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GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911)
Symphony No. in D major
Scored for four utes and two piccolos, four oboes
and English horn, four clarinets and bass clarinet,
three bassoons and contrabassoon, seven horns, ve
trumpets, four trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals,
triangle, tam-tam, bass drum, harp, and strings
A new symphonic universe was born in the
Symphony No. by Gustav Mahler, one in
which life and music remained virtually insep-
arable.
is sound world invariably re ected
the composer’s personal con ict, religious and
philosophical outlook and the current state of
his psyche. As Mahler wrote in
, “It is only
when I truly live that I compose, and only when
I compose that I truly live.” His debut orchestral
work su ered a dismal failure at its
world
premiere, and this “child of sorrow” remained
one of Mahler’s least popular works until long
a er his death. Many in Budapest recognized
immediately the subtle and imaginative orches-
tration of their new opera director. Yet even a
relatively sympathetic critic like August Beer
would write, “He frankly staggers us by his vir-
tuosity in handling the modern orchestra … yet
he is easily led astray by just this technical supe-
riority into using harsh colors and exaggerations
of expression.”
Mahler’s conception of the Symphony No.
changed several times. For the Budapest pre-
miere, the work was listed as Symphonic Poem
in Two Parts.
ere were ve movements—
Part I: .
Introduction and Allegro comodo
, .
An-
dante
, and .
Scherzo
; and Part II: .
À la pompes
funèbres
and .
Molto appassionato
. Listeners,
though, expected printed explanations of “sym-
phonic poems” such as those accompanying
the programmatic works of Berlioz, Liszt, and
Smetana. Mahler o ered none to his Budapest
audiences.
In Hamburg ( ), Mahler expanded his pro-
grammatic outline and changed the work’s name
to
Titan, a Tone Poem in Symphonic Form
.
e
title
Titan
came from a novel by Jean Paul, whom
Mahler admired for his “extravagances, his love
of nature, his exaltation, and his sudden shi s
from the sublime to the grotesque.” Descriptive
labels were added to all parts of the tone poem—
Part I, From the Days of Youth: .
Spring without
End
, .
Blumine
, and .
In Full Sail
; and Part II,
Commedia humana: .
Aground
(Funeral March
“in the manner of Calot”) and .
Dall’ Inferno
.
By the time his score appeared in print (
),
Mahler had made a complete about-face in his
opinion of program music. In
, he wrote,
“Just as I nd it banal to invent music for a pro-
gram, I nd it unsatisfactory and unfruitful to
attempt to provide a program to a piece of mu-
sic—this in spite of the fact that the immediate
cause of a musical conception is certainly an
experience of the author, that is to say, a fact
which is surely concrete enough to be described
in words.” e composer stripped away the pro-
grammatic titles and excised the
Blumine
move-
ment. A more traditional symphonic structure
resulted, although the thematic allusions re-
mained intact.
Symphony No. opens “like a sound of nature”
with a single, sustained pitch. To this hushed
atmosphere, Mahler rst adds a descending
fourth, an interval that soon blossoms into
cuckoo calls and the jaunty main theme.
is
melody is borrowed from the second piece in
the composer’s song cycle
Lieder eines fahren-
den Gesellen
(
Songs of the Wayfarer
), “Ging heut
Morgen über’s Feld” (“ is Morning I Went
through the Field”). Kaleidoscopic transforma-
tions of the theme build to an exhilarating end.
Blumine
, as Donald Mitchell has observed, very
likely originated among Mahler’s incidental mu-
sic for Joseph Sche el’s
Der Trompeter von Säk-
kingen
(
). Mitchell based his presumption
on the near similarity between a trumpet tune
from the now-lost incidental music, notated
from memory by Max Steinitzer, and a melody
in
Blumine
. In the original theatrical context,
this material provided a tender serenade sung
described as “the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns
his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged, and dis-
honored a er his desperate e ort to save it.” is
movement gathered meaning when performed
in
, ve years a er its composition, as the
full horrors of Nazi eradication of the Jews be-
came more widely known. Never one to mince
words, Bernstein angrily exclaimed: “How can
I be blind to the problems of my own people?
I’d give everything I have to be able to strike a
death blow to Fascism.” e vocal melody con-
tains motives from the kinnot (dirges) chanted
on Tisha B’Av (Ninth Day of Ab), a fast day com-
memorating the destruction of the Temple.
Bernstein programmed the “Jeremiah” Sympho-
ny throughout his career to emphasize the plight
of the Jewish people or whenever he sought
musical commentary on social injustices.
e
New York Philharmonic premiere took place
on a spring
bene t concert for Red Mo-
gen David, a rst-aid agency in Palestine. He
scheduled “Jeremiah” for his acclaimed Middle
East conducting debut in
with the Palestine
Symphony Orchestra (later renamed the Israel
Philharmonic). However, the instrumental parts
were lost during his ight from Rome. Bernstein
quickly found another set of parts and resched-
uled the regional premiere for his second con-
cert in Tel Aviv. He also programmed “Jeremiah”
for his rst post-war conducting engagement in
Munich, once a center of Nazism. Two decades
later, the composer-conductor revived the sym-
phony during the Vietnam War, which he loud-
ly criticized as a senseless con ict. Bernstein
included this symphony with mezzo-soprano
Christa Ludwig on his October
program at
the Vatican.
Eicha yashva vadad ha’ir
Rabati am
Hay’ta k’almana;
Rabati vagoyim
Sarati bam’dinot
Hay’ta lamas.
Bacho tivkeh balaila
V’dim’ata al leheiya;
Ein la m’nahem
Mikol ohaveiha;
Kol re’eha bag’du va;
Hayu la l’oyevim.
(Pereq , – )
How doth the city sit solitary,
at was full of people!
How is she become a widow!
She that was great among the nations,
And princess among the provinces,
How is she become tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night,
And her tears are on her cheeks;
She hath none to comfort her
Among all her lovers;
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
ey are become her enemies.
(Lamentations : – )
Gustav Mahler and his sister Justine (1889)
Postcard of the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest
(1905), where Gustav Mahler conducted the
premiere of his Symphony No. 1
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 13 – AUGUST 19, 2018
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