8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
1/21
Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of MahlerAuthor(s): Richard A. KaplanSource: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Spring, 1996), pp. 213-232Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763923
Accessed: 28/07/2010 14:59
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Musicology.
http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/stable/763923?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/763923?origin=JSTOR-pdf
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
2/21
Temporal
Fusion and
Climax in the Symphonies
of Mahler*
RICHARD A. KAPLAN
full
generation
has
passed
since the initial
burgeoning
of interest
in
Mahler's
music
among
serious musicians and
listeners.
In this
time,
Mahler's
symphonic
oeuvre-a
body
of
work that
had
been
the exclusive artistic
preserve
of a small
community
of devo-
tees
and
advocates-has
firmly
taken
its
place
in
the standard orches-
tral
repertoire.
A
case
in
point
is
the
Sixth
Symphony,
which
waited
an
astonishing forty-three
years
for
its
American
premiere,
and
even
longer
for
its first
recording,'
but which
by
1992-some
forty-five years
later-had received
over three dozen commercial
recordings,
no
fewer
than
eight
of them
by
American orchestras.2
Mahler's
music
has likewise been embraced
by
growing
numbers
of
musical
scholars;
while this
acceptance
has
inevitably
been somewhat
slower,
the
parallel
between
the two trends
is
unmistakable.
An
earlier
generation
of writers
on Mahler's
music-Diether,
Cooke,
and
Cardus,
for
example,
to
name three central
figures
in the Mahler
movement
of the
195os
and
'6os-seemed
to consider their mission
largely
one
of
advocacy; they may
be
regarded, perhaps,
as the
literary
counterparts
to
such
early champions
as
Walter,
Klemperer,
and
Mitropoulos.
The
musical world owes these advocates an incalculable debt of gratitude;
it
is fair to
say,
however,
that such efforts now are
scarcely necessary.
Recent literature
suggests,
both
in its
quantity
and
in
its
content,
that
we
have moved
beyond
this
stage
of
advocacy
to a
point
at which
Mahler's
symphonies
have
begun
to
be the
objects
of
legitimate analyt-
ical
examination.
Volume
XIV
*
Number
2
*
Spring 1996
The
Journal
of
Musicology
1996
by
the
Regents
of
the
University
f California
*An
earlier version of this
paper
was
presented
at
the
Annual
Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Austin, 1989.
I
These took
place
in
1947
and
ca.
1952,
respectively,
with the
Philharmonic-
Symphony
of New York
conducted
by
Dimitri
Mitropoulos
and the Vienna
Philharmonic
conducted
by
F.
Charles Adler. The
symphony
was
completed
in
1904.
2
Peter
Ffil6p,
ed.,
Mahler
Discography
(New
York,
1995),
1
o9-16.
213
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
3/21
214
THE
JOURNAL
OF MUSICOLOGY
Any
serious student
of
Mahler's
music
can
only
be
gratified by
this
turn of
events; however,
the evidence
of
many
recent Mahler
analyses
suggests
that we have
not
yet developed techniques sufficiently power-
ful and subtle
to
help
us come to terms with the music's own
power
and
subtlety.
Rather,
these
analyses
tend to
be
characterized
by
too
great
a
reliance
on one
or
another
standard
analytical
paradigm.
It
is,
to be
sure,
a reasonable
enough
strategy,
when
confronted with a
new
type
of
analytical
problem,
to see whether
any
of the tools
already
in
one's
workshop
will
prove
useful. But these
fascinating
and
extraordinary
compositions,
which confounded
earlier
generations
of musicians
pre-
cisely
because
they
seem
to
violate
many
of
the
rules
formulated for
other,
more conventional
pieces,
have continued to
prove
highly
resis-
tant to the
application
of such
paradigms,
whether these
paradigms
be
those of standard
form
designations,
of the Schenkerian
model,
-or
of
the
apparatus
of
literary
criticism.3
Assigning
labels
such as
rondo-
sonata and
double
variation,
demonstrating
conformance-however
idiosyncratic-to
Schenkerian
Ursdtze,
and
inferring
the
operation
of
various narrative
strategies
all have the
potential
to
provide
important
analytical
insights;
and,
in
fact,
many
of the
analyses
cited here con-
tribute
significantly
to the
body
of
knowledge
about some
aspect
of
Mahler's art. But these
approaches
also
carry
the risks of
trivializing
or
suppressing, in the name of conformance to a paradigm, precisely
those characteristics that make
these
pieces interesting,
unique,
and
coherent;
they
have,
in
short,
failed to
convey adequately
a
sense
of
the
way
these
pieces
work.
Fortunately,
these
inadequacies
have not
hin-
dered
the enormous
growth
in
scholarly
interest
in
Mahler's
music;
however,
rather like the blind men and the
elephant,
we
simply
have
found ourselves
unable to
apprehend
these
unprecedentedly
huge,
uncannily heterogeneous
objects
as
coherent musical
totalities.
In
the view
of the
present study,
the
difficulty
arises
principally
from
what
one
might
call
the
problem
of
integration.
n
speaking
of this
prob-
lem,
I
refer
precisely
to those characteristics
that
so
distinguish
Mahler's
music
from
that
of
the
nineteenth-century
symphonic
mainstream,
and
3
For
applications
of each of these
approaches,
see,
in
the first
case,
Edward W.
Murphy,
Sonata-rondo
Form
in
the
Symphonies
of
Gustav
Mahler,
The Music
Review
XXXVI
(1975),
54-62,
and
Murphy,
Unusual Forms in
Mahler's
Fifth
Symphony,
The
Music
Review
XLVII
(1986/87),
loi-log;
in
the second
case,
Peter
Bergquist,
The
First
Movement of
Mahler's
Tenth
Symphony:
An
Analysis
and
an
Examination
of
the
Sketches,
The
Music
Forum
V
(1980),
335-94,
and Allen
Forte,
Middleground
Motives
in the Adagietto of Mahler's Fifth Symphony,
Nineteenth-Century
Music VIII (1984),
153-63;
and,
in
the third
case,
David B.
Greene,
Mahler:
Consciousness nd
Temporality
(New
York,
1964);
Vera
Micznik,
Mahler and 'the
Power of
Genre',
Journal
of
Musicol-
ogy
XII/2
(1994), 117-51;
and
Martin
Scherzinger,
The Finale of
Mahler's
Seventh
Symphony:
A
Deconstructive
Reading,
Music
Analysis
XIV
(1995), 69-88.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
4/21
KAPLAN
that so
confounded
early
listeners: to
wit,
in a
repertoire
whose most
notorious characteristics
concern matters
of
scale-such
matters as
length,
size of
performing forces,
and
what
may
be
generally
described
as an
extravagance
of utterance-the
challenge
to the
listener
is com-
pounded
by
Mahler's
use,
within a
single symphony consisting
of as
many
as six
movements,
of an
extraordinary variety
of musical
languages
and
references.
In
an influential
paper linking
Mahler's
compositional
practices
with those
of
Charles
Ives,
Robert
Morgan
has addressed
directly
the issues
of formal
disjunction
and
out-of-context
quotation
in
Mahler's
music;4
it is not his
purpose,
however,
to
attempt
to show how
Mahler-or,
for
that
matter,
Ives-achieves
structural
integration
despite
such
disjunction.5
Our
problem,
then,
is
that of
attempting
to discern
coherent musical
processes
or
relationships
in the
large
dimension of
the
piece
as
a whole.6
One such
process
concerns the
sense of
climax,
which
plays
a
cen-
tral
role
in
Mahler's
strategies
for
achieving
structural
integration,
both
within a
single
movement and across an
entire
symphony.
A
case
in
point
is
the
Adagio
of
the Tenth
Symphony;
I
have
argued
elsewhere
that the climactic section
(mm.
194-212)
serves as
the
culmination of
multiple
compositional processes
that
unfold
throughout
the move-
ment,
and that
the
culminating
nine-note chord
is
best understood as a
combination of the dominants of F-sharpand B-flat-the two keys that
are
opposed,
juxtaposed,
and combined
throughout
the
movement,
and
on
all structural levels.
I
referred to
this
culmination as
a
fusion
of
the
two tonalities.7 The
significance
of this climax for
the
symphony
as
a whole
is
underscored
by
its recurrence at m.
275
of the
Finale
(based,
for
practical
purposes,
on
Deryck
Cooke's
performing
version).
4
Robert
P.
Morgan,
Ives and
Mahler:
Mutual
Responses
at
the
End of an
Era,
i9th-Century
Music
I
(1978), 72-81.
5
Are the two
mutually
exclusive?
Morgan implies
that
they
are
( Ives
and
Mahler,
78).
I
will
argue
that
they
need not be.
6
It should
hardly
be
necessary
at this
point
to
emphasize
that the
problem
is
ours,
not
Mahler's. Criticisms-and dismissals-of Mahler have
always
been
founded
on
indict-
ments
of his
aesthetic,
not of his
technique; regarding
the
latter,
see the enthusiastic
essay
on
the
Fourth
Symphony
in
Donald Francis
Tovey,
Essays
in
Musical
Analysis,
vol. 6
(London,
1939), 73-83.
Leonard
Bernstein,
Mahler: His Time Has
Come
(1967),
reprinted
in
Words n Music
from
Addison to
Barzun,
ed.
Jack
Sullivan
(Athens,
OH,
199o),
267-72,
remains
perhaps
the most
eloquent
and
passionate
defense and
analysis
of
Mahler's
aesthetic.
7
Richard
A.
Kaplan,
The
Interaction
of
Diatonic Collections
in
the
Adagio
of
Mahler's Tenth
Symphony,
In
TheoryOnly
VI
(1981),
29-39. Bergquist,
The
First Move-
ment
of
Mahler's Tenth
Symphony,
offers a
large-scale
Schenkerian
treatment
from
which a sense of the scope and function of this climax is largely absent. For further com-
ments
on
Bergquist's
analysis
see V.
Kofi
Agawu,
Tonal
Strategy
in
the First
Movement
of
Mahler's Tenth
Symphony,
z9th-Century
Music
IX
(1986),
222-33
and,
with
specific
reference to
the
climax,
Agawu,
Structural
'Highpoints'
in
Schumann's
Dichterliebe,
Music
Analysis
III
(1984),
159.
215
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
5/21
216
THE
JOURNAL
OF MUSICOLOGY
The
phenomenon
to be
explored
here can be
regarded
as
another
form
of
fusion,
this
one
temporal
rather
than tonal in
nature,
but like-
wise
central to the sense of climax
in Mahler's
symphonies.
Let us
begin by
considering
the
role of two forms of
cyclic
recurrence in the
symphonies:
reminiscence and
foreshadowing.8
Each of these
phenom-
ena
has
its
own
functions,
and
the difference
between
the two is critical.
This difference can be described
as
one
of
context,
and
may
be
illustrated most
clearly by
a
pair
of
examples
drawn from
an
explicitly
dramatic musical source.
Reminiscence
entails
the
return,
in
the latter
portion
of
a
piece,
of material established
in
an earlier
context,
in
order
to draw a
specific
dramatic
relationship
or make a certain rhetori-
cal
point.
An
example
that
comes to
mind
is the
passage
in
Act
III
of
Die
Meistersinger,9
n which Hans Sachs christens the new mode of Mas-
tersong
that Walther has created: the music first refers to Kothner's
reading
of
the contest rules from Act
I
(a
fine
piece
of
irony,
given
Walther's
disdain of such
rules,
and
his ultimate transcendence of
them),
and then refers to the
opening
chorale
during
whose
singing
we
first
meet
Walther
and
Eva.
By
recalling
these two
passages, Wagner
underscores the
significance
and
solemnity
of
the Act
III
episode,
and
encourages
us to
interpret
it
in
light
of these Act
I
contexts.
Compare
with this
the
countermelody
that
accompanies
the
third
stanza of Sachs's cobbling song in Act II. This melody, which of course
becomes
the
opening
music
of
Act
III
and
in
turn the main theme
of
the
Wahn-Monolog,
nly
later
attains
its full
meaning;
at its
occurrence
in
Act
II,
it is out of
context,
or
better,
contextiess.
n
other
words,
we
would not
regard
the
Wahn-Monolog
s a
reminiscence of
the
cobbling
song,
for the
Act
III
occurrences
are
the true context of this
music;
rather,
the
countermelody
in
the
cobbling song
is
a
foreshadowing
f
the
later
passages.
This raises a
significant
dilemma,
since
time
is,
strictly
speaking,
uni-
directional.
If
the context of the
countermelody
in
Act
II
does
not
yet
exist,
or at
any
rate
is
not
yet
divulged,
then how are we to
understand
its
meaning?
How, indeed,
are we
to know
what-or,
for that
matter,
that
anything-is
being
foreshadowed? The
perceptive
listener
may
note
8
Warren
Storey
Smith,
The
Cyclic Principle
in
Musical
Design,
and
the Use
of
It
by
Bruckner
and
Mahler,
Chord
and
Discord
11/9
(196o),
3-32,
lists
many
cyclic
recur-
rences
of
themes
and
prominent
motives
in
Mahler's
symphonies.
Smith
emphasizes
the
unifying
role
of
these
recurrences;
while
not
denying
the
importance
of
this role
(it
fig-
ures
prominently
in
my
third
analytical
illustration,
for
example),
I
concentrate here on
the referential role, as described below.
9
The choice of
illustration
is
not an idle
one;
Mahler
conducted Die
Meistersinger
frequently, beginning
with a
triumphant production
in
Prague
in
1885,
and his
devotion
to this
opera
is
well documented. See
Henry-Louis
de La
Grange,
Mahler,
vol.
1
(Garden
City,
N.Y.,
1973), 136-38
and
533.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
6/21
KAPLAN
that the
countermelody
sounds
distinctly
out of
musical
context,
in
part
because
it
appears
only
in the final
stanza,
in
part
because
it is
fragmen-
tary-simply disappearing,
rather
than
ending. And,
of
course,
a listener
who has heard
Die
Meistersinger
ore than
once,
or who has access
to the
score
and is therefore able
in a
sense to defeat
this
temporal
unidirec-
tionality,
will know
in
advance
and
interpret
accordingly.
There
is
also a
sense, however,
in
which
each
experience
of
a
work,
no matter how
familiar,
creates
its own
reality,
its own sense of
time.1o
And,
in
this
sense,
the
countermelody
to
Sachs's
cobbling song
is
profoundly,
if
sub-
tly,
meaningful:
by casting
a
poignant
shadow-a
foreshadow,
if
one
may
be
permitted-over
the
clever,
humorous
Sachs
of
the Act
II
encounter
with
Beckmesser,
it
forces
us
ultimately
to reconsider
this Sachs
in
light
of the more
deeply philosophical
figure
that
emerges fully
in Act III.
There is
an
important
difference,
then,
between the effect of remi-
niscence
and that
of
foreshadowing;
it
is
a difference that Mahler ex-
ploits
with
far-reaching
consequences.
Reminiscence
in
some of his
symphonies
creates or enhances
an
end-climax, as,
for
example,
in
the
Eighth Symphony,
the
concluding
apotheosis
of the
opening
theme;
or,
in
the
Sixth,
the return of the first movement's drum cadence to
bring
the
tragedy
full
circle. Reminiscence
in
the
finale of the
First
Symphony plays
a
subtler
and more
pervasive
role: not
only
is the sub-
ject of the triumphal coda a transformation of the opening figure from
the first
movement's
introduction,
but the second
period
of the finale's
main theme
(mm.
63
ff.)
paraphrases
the F-minor
episode
from the
development
section of the first movement
(mm.
305
ff.),
even retain-
ing
its
F-minor
tonality.12
This
finale also features two
episodes-the
second
quite
extensive-built
on
cyclic
recurrences of material from
the first two movements
of
the
original
five-movement
version
(that
is,
the
first movement and the
suppressed
Blumine
movement).
The first of
these reminiscences
occurs
at
mm.
205-237,
within
a
passage
that
1o
See
Edward
T.
Cone's
remarks
in
this connection
in
MusicalForm
and
Musical Per-
formance
(New
York,
1968),
54-56,
and
in
On
Derivation:
Syntax
and
Rhetoric,
Music
Analysis
VI
(1987), 237-55.
Whether
in
such
cases we hear
a
true
reversed
temporality
or
(as
Cone
considers
more
likely)
a
compositional
derivation from
an
already
existing
melody
is
for
Cone a matter of
interpreting
according
to
either
programmatic
or
purely
musical
considerations.
As
for
the
Meistersinger
heme,
its
completeness
of
gesture
in
the
Act
III
opening
leads one to hear a sort of
bi-directional
derivation,
in
which this
passage
is the source of
both
the Act
II
countermelody
and
the
monologue.
1
Similarly,
the
main
theme of
the
first
movement
of
the Seventh is recalled
in
the
major
mode
at
the end of
the
finale.
12
The finale
begins,
and for
much
of
its
length
remains,
in F
minor;
the
passage
that effects the final shift to D major-the principal key of the symphony-in mm.
580-630
is almost
identical to
the
corresponding passage
in
the
first
movement
(mm.
311-357),
which functions as the retransition.
Apart
from
any
programmatic implica-
tions that
this
cyclical
recurrence
may
carry,
this
referential use
of
tonality helps
to
explain
the
anomalous
tonal
structure
of the
finale.
217
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
7/21
218
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
begins
at
m.
175
and
corresponds
to the second
theme-group
of a
sonata structure.'3
The second
episode
occurs at
mm.
428-532
and
fea-
tures more explicit thematic and motivic references. These passages are
representative
of
what
might
be called the wistful
type
of
reminis-
cence,
as contrasted
with the
climactic
recurrences
cited above. Even
before the Blumine
movement was
performed
and
published,
one was
aware of their reminiscent character:
notice,
for
example,
the contrast
in
mood with the
surrounding
Sturm
und
Drang,
the
changes
in
tempo
and
dynamics,
and
the
extensive use of
pedal points.
The
rediscovery
of
Blumine,
among
other
things,
revealed
the context
for
much
of
the
reminiscence;
whether or not this movement
belongs
in
the
sym-
phony's
rhetorical
lan,
it
is
an
integral
element
of
its
cyclical
plan,
and
thus
represents
an
indispensable
tool in
explicating
the
problematic
structure
of the
finale.14
These
examples
and
others
suggest
that reminiscence was a central
element
in
Mahler's
symphonic thought.
Even
so,
they
break
relatively
little
new
compositional
ground, representing
rather a set
of
fairly
stan-
dard
nineteenth-century symphonic gestures.
One
need look
no
fur-
ther than the
symphonies
of
Beethoven and Brahms-or for that
mat-
ter,
of
Bruckner, Dvorik,
and
Tchaikovsky-to
find
precedents
for
these
types
of reminiscence.
Mahler's uses of foreshadowing, however, are both novel and far-
reaching
in
their formal
and
dramatic
implications.
Each
of the follow-
ing
analytical
discussions
will
focus on an
individual movement-in
fact,
on a
specific passage
within
a
movement-to show
how Mahler's
use
of
foreshadowing, especially
in combination
with the use of remi-
niscence,
provides
in
these
passages
a
touchstone for
our
understand-
ing
of
the entire
symphony.
Symphony
No.
2,
Third
Movement
We begin by
considering
the climax of this move-
ment,
the
passage
to which Mahler referred in
his
later-suppressed pro-
gram
as a
cry
of
desperation. 5s
Table
1
offers
a
broad formal
overview
of the movement. This
table,
like
any
such
chart,
is
not intended to con-
vey
all of the
complex relationships
between
sections and the
dynamic
'3
Note that the transitional
passage beginning
at
m.
238
is
also
based
on
the
open-
ing
motive of the first
movement,
while its bass line
(cellos,
divided)
prefigures
an
im-
portant
motive
of
the
first
movement
of
the Second
Symphony.
14
I
explore
these and other
aspects
of
this
movement's
musical
logic
in
greater
detail
in
The
Finale
of
Mahler's
First:
Cyclicism,
Narrative,
and
the
'Footsteps
of
the
Giant', paper read at the American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh,
November
1992.
'5
A
reproduction
of Mahler's
handwritten
program
and
a full
English
translation
appear
in
Donald
Mitchell,
Gustav
Mahler:
The
Wunderhorn
Years
(Berkeley
and Los
Ange-
les,
1975),
179-84.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
8/21
KAPLAN
TABLE 1
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
2, III
Measures
1-102
Scherzo-A
(c)
103-148
B
(F)
149-189
A'
(c)
190-211
Ostinato
Bridge
212-234
Interruption
I
(D)
235-256
Ostinato
Bridge
resumes
257-271
Interruption
II
(E)
272-327 Trio (E)
328-347
Ostinato
Bridge
as retrans.
348-406
Scherzo-A
407-440
B
441-464
Interruption
III
(C)
465-528 Cataclysm
529-544
Retransition
545-581
Scherzo-A'
musical
processes
that characterize the
movement; rather,
it
is
provided
to establish the formal context
of the
events
to
be discussed below.
The
Scherzo
proper
is a
three-part
structure,
in
contrast to the
standard
binary
model;
this is
doubtless a
carryover
from
its
Wunderhorn
origin.'6
The section
that
I
label
A' is, however,
considerably
con-
densed,
and
serves a sort
of
closing
function.
I
call the music that
fol-
lows this an ostinato
bridge
rather than
a
trio because of its
static
nature,
exemplified
by
the
insistent
motivic
repetitions
and the
pedal
points; it seems not so much to represent a new section as to await the
arrival
of
a new
section.'7 It
may
seem
paradoxical
to call that
which
fol-
lows such a
passage
an
interruption,
but this seems the most
apt
description
of the
D-major
passage beginning
at
m. 212,
because of
the
suddenness of its
contrast-tonal,
dynamic,
textural-with the
bridge.
Recall, too,
that the
interruption
breaks
in
on the fourth measure of a
16
As
is well
known,
the Scherzo is a
paraphrase
of
Mahler's
song,
Des Antonius
von
Padua
Fischpredigt,
from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. ee
Mitchell,
The Wunderhorn
Years,
136-38
and
171-76
for details on the
relationship
and
chronology
of the two works.
17
La Grange, by contrast, labels the entire section from mm. 190-347 Trio, and
calls the
E-major
trumpet
solo
in
m.
272
an
interruption
(Mahler,
vol.
1,
789).
There has
in
fact been much
disagreement concerning
the
actual
location of
the
trio;
see Claudia
Maurer
Zenck,
Technik
und
Gehalt
im
Scherzo von
Mahlers
Zweiter
Symphonie,
Melos/Neue
Zeitschriftfiir
Musik
II
(1976),
179-85.
219
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
9/21
220
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
four-bar
pattern-a
measure too
early,
so to
speak-thus
providing
a
rhythmic
unexpectedness
as
well.18
The second
interruption
is
in E
major,
a
rise
of
another whole
step.
This
tightening-up
of
intensity through large-scale rising sequence
brings
to mind another
example
from
Wagner,
that
of
Tannhdiuser's
song
to
Venus,
whose three stanzas are
respectively
in
D-flat,
D,
and
E-
flat
major;
or,
closer to
home,
the
thrice-repeated
refrain
Dunkel
ist
das
Leben,
ist der Tod
in the first
movement
of
Das
Lied von der
Erde,
which occurs
in
G, A-flat,
and
A
minor.'9
Mahler deflects the tension
in
the
present
movement,
however,
by using
the second
interruption
to
usher
in
the
trio,
leaving
us in
the
position,
one
might
say,
of
waiting
for the
third shoe to
drop.
The third interruption occurs-and I intend no tautology here-at
an
unexpected
moment;
the trio
having
run its
course,
and the first two
parts
of the scherzo
having
been
reprised,
one
might predict
a thor-
oughly
conventional conclusion to
the
da
capo.
In
fact,
as Table
1
shows,
the
A'
music does
eventually
recur,
and when it recurs
it
does
ul-
fill
its
closing
function.
So
what
are we to
make
of
this third
interrup-
tion? This
passage-and
it is
interesting
to observe that the
interruptions,
like
other
signal
events
in
Mahler such as the refrain from Das Lied
and
the hammer
blows
in
the
Finale of the
Sixth,
come in
threes-is
clearly
an event of a different order from the first two. Its position in the move-
ment's
formal
scheme
aside,
this
passage
has a
ferocity
lacking
in its
two
predecessors;
note the
open
fifths with
which it
begins,
the
dy-
namic
(the
only
full
orchestral
triple-forte
in
the
movement),
and the
extraordinary
orchestration,
including
the use of extreme
registers
and
two tam-tams.
This
interruption
leads to a climax of
cataclysmic
pro-
portions
(I
use
this
adjective advisedly,
in
light
of
the
programmatic
implications).
There
are three critical
points
to be made
concerning
this
climax.
The first is
that
nothing
ik
the
movement,
or
for
that matter
in
the
sym-
phony
to
this
point,
has
prepared
the listener for
a
cataclysm
on
this
scale.
The
second
is
that,
following immediately
on
the
unleashing
of
the
cataclysm,
materials
from
earlier
in
the movement
are drawn into
the texture. The
third,
of
course,
is that
this same music recurs
twice
in
the fifth and final movement
of the
symphony:
at
its
opening,
and
immediately
preceding
der
grosse
Appel,
where
Mahler's
program
explic-
itly
relates it
to
the
cry
of
souls
approaching
the last
judgment.
18
The
sudden tonal shift a
major
second
upward
is
a device
Mahler
had
already
used
to
great
effect
in the
finale of the First
Symphony,
m.
375. Interestingly,
the
shift
in
this
passage
is also from C
major
to
D
major.
'9
Another
passage
that uses
the
same tonal
strategy
is
the
aria
of the
Italian tenor
in
Act I of
Strauss's
Der
Rosenkavalier,
whose two
stanzas
are in
D-flat and
D
major.
Since
the
aria
is-literally-interrupted,
we
have no
way
of
knowing
whether the tenor
was also
planning
a third
stanza
in
E-flat.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
10/21
KAPLAN
The first
of
these
three
points
is,
I
believe,
self-evident. As for the
second,
note
the fortissimo
return of
the ostinato
bridge
subject
in m.
481
(see
Example
1),
and
two
measures
later,
of
the
timpani
strokes
that
opened
the movement. The
drawing
of these elements into this cli-
max is to these ears the
most
frankly terrifying
moment
in
the entire
piece-an
illustration of
the
power
of
the
return
of
familiar material
in
a new
context.
In
the measures that
immediately
follow,
two elements
are introduced
that are
new,
but that will
figure prominently
in the last
movement:
the
repeated neighbor figure
6-5
at
m.
489,
and the trum-
pet
call at
m.
497.
Thus,
this climactic
passage
features both
reminiscence-in
the
return of the
bridge
and the
timpani
strokes-and
foreshadowing
of
fifth-movement material. This juxtaposition, or better, superimposition,
creates a focal
point
for the entire work: a
temporal
fusion
in
which the
past
and
the future are
merged
into a transcendent
present.
The third critical
point
is
the return of the
cataclysm
in
the last
movement,
where
its
meaning
is
made
much
more
clear,
both musi-
cally
and
programmatically.
This,
together
with the fact that the listener
confronts
the
third-movement
cataclysm
in
a sense
unprepared,
pro-
duces
in
this
passage
the effect of
a
large-scale foreshadowing
of
the
finale;
for
the finale is
in
fact
the
true context of
this
passage.
And
this,
more than any other factor, is what gives the passage so profound an
effect at its first occurrence.
Symphony
No.
4,
Third
Movement
Let
us
next
consider the luminous
triple-forte
out-
burst that
occurs near the end of this
movement
(m.
315
ff.).
The effect
of this outburst
derives
in
part
from its
dynamic
contrast with the
pre-
ceding triple-piano passage,
in
part
from
the
brilliance of its
orchestra-
tion,
and
in
part
from its
abrupt
tonal shift from
G
major
to
E
major.
But
the keystones to understanding this passage as a climax are its thematic
and
motivic
references,
shown on the score
extract
given
in
Example
2.20
Notice
that the first two of these references-those in the
timpani
and
in
the
trumpets
at
m.
318-are
to
motives that
are
prominent
throughout
the third
movement;
such references
play
a normative role
in
climactic
passages
on the level
of the
individual movement. But
in
the four
measures
that
follow,
there occur references
to
first-movement mate-
rial-in the horns and
trumpets,
as
indicated-and,
most
signifi-
cantly,
to the
opening
theme of the
fourth
movement,
also
in
the horns.
Thus,
this
climax,
like that
of the Scherzo
of the
Second
Sym-
phony,
combines reminiscence and
foreshadowing, fusing
in a
single
20
The
example
shows
only
the
brass
and
timpani
parts.
221
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
11/21
222
THE
JOURNAL
OF MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE
1.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
2,
III;
mm.
481-501.
W.W., Hr.,
V1.
pit,
Pk.
ff
nmf
Vc.,
Cb.
(col ) f Mf
P
(co•l
--I
-
--
-----
--= -
Via.
fill-
9:
•
_ow
•':
J
-•
J
t
•
t-
;
[
J ' l
__
_P.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
12/21
KAPLAN
EXAMPLE
1.
(continued)
Tr., Hr.
col 8
p/pp
pIW
musical
gesture
materials from three
of
the
four movements. Note
also
that
the
tonal shift
from G
major
to
E
major
not
only prefigures
the
tonal
motion of
the
Finale,
but
replicates
locally
the
overall
tonal struc-
ture
of the
symphony
as a
whole. Taken
together,
the
tonal
and
motivic
structures thus create
a focal
point
for
the
entire
symphony.
Symphony No. 5, Fifth Movement
Each of
the
outer
parts
of this
symphony
culmi-
nates,
near
the
end,
in a
triumphant
chorale-like
passage
for
brass
223
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
13/21
224
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE
2.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
4,
III;
mm.
318-325-
Pesante
Schalltrichterauf
1.2.
Horn
Schalltrichter
auf
1.
_ _
_
_ _
r 1
Trp.
-
-
in F
Schalltrichter
auf
2.3.
Omit 2
Schldigeln
Pk.
tr
f
p
f
fp
IL-
f
P
o
14 0
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
14/21
KAPLAN
instruments.21 The
relationship
of
these two
passages-and
the role
of
the finale chorale
in
particular-has
troubled
any
number
of
students
of
Mahler's music, among them Kennedy, who considers the recall of the
second-movement
chorale
contrived,22
and
Greene,
who finds
the
lumi-
nosity
of the earlier chorale
far more
glorious
and brilliant.23
Barford
goes
further,
calling
the entire
Rondo feeble
and, more,
a
windy,
uninspired
stretch
of
note-spinning
literally
[sic]
scraping
the barrel in
search of
music. 24
I believe that these authors have missed the
point,
however,
and
that Cone is
exactly right
when he asserts that the final
chorale does
in fact
provide
the
requisite
climax to
the entire work.25
Determining
that this
is so is
largely
a matter of
hearing
beyond
local
disjunctions
and
discerning
the histories of three distinct musical
processes
as
they
unfold
throughout
the
symphony.
The first and most
transparent
of these
processes
consists
in
the transformation
of
the
chorale
itself,
as illustrated
in
Example
3.
The first occurrence of the
chorale
in
any
form comes at
m.
316
of
the second
movement,
or
slightly past
the movement's
midpoint (Example
3a).
This
passage
is in
A
major,
however,
the
parallel
major
of
the
key
of
the movement and
the dominant
of
D,
the
key
that
eventually
emerges
as the
symphony's
tonal
goal.
Further,
it is
abortive,
being
abandoned after
only
61/2
mea-
sures
with the
abrupt
return
of
the movement's
opening
material;
Mahler takes the unusual step here of drawing a dotted bar line in mid-
measure
in the score to mark the
Tempoprimo
subito.26
The next chorale-the
one to which
Kennedy
and Greene ascribe
primacy-occurs
near the end of the same
movement,
beginning
at m.
464
(Example
3b);
the
opening
of the fifth-movement chorale is
given
in
Example
3c.
21
Mahler
divides he five movementsof the
symphony
nto
three
parts,
as follows:
I
1. Trauermarsch
2.
II
3.
Scherzo
III
4.
Adagietto
5.
Rondo-Finale.
22
Michael
Kennedy,
Mahler
London,
1974),
117.
23
Greene,
Mahler, 19.
Greene also
says
that the finale chorale is
ungenerated
y
its
past
in
either the second or
the fifth movement.
Murphy
Unusual
Forms,
o8-o9)
does not
engage
the
issue
at
all,
merely
cataloguing
onal areasand
thematic
recurrences;
in
his
analysis,
the
chorale
(together
with the
coda)
is
designated
as the final
A n
the
formalscheme ABACBCACBA.
24
Philip
T.
Barford,
Mahler:
A
Thematic
Archetype,
The Music Review
XXI
(1960), 316.
These remarks
are
tangential
o Barford'smain
point,
which is the illustra-
tion of a common melodic
structure
underlying
many
of Mahler's hemes.
25
Cone, OnDerivation, 49.
26
Mahler indicates
another
abrupt
formal
discontinuity
in
m.
266,
where
a
strin-
gendo
s
interrupted
by
the
return
of the first-movement uneral
march,
by drawing
a
dashed doublebar
in
mid-measure. These
extraordinary
notations
testify
to Mahler's sen-
sitivity
to the effect of such
interruptions
in
his music.
225
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
15/21
226
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE
3a.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
II; mm.
316-322.
R,,
..
. . .
.4- ,
sf
EXAMPLE 3b.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
II; mm.
464-473-
EXAMPLE
3c. Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
V;
mm.
711-718.
There are
many
reasons
why
the second-movement
chorale
shouldn't
be the
primary
climax of the
symphony,
the
most
trivial of which is
that
there are still three movements and
some
forty
minutes to
go.
But
there
are other, more substantive reasons for regarding the triumph repre-
sented here as
incomplete.
While
this
chorale
is in D
major,
unlike
its
fleeting predecessor,
the
D
major
is not
yet
allowed to
prevail,
and the movement
ends,
as it
began,
in A
minor.
Notice,
further,
that while Mahler
takes care to
notate
Hihepunkt
n
the score
on
the
downbeat
of m.
500
(Example
4a),
this is
followed
almost
immediately by
a
decrescendo and
by
the
reintroduction
of
minor-mode elements
beginning
in m.
516.
Notice,
finally,
that the
ascendancy
of
D-major
tonality
is
thwarted
by
the
deceptive
cadence and
again by
the reassertion of
the movement's
opening
material,
both in m.
520.27
As a result of
Mahler's
deliberate
placement
of the climax at the
very
opening
of
the second
subsection
of the
chorale,
the
process
of dissolution
takes
place
over a
twenty-
measure
span.
The
premature
arrival
of
the
H6hepunkt
hereby
vitiates
its
impact
and undermines its
conclusiveness.
Compare
with
this
the chorale that
begins
at m.
711
of the Finale.
In its second subsection
(i.e.,
from
m.
731
on,
corresponding
to the
27
The harmony at m.
520
is not the enharmonically spelled dominant minor
ninth
(presumably
of
E-flat)
suggested
in
Carolyn
Baxendale,
The Finale of
Mahler's
Fifth
Symphony: Long-range
Musical
Thought, Journal of
the
Royal
Musical
Association
CXII
(1987), 263,
but a common-tone diminished-seventh chord
over
b6
in
the
bass-the
standard bass tone for a
deceptive
cadence.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
16/21
KAPLAN
EXAMPLE
4a.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
II; mm.
499-508.
HMhepunkt
EXAMPLE 4b.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
V;
mm.
731-737.
o~ 4
H6hepunkt
f
the second-movement
chorale),
the
melody
of this
passage
is
identical
in
pitch-class
structure to that of the
earlier chorale
(see
Examples
4a
and
4b).
But the
differences are critical: the first four
mea-
sures
of
the
original
are
compressed
into
two,
increasing
forward
drive;
and the a'-bi-a'
of
mm.
505
through
508
are
transposed
up
an
octave,
into
the
trumpet's
most brilliant
register.
Further,
there
is no
diminu-
endo until
m.
736,
and then
only
in
the
trumpets;
in
fact,
Mahler
writes
a new fortissimo in the heavy brass at the trumpet's b2, and calls for a
crescendo
in
the horns-which are
already
marked
triple-forte
at
m.
731.
It is
clear, then,
that
the
H6hepunkt
f this
chorale-while
not
indi-
cated
explicitly,
as it is in
the second
movement-arrives
later,
at m.
735
or
737. Finally,
the cadence is
approached
with
another crescendo
and
remains
in
the
major
mode. And
while
this
cadence
may
not
be defini-
tive-it leads rather to the
Allegro
moltocoda-it
is
authentic.
So,
the
chorale of the fifth
movement
succeeds
(to
use Cone's
word)
in
ways
that that of the second movement
fails ;
by
comparison,
the
H6hepunkt
of
the second movement seems
premature,
and
the
triumph
short-lived.
The second of the
processes
that contribute to the
ultimate
sense
of
climax
in this
symphony
is
the
emergence
of the
chorale
from
a
seed
planted
as
early
as the first
movement.
This
seed is
a motive
that
first
appears explicitly
in
m.
295, accompanying
the second
funeral-march
subject,
as shown in
Example
5a.
The
motive,
hereafter
designated
motive
A,
features a
large
rising
leap
across a bar
line-a
seventh
in
its first
appearance,
later
usually
an octave or
a
ninth-followed
by
a
stepwise
descent.28
Once
introduced,
motive
A
quickly
asserts its
28
In
its
ascending
leap
to an accented
dissonance
and
its
subsequent
stepwise
descent,
this
motive-fundamentally
an
appoggiatura
figure-bears
a
clear familial rela-
tion to Barford's
archetype
( A
Thematic
Archetype,
297).
Interestingly,
while
Barford
gives
nine
examples
of
passages
in
the
Fifth
Symphony
that are
derived from the
archetype
227
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
17/21
228
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE 5a.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
I; mm.
295-298.
,
,
I I
k,
.
•- I'
EXAMPLE 5b.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
I;
mm.
323-331.
A
i.
I
Via.,
div.
L-- 3
7._
prominence,
not
only
in
a
continuing accompanimental
role but as an
underlying
structure
in
the theme
of the
following
section
(see
the
bracketed and beamed pitch structures in Example 5b). This section
leads to the
triple-forte
climax of the movement
(mm.
369
ff.,
Kiagend),
of which
motive
A
also forms the melodic
basis.
While
the role
of
Motive
A in the first movement is
primarily
accompanimental,
it becomes the
Hauptmotifof
the
main theme
of
the
second,
as shown
in
Example
6.
Subsequently,
in
various
guises,
it
becomes
either
the basis
of,
or
the
accompaniment
to,
virtually every
new
melodic
formulation
in the
movement.
While it would
be
imprac-
tical to illustrate all
these
relationships
here,
a
perusal
of the score will
ical to illustrate all these relationships here, a perusal of the score will
he
proposes
(Exx.
66-74: 304),
he does not relate
it
explicitly
to the
motive
under dis-
cussion
here.
This
may
be because
the
archetype
features a
multiple
anacrusis,
with a
step-
wise
ascent
preceding
the
leap.
See also
Parks
Grant,
Mahler's
Fifth
Symphony,
Chord
and Discord
II/1o
(1963), 125-37,
where motive
A is
mentioned
as a
cyclic
element.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
18/21
KAPLAN
EXAMPLE
6.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
II;
mm.
7-10.
EXAMPLE 7.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
III;
mm.
1-6.
yield multiple examples:
see
mm.
32-35;
mm.
189-213,
where the
sys-
tematic
expansion
of
the
leap
from
a sixth to a ninth
provides
the
basis
for an
extended
episode
for cellos
alone;
and
m.
287,
where
motive
A
becomes
the
Hauptmotif
of what Cooke
calls a
' jaunty
march. 29
Moreover,
each of the chorales is
likewise initiated
by
this
motivic
structure,
as
seen
in
Example
3;
notice
particularly
the
near
identity
in
pitch
level of the
opening
of
Example
3a
and
the third measure of
Example 6. The chorale near the end of the second movement, then,
grows
organically
out of
materials that
permeate
the
movement.
Motive
A is
hardly
prominent
in
the
third and
fourth
movements,
at
least on the
foreground
level;
its
contour, however,
is
subtly
embedded
in
certain
thematic
materials of
the
Scherzo,
notably
its
opening
theme,
as
suggested
in
Example
7.30
So,
while the
emergence
of this
motive is
central to the
understanding
of
the
second-movement
chorales,
it is
not
ultimately
sufficient
to
explain
the
emergence
and
transcendence of
the
finale chorale.
This leads to consideration of
the third of
the
compositional
processes
that
converge
in
this final
chorale: that of
the
transformation
and
apotheosis
of fourth- and
fifth-movement
materials.3'
This
process
is
pervasive
in
a
way
that
likewise characterizes
Mahler's other
Rondo-
Finale,
the
fifth
movement of
the Seventh
Symphony,
in
which
contra-
puntal
textures
again predominate.
It can
be
seen,
for
example,
in
the
2•)
Deryck
Cooke,
Gustav
Mahler:
An
Introduction o
his Music
(Cambridge,
1980),
82.
3:0
See also
Barford's
Example 73
(304).
Colin
Matthews
(Mahler
at
Work:
Aspects
of
the
CreativeProcess
New
York &
London,
1989],
62-63)
points
out
that
the
first
five
notes
of the
melody
were
added
by
Mahler to the
fair
copy,
and
that measure
3
(the
tied dot-
ted half-note b') was also new. Further, the clarinet and bassoon parts originally began
with the
present
measure
6;
both
motive
A
embeddings
thus were
afterthoughts.
(The
bassoons
are
given
in
the
wrong
clef
in
Matthews's
transcription
of
the
manuscript;
it
is
not clear
whether
the
error
is Mahler's
or
Matthews's.)
3'
Motivic
process
and tonal
structure are treated
in
detail
in
Baxendale,
The
Finale
of
Mahler's Fifth
Symphony.
229
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
19/21
230
THE
JOURNAL
OF MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE
8a.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
V;
mm.
16-27.
A10
-
pI
-
EXAMPLE
8b.
Mahler,
Symphony
No.
5,
V;
mm.
741-751.
,
J.
_
ILi
I
I-
-T--
A
r•
col
8
*Violin
parts
havebeen
simplified
link
from
the chorale to the
coda,
where the
interlocking
fourth-spans
that had
originally
led from
the
introduction
to the main
body
of
the
movement
(see
Example
8a)
now
infiltrate
the bass: first
in
contrary
motion to
the
melody,
then as a basso ostinato hat is
repeated
no fewer
than
twenty
times
through
m.
778
(see
Example
8b).32
And
the
horn
parts
beginning
in
m.
748,
which
may
at
first
be
perceived
as
another,
incomplete fourth-span,
actually
state a transformation of the
theme
introduced
by
the clarinet
in m.
16
(see
Example
8a).
The chorale itself
(m.
71
1)
combines
contrapuntally
two of the
main
themes of the movement:
the
fugato subject
of
m.
56,
and the counter-
32
The sixth and the
last four
repetitions
are
in
the
trumpets,
the rest
in
the
bas-
soons, cellos,
and
basses,
with
the
gradual
addition
of
tuba
and
trombones.
In mm.
771-774
the
figure
appears
simultaneously
in
the
trumpets
and
in
2:i
diminution
in
the
bass
instruments.
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
20/21
KAPLAN
subject
first stated
in m.
88,33
the
latter
in
an
augmentation
that
gives
the effect of an
apotheosis.
This
apotheosis
is
the reason that the fifth-
movement chorale has an
opening melody
different from
that of the
second-movement chorale
(cf.
Examples
3b
and
3c), although
both
share the motivic derivation
I
have cited. The arrival of this
chorale,
in
other
words,
is the culmination of a thematic
process
that is central to
the
organization
of Part
III.
However,
the
material
that
the two chorales
share-as seen
in
Example
4-is
none other than the
apotheosis
of the
theme stated at the outset of the fifth
movement,
and shown
in
Example
8a.
Here,
perhaps,
is the most
important
reason
that the second-
movement chorale is destined
to
fail-in Cone's
words,
deserves to
fail :34
t
represents
only
a
foreshadowing
of a theme that is
formally
introduced, as it were, and brought to its ultimate fruition, in the finale.
We
thus
understand the
ending
of the
Fifth
Symphony
as the con-
fluence of
multiple processes-narrative, temporal,
thematic and
motivic-that thread
their
way
throughout
the
symphony
in
a
complex
web of
interrelationships.
This
example,
like those
of
the Second and
Fourth
Symphonies,
illustrates the
climactic
role of
fusion;
it
differs
from
them,
though,
not
only
in
its
complexity
but also
in
the occur-
rence of the fusion
only
at
the
end of
the entire
symphony.
This with-
holding
of the final
revelation,
literally
until the last
minute,
perhaps
invites misinterpretation by listeners disinclined to remain so long in
suspense.
But it is
only by recognizing
the contextlessness of
the latter
portion
of the second-movement chorale
(a
property
that
Mahler,
as we
have
seen,
underscores
in
multiple
ways)
that we can
recognize
this
pas-
sage
not as a true
climax
but
rather
as an
event much
like
the fore-
shadowing
of the
Wahn-Monolog:
he initial intimation of an idea rich
in
unfulfilled
implications,
the
systematic
development
of which will
play
a
central role
in
events
yet
to be revealed.
The
mystique
that
surrounds Mahler as man and
composer
shows
every sign
of
surviving
a
level of attention and a
wealth
of
performances
that would have been unthinkable
only
a
few
years
ago.
One
striking
feature
of this
mystique
is the attention Mahler has
received
from
non-musical
specialists,
for
whom
he
seems
perhaps
to
33
This theme is
actually
hinted
at-foreshadowed?-in
m.
52, just
before
the
fugato begins.
34
Cone,
On
Derivation,
249;
this is also
certainly
true
of
the unsuccessful chorale
entry
in
m.
511
of
the Finale. Of the climactic chorale
of
m.
71
i,
Cone
says
that
the
pero-
ration is heard as fully derived from the themes of the rondo that it triumphantly con-
cludes. It has earned
its
success,
so to
speak,
the hard
way--by
submitting
to
the normal
processes
of
thematic statement
and
development.
As
a
result,
it sounds as
if
it
really
belongs
to
the
movement--not,
like so
many cyclic
returns,
arbitrarily
introduced.
Com-
pare
with this
the
view
expressed by
Greene
(see
note
23,
above).
231
8/20/2019 Temporal Fusion and Climax in the Symphonies of Mahler
21/21
232
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
personify
the late-Romantic artist: the Ken Russell
film,
for
example;
the well-known
essay
by
Lewis
Thomas;35
the
psycho-musicological
stud-
ies
by
Stuart
Feder;36and,
of
course,
the book
by
Professor of
Divinity
David Greene.
Even
among
musicians,
though,
his
music continues to
elicit
uniquely
deep
and
powerful responses;
Barford,
for
example,
writes,
I have known
quite
a few
people
who,
having
become devoted
Mahlerians,
eventually
found themselves
living
in
a
world
of
melan-
choly introspection
and romantic
aspiration,
in
relation to which their
daily
duties
and
responsibilities
came to seem an
unpleasantly irritating
obtrusion. 37
It seems to
me that
many
of the
qualities
in
Mahler's works that
evoke
such broad and
deep
responses
are
the same
qualities
that
make
them so difficult to
apprehend.
These works, in other words,
present
unique
musico-dramatic
problems
that demand
unique
analytic
solu-
tions.
The
approach
that
I
have
suggested
here is one
that
neither
rejects
the
tools of
conventional
analysis
in
its various
forms,
nor
embraces a
priori
the
mechanistic
application
of a
particular
analytic
paradigm;
rather,
it
enlists some
of the music's most
palpable
charac-
teristics-its use of
time, recurrence,
and
climax-as
means for
allow-
ing
each
work to reveal
aspects
of
its
deepest logic
and
meaning.
Louisiana StateUniversity
35
This is
the title
essay
in
Lewis
Thomas,
Late
Night
Thoughts
on
Listening
to
Mahler's
Ninth
Symphony
New
York,
1983).
For
Thomas, Mahler's
music
represents
a
premonition
of
nuclear
annihilation.
:(6
Stuart
Feder,
Gustav Mahler Um
Mitternacht,
InternationalReview
of
Psycho-
analysis
VII
(1980),
1
1-26;
Gustav
Mahler:
The
Music of
Fratricide,
International
Review
of
Psychoanalysis
VIII
(198
1
),
257-84-
3:7
Barford,
A Thematic
Archetype,
308.
I
suspect
that what
Barford was
witnessing
was
actually
the reverse of
the
process
he
describes;
is it
not
more
likely
that
certain
peo-
ple
find
in
Mahler's music
something
that
resonates
with
their
own
temperaments?