way imply that there are no connections between them.  All of the works are very tightly written in terms of the material they use, and it's only Mahler's wide-ranging, always purposeful development that allows them to span such extraordinary lengths.

What do the middle movements of the Third have to do with the outer movements?  Quite a bit!  The fourth and fifth movements rework the first and second theme groups of the first movement, for example, and the second and third movements relate further to those two.

The adagietto of the Fifth is not only a respite between the raucous and joyful movements that flank it (nihilism was not in Mahler's vocabulary, much less did he employ it in a movement he described as "a man in the prime of his life"), but it also transforms the motif that binds the whole symphony together and introduces what will become the secondary theme of the finale.

At any rate, even if the movements were completely separate from each other and formed a sequence of moods, why would that matter?  That would be the traditional symphonic form of many of his predecessors.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

CD Of The Week: Dudamel's Scherzo To Remember

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Dudamel's 7th is fairly nice, but a bit of fluff from what I recall

[André]

Hi Jens ! Thanks for sharing your reviews. They're always a pleasure to read !

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Hi Jens ! Thanks for sharing your reviews. They're always a pleasure to read !

Thanks for the kind words. Feedback (of any kind, except for name-calling, perhaps) is much appreciated and valued well beyond what you might think!

Dudamel's 7th is fairly nice, but a bit of fluff from what I recall

You could make that the executive summary of my review, actually. :-)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Now I enjoy no. 2 and even no. 5 more. I still have some doubts about some aspects of them. For example the Urlicht movement in no. 2, charming for the most part but then there come the lines "Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott, Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben". I really dislike the musical accompaniment of those lines although partly it may derive from my dislike of those lines as a text anyway. With 5th I have mixed feelings about the famous Adagietto. On the other hand its calm beauty is pretty, at least in instrumental sound but there is something missing, maybe with the melody itself. The first 2 movements which on the first listenings made no effect on me whatsoever, now have captivated me more or less completely, especially the first movement. Third movement I don't remember much about. 5th movement is ok, what with its Tannhäuser bell motive sounding harmonies.

[Mahlerian]

Now I enjoy no. 2 and even no. 5 more. I still have some doubts about some aspects of them. For example the Urlicht movement in no. 2, charming for the most part but then there come the lines "Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott, Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben". I really dislike the musical accompaniment of those lines although partly it may derive from my dislike of those lines as a text anyway.

The same music returns (modified) in the finale, accompanying the transition from the soprano-alto duet to the choral apotheosis.

With 5th I have mixed feelings about the famous Adagietto. On the other hand its calm beauty is pretty, at least in instrumental sound but there is something missing, maybe with the melody itself. The first 2 movements which on the first listenings made no effect on me whatsoever, now have captivated me more or less completely, especially the first movement. Third movement I don't remember much about. 5th movement is ok, what with its Tannhäuser bell motive sounding harmonies.

The whole Fifth Symphony is interconnected, as I mentioned above, and with repeated listens the connections should be clearer.  The Adagietto is really best thought of as either an interlude or an introduction to the finale.  It is not the goal of the work, but a lovely landmark on the roadside.

[aukhawk]

Do we really need another Mahler cycle?  Somehow I doubt it, however here is the first fruit of the projected cycle by Vänskä with the Minnesota Orchestra, on the BIS label.

[asin]B0711CKS48[/asin]
The 5th is among my least favourite of Mahler symphonies however this one caught my attention straight away, an energetic performance and startlingly detailed recording has put this straight to the top of my pile of Mahler 5ths.  Admittedly, it's only a very small pile, comprising just Bernstein/VPO and Gielen, up to now.  This feels like a modern improvement on the Bernstein, perhaps a bit more 'driven', and the Gielen is just too relaxed and provincial-sounding in the company of the other two.

This recording is currently available on introductory offer of high-res (96/24 FLAC) at 'normal' price, from eClassical