At A Glance
According to Gustav Mahler, a symphony should be like the world—it must embrace everything. With that in mind, here is the musical world Mahler left us in his Third Symphony.
Part I: We start with magnificent gaiety, but fall at once into tragedy—we hear see-sawing chords, drumbeats of a funeral procession, cries and outrage. The whole first movement is the conflict of dark and bright; the light triumphs.
Part II: This chapter features four shorter character movements. Delicately sentimental music contrasts with slightly sinister energies. First, Mahler draws on one of his own songs about waiting for Lady Nightingale to sing when the cuckoo is through. Then a human voice intones the “Midnight Song” from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra—imagine each of its 11 lines as coming between two of the 12 strokes of midnight. Soon the music surges forward and changes into a world of bells and angels. Text from German folk poems is interjected by “Du sollst ja nicht weinen” (But you mustn’t weep). A children’s chorus joins the ensemble. Mahler felt that his decision to end his symphony with a slow adagio was one of the most special he ever made. The immense final bars are intoned by thundering kettledrums. We’ve reached the end of this most riskily and gloriously comprehensive of Mahler’s worlds.
Part I: We start with magnificent gaiety, but fall at once into tragedy—we hear see-sawing chords, drumbeats of a funeral procession, cries and outrage. The whole first movement is the conflict of dark and bright; the light triumphs.
Part II: This chapter features four shorter character movements. Delicately sentimental music contrasts with slightly sinister energies. First, Mahler draws on one of his own songs about waiting for Lady Nightingale to sing when the cuckoo is through. Then a human voice intones the “Midnight Song” from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra—imagine each of its 11 lines as coming between two of the 12 strokes of midnight. Soon the music surges forward and changes into a world of bells and angels. Text from German folk poems is interjected by “Du sollst ja nicht weinen” (But you mustn’t weep). A children’s chorus joins the ensemble. Mahler felt that his decision to end his symphony with a slow adagio was one of the most special he ever made. The immense final bars are intoned by thundering kettledrums. We’ve reached the end of this most riskily and gloriously comprehensive of Mahler’s worlds.
