Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 – Genesis & Movement I

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.2 (Genesis & Motion I)

Genesis

In 1888, when Gustav Mahler started engaged on the primary and second actions of his Second Symphony, he had utterly immersed himself in paradoxical ideas relating to loss of life and mortality. Making an attempt to comply with on from a story that figuratively and actually hit a useless finish (the loss of life and burial of the hero of his First Symphony), Mahler confronted an uphill battle with the sketches for the Second Symphony. Between 1888-94, Mahler had made many selections as to what the Second would signify each musically and programmatically. 

Now lovingly known as ‘The Resurrection Symphony’, this work was a labour of affection for Mahler, because it took him round six years to finish. Alongside writing the Second Symphony, Mahler was additionally setting music to the poems of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (‘The Youth’s Magic Horn’). Literary and inventive sources have been used all through the compositional strategy of the symphony, and these shall be highlighted in subsequent blogs on this sequence. 

Motion I

At first, Mahler wrote intensive and detailed programme notes for the Second Symphony, despite the fact that the order of the actions was at all times in query. The construction we all know right now sees 5 actions, all of which have been composed very a lot independently from one another. 

The primary motion of the Second Symphony, subsequently entitled Todtenfeier (‘Funeral Rites’), was composed as a tone poem earlier than Mahler determined to make use of it inside the symphony. Though composed six years earlier than the completion of the work, and wasn’t initially meant for use within the symphony, this motion presents an unlikely programmatic hyperlink to the top of his First Symphony. He defined this to Max Marschalk in a letter:

“I known as the primary motion ‘Todtenfeier.’ It could curiosity you to know that it’s the hero of my D main symphony that I bear to his grave, and whose life I replicate, from the next vantage level, in a transparent mirror. Right here too the query is requested: What did you reside for? Why did you undergo? Is all of it solely an unlimited terrifying joke? We have now to reply these questions by some means if we’re to go on residing – certainly, even when we’re solely to go on dying! The individual in whose life this name has resounded even when it was solely as soon as, should give a solution. And it’s this reply I give within the final motion.”

Though the unique programme notes weren’t carried via the various revisions of the symphony, the manuscripts are nonetheless helpful to gauge an thought of the programmatic context of the symphony. Right here is the translated word for the primary motion:

“We stand by the coffin of a well-loved individual. His life, struggles, passions and aspirations as soon as extra, for the final time, earlier than our thoughts’s eye. And now on this second of gravity and of emotion which convulses our deepest being, after we lay apart like a overlaying, every part that from everyday perplexes us and drags us down, our coronary heart is gripped by a dreadfully severe voice which at all times passes us by within the deafening bustle of every day life: What now? What is that this life and this loss of life? Do we have now an existence past it? Is all this solely a confused dream, or do life and this loss of life have a which means? And we should reply this questions if we’re to reside on.”

Between 1888-1901, Mahler revised the programme and the orchestrations for the primary motion 4-5 instances (See Instance 1). Throughout this era, Mahler misplaced his mom, father and sisters, so the adjustments might have mirrored the psychological state that Mahler was in at that time limit. It actually wasn’t uncommon for Mahler to challenge his inside programme inside his music. All through even simply the opening motion, we hear and really feel feelings of anger, despair, and vulnerability. The development of his emotional experiences with grief and loss are so tightly woven all through this symphony, that despite the fact that he took the written programme away from audiences from 1901, one can nonetheless expertise the total ‘Mahler impact.’

Instance 1 – The timeline of Todtenfeier

The piercing opening tremolo from the higher strings paves the best way for the regimented semiquaver motif that’s established by the cellos and basses. As new themes emerge, they start to tangle collectively to create a fancy part constructed on counterpoint. Music critic, Ferdinand Pfohl, described the opening from the 1895 Hamburg efficiency “as if the presentiment of one thing horrid burst into the soul of a person, which quickly seized his complete feeling and made icy shudders ripple via his limbs.” 

Mahler creates a number of efficient mild and shade inside this motion, nonetheless there’s at all times a sinister undertone threaded all through the music. His use of chromatic harmonies, angular melodic traces and excessive dynamics all play into this dramatic and theatrical motion. The brass part are sometimes the leaders of those excessive dynamics, and this may be first heard within the ‘loss of life fanfare’, which actually packs a punch!

Alongside these loud and dramatic sections are way more peaceable, dreamlike motifs. That is the place the importance of the First Symphony’s programme comes into play. These sections replicate the happier reminiscences of the younger hero from the First. In contrast to the First, the Second’s dream motifs at all times descend again into anguish and disarray, that at all times reminds the listener that the story has moved on. 

Mahler poses various enormous questions inside this symphony and the turmoil of attempting to reply these questions could be heard all through sections of the music. One key second is the place an enormous climax is constructed all through the orchestra which sees the strings play col legno (which means to play with the wooden of the bow, relatively than the hair), and the brass proclaiming the thrilling fanfare. This results in a ‘plunging motif’, the place the complete orchestra descends rapidly with chromatic triplets. Some have mentioned this represents the autumn from actuality into the depths of hell. The climax right here continues, and the brass lead with a fanfare that Mahler stretches through the use of a mixture of triplet quavers, straight quavers and semiquaver rests. This results in the ultimate bar which seems like the top of the motion. Out of nowhere, the decrease strings return with their regimented opening theme. 

There are usually not many situations all through the complete symphony the place the orchestra play in unison, however the two within the first motion are each plunging motifs. The previous few bars of this primary motion sees the orchestra unite as soon as extra to plunge into hell, earlier than the music fades out (See Instance 2).

Instance 2 – The final plunging motif which ends the primary motion (b. 437-445)

Mahler makes use of fragments of music to foreshadow the Final Judgement within the last motion. The horns play a theme primarily based on the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), in addition to hinting to the ‘Resurrection Theme’ heard within the finale. There may be some circumstantial proof to counsel that there have been initially allusions to Goethe’s poem Meeresstille. The important thing verse being:

Todesstille fürchterlich! / Horrible silence of loss of life!

In der ungehuren Weite / Within the dreadful vastness

Reget keine sich. / Not a wave is shifting.

It’s actually attainable that Mahler used Goethe’s poem as an overriding metaphor for Todesstille (‘Silence of Demise’), which means that Mahler might have used this together with the extra pastoral sections within the motion. The impression that’s left on the finish of the primary motion displays Mahler’s need to artistically specific many alternative perceptions of loss of life and the afterlife. By analysing components of the rating in opposition to Mahler’s literary sources and programmes, it paints a vivid image of what the symphony is attempting to speak.

This opening motion lays the inspiration for the remainder of the symphony, thus Todtenfeier is just the start of this journey via life, loss of life and the afterlife.

Ⓒ Alex Burns

I gratefully acknowledge the monetary assist supplied by the Gustav Mahler Society UK for this Mahler 2 weblog sequence. 

To study extra in regards to the fascinating life and music of Gustav Mahler and to get pleasure from examine days, social occasions and recitals that are held all year long, enquire about membership at: information@mahlersociety.org  or go to the Gustav Mahler Society UK web site.

You’ll be able to expertise this epic symphony for your self this March in Sheffield when over 300 native musicians unite to carry out this unimaginable work. 

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