the whole symphony clocks in at somewhere between 80 and 90 minutes. it can't be said to be in one key, because it opens in e minor which becomes b minor in the first movement; goes to c minor in the second movement, d minor in the third, f major in the fourth, and c major in the last. this is a concept known as "progressive tonality" (where the piece doesn't bother to cycle back to a supposed "home" key but instead moves and ends in an altogether different one).
the symphony was well received but not tremendously popular, and has more puzzled critics afterwards than anything else. it's worth noting, though, that this was the symphony that won schoenberg over to mahler's support, and he wrote mahler after hearing the first performance, saying that it was a great treat to hear the symphony and he didn't know why he hadn't seen the value in mahler's music up until that point.
from some things mahler hinted at, we know basically that he thought of this whole symphony as a sort of night transforming into day. the first movement sets a foundation for the entire thing, hence all of his rapid switches between moods and interruptions of lines. the middle movements are three night songs, which depict night in a variety of ways (the second and fourth are called nocturnes; the third is a creepier rendition). and the last movement, in his own words, are "broad day."
the symphony was well received but not tremendously popular, and has more puzzled critics afterwards than anything else. it's worth noting, though, that this was the symphony that won schoenberg over to mahler's support, and he wrote mahler after hearing the first performance, saying that it was a great treat to hear the symphony and he didn't know why he hadn't seen the value in mahler's music up until that point.
from some things mahler hinted at, we know basically that he thought of this whole symphony as a sort of night transforming into day. the first movement sets a foundation for the entire thing, hence all of his rapid switches between moods and interruptions of lines. the middle movements are three night songs, which depict night in a variety of ways (the second and fourth are called nocturnes; the third is a creepier rendition). and the last movement, in his own words, are "broad day."
the first movement begins in b minor, ending in e major. it's in sonata form, though so long that you might not even recognize it. because it's so long i am not going to give a blow by blow, but just point out some interesting things.
the introductory melody is played by an instrument we know as the baritone horn, but mahler wrote "tenorhorn" in his scores. the rhythm that the strings play muttering underneath it will come back several times; as ever, mahler is great at introducing disparate themes and then mashing them up later in quite ear-catching ways. one thing i think that comes out in particular in this symphony, especially this movement, is the use of augmented intervals, or intervals that are just one half or whole step larger than you would predict them to be. when ascending they produce the stretches that guide him into a different key, and when they are descending they make the bottom drop out of the music.
2:56 is when the music morphs into a sort of militaristic march/dance that dominates the movement. this is the allegro "risoluto." it is a bit amorphous, grotesque, then darkening.
6:00 is a slow second theme, almost honeyed but still taking some surprising whirls out into a space you don't expect. we are brought back to the march to close the exposition.
this second vid is basically the development. you hear the opening solo of the tenorhorn again, but then we almost immediately spin into a weird mishmash of all the themes up to this point.
notable in the development are several points where everything seems to just stand still. one such is at 3:10, where the stillness is interrupted by a faraway trumpet fanfare and some birdcall like gestures in the winds, which sort of recall the march from the beginning. the harp b major gliss transforms the world into an idyllic vision before a long journey back to the recap around 6:20. the basses rudely interrupt with the falling figure from the beginning, and brass gradually incorporate some of the martial themes from the exposition into a huge B major climax in which all the strings come in. it seems like it's going to be affirmative, but then suddenly falls into a crunching b minor. throughout this section we always get the sense that the music is trying to rise into the major, but keeps being pushed down or turned in the wrong direction.
finally we reach the big e major, and this is more or less where the rest of the movement will stay, with the exception of a brief idyll in g major (around 2:00), the equivalent to the slow theme in the first half.
one set of program notes i found for this movement describes the march at the end of this movement as curiously bittersweet. i think this comes from the destabilization of keys. marches are usually affirmative, stable, and this is not, even though the end is triumphant enough to at least imply how the symphony itself will end.
the introductory melody is played by an instrument we know as the baritone horn, but mahler wrote "tenorhorn" in his scores. the rhythm that the strings play muttering underneath it will come back several times; as ever, mahler is great at introducing disparate themes and then mashing them up later in quite ear-catching ways. one thing i think that comes out in particular in this symphony, especially this movement, is the use of augmented intervals, or intervals that are just one half or whole step larger than you would predict them to be. when ascending they produce the stretches that guide him into a different key, and when they are descending they make the bottom drop out of the music.
2:56 is when the music morphs into a sort of militaristic march/dance that dominates the movement. this is the allegro "risoluto." it is a bit amorphous, grotesque, then darkening.
6:00 is a slow second theme, almost honeyed but still taking some surprising whirls out into a space you don't expect. we are brought back to the march to close the exposition.
this second vid is basically the development. you hear the opening solo of the tenorhorn again, but then we almost immediately spin into a weird mishmash of all the themes up to this point.
notable in the development are several points where everything seems to just stand still. one such is at 3:10, where the stillness is interrupted by a faraway trumpet fanfare and some birdcall like gestures in the winds, which sort of recall the march from the beginning. the harp b major gliss transforms the world into an idyllic vision before a long journey back to the recap around 6:20. the basses rudely interrupt with the falling figure from the beginning, and brass gradually incorporate some of the martial themes from the exposition into a huge B major climax in which all the strings come in. it seems like it's going to be affirmative, but then suddenly falls into a crunching b minor. throughout this section we always get the sense that the music is trying to rise into the major, but keeps being pushed down or turned in the wrong direction.
finally we reach the big e major, and this is more or less where the rest of the movement will stay, with the exception of a brief idyll in g major (around 2:00), the equivalent to the slow theme in the first half.
one set of program notes i found for this movement describes the march at the end of this movement as curiously bittersweet. i think this comes from the destabilization of keys. marches are usually affirmative, stable, and this is not, even though the end is triumphant enough to at least imply how the symphony itself will end.
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