TheSymphony No. 9 byGustav Mahler was written between 1908 and 1909, and was the lastsymphony that he completed. A typical performance takes about 75 to 90 minutes. A survey of conductors voted Mahler'sSymphony No. 9 the fourth greatest symphony of all time in a ballot conducted byBBC Music Magazine in 2016.[1] As in the case of his earlierDas Lied von der Erde, Mahler did not live to see his Symphony No. 9 performed.
Though the work is often described as being in the key ofD major, the tonal scheme of the symphony as a whole isprogressive. While the opening movement is in D major, the finale is inD♭ major.[2]
Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers. Etwas täppisch und sehr derb (C major)
Rondo-Burleske: Allegro assai. Sehr trotzig (A minor)
Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend (D♭ major)
Although the symphony has the traditional number of movements, it is unusual in that the first and last are slow rather than fast. As is often the case with Mahler, one of the middle movements is aländler.
The first movement embraces a loosesonata form. The key areas provide a continuation of the tonal juxtaposition displayed in earlier works (notably SymphoniesNo. 6 andNo. 7). The work opens with a hesitant, syncopated rhythmicmotif (whichLeonard Bernstein suggested is a depiction of Mahler's irregular heartbeat[3]), which is heard throughout the movement.
The brief introduction also presents two other ideas: a four-note motif announced by theharp that provides much of the musical basis for the rest of the movement,
In the development, it is heard in the horns and clarinets in Mahler's original form, with a third descending into a fifth. At the height of thedevelopment, the trombones and tuba announce the rhythmic heartbeat motif, marked within the score "Mit höchster Gewalt" (with greatest force). It leads into a solemnfuneral march, marked "Wie ein Kondukt" (like a funeral procession), on atimpaniostinato of the harp's four-note motif. Lowbells are heard here for the first and only time in the symphony, accompanying the timpani in the four-note motif.
Near the end of the movement is a remarkable example of Mahler's linearpolyphony, in which piccolo, flute, oboe, and solo violin imitate bird-calls.Alban Berg asserted that this section was a "vision of the hereafter".[4] Allusions to other music in this movement include references toLudwig van Beethoven'sPiano Sonata Op. 81a[5] and toJohann Strauss II's waltzFreuet Euch des Lebens, the latter first noted by Philip Barford in 1971.[6]
II. Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers. Etwas täppisch und sehr derb
The movement contains shades of the second movement of Mahler'sSymphony No. 2, in the distortion of a traditional dance into a bitter and sarcastic one. Traditionalchord sequences are altered into near-unrecognizable variations, turning the rustic yet gradually decaying C major introductory ländler into a viciouswhole-tonewaltz, saturated withchromaticism and frenetic rhythms. Strewn amidst these sarcastic dances is a slower and calmer ländler which reintroduces the "sighing" motif from the first movement.
The third movement, in the form of arondo, displays the final maturation of Mahler'scontrapuntal skills. It opens with a dissonant theme in the trumpet which is treated in the form of adouble fugue[clarification needed].
The addition ofBurleske (a parody with imitations) to the title of the movement refers to the mixture ofdissonance withBaroquecounterpoint. Although the term "Burlesque" means "humorous", the actual "humor" of the movement is relatively small compared to the overall field of manic violence, considering only two small neo-classical sections that appear more like a flashback than playfulness. The autograph score is marked "to my brothers in Apollo".
The final movement, markedzurückhaltend ("very slowly and held back"; literally, "reservedly"), opens with only strings. Commentators[7] have noted the similarity of the opening theme in particular to thehymn tune "Eventide" (familiarly sung as "Abide with Me").
But most importantly it incorporates a direct quote from the Rondo-Burleske's middle section. Here it becomes anelegy. After several impassioned climaxes, the movement becomes increasingly fragmented and thecoda ends quietly. On the closing pages, Mahler quotes the first violins from his ownKindertotenlieder:The day is fine on yonder heights.[8]
The last note is markedersterbend ("dying away"). The last two pages last for six minutes, an unprecedented amount of time for so few notes.Leonard Bernstein speculated at the end of his fifthNorton lecture that the entire movement is symbolically prophesying three kinds of death: Mahler's own impending death, the death of tonality, and the death of "Faustian" culture in all the arts.
Mahler died in May 1911, without ever hearing his Ninth Symphony performed. The work's ending is usually interpreted as his conscious farewell to the world,[9] as it was composed following the death of his beloved daughter Maria Anna in 1907 and the diagnosis of his fatal heart disease. However, this notion is disputed inasmuch as Mahler felt that he was in good health at the time of the composition of the Ninth Symphony; he had had a very successful season (1909–10) as the conductor of theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra and, before that, theMetropolitan Opera (New York). In his last letters, Mahler indicated that he was looking forward to an extensive tour with the orchestra for the 1910–11 season and anticipating a return for the 1911–1912 season.[10] Moreover, Mahler worked on his unfinishedTenth Symphony until his death fromendocarditis in May 1911.[11]
Mahler was a superstitious man and believed in the so-calledcurse of the ninth, which he thought had already killed Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner; this is proven by the fact that he refused to number his previous workDas Lied von der Erde as his ninth symphony, although it is often considered a symphony.[12]
The enjoyment of Mahler's Ninth Symphony prompted the essayistLewis Thomas to write the title essay in hisLate Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony.[16]
Many Mahler interpreters have been moved to speak with similar profundity about the work:
I have once more played through Mahler's Ninth. The first movement is the most glorious he ever wrote. It expresses an extraordinary love of the earth, for Nature. The longing to live on it in peace, to enjoy it completely, to the very heart of one's being, before death comes, as irresistibly it does. –Alban Berg[17][18]
Itis terrifying, and paralyzing, as the strands of sound disintegrate ... in ceasing, we lose it all. But in Mahler's ceasing, we have gained everything. – Leonard Bernstein[20]
[Mahler's] Ninth is most strange. In it, the author hardly speaks as an individual any longer. It almost seems as though this work must have a concealed author who used Mahler merely as his spokesman, as his mouthpiece. –Arnold Schoenberg[21]
Mahler's Ninth Symphony is not about death, but about dying. Death and dying are two entirely different matters. While working on the Ninth, I realized that I know of no other language apart from German in which the wordsdeath (Tod) anddying (sterben) have entirely different etymologies. ... the finale is just one sole extended act of dying, the disintegration of life. The last section, particularly the last page in the orchestra score, describes that situation so perfectly that it surpasses any other depiction, whether it be in literature or the fine arts. – Ádám Fischer[22]
In the early half of the twentieth century, less favourable opinions of Mahler's symphonies as finished works were common. This quote, from 1932, is typical:
Someday, some real friends of Mahler's will ... take a pruning knife and reduce his works to the length that they would have been if the composer had not stretched them out of shape; and then the great Mahler war will be over ... The Ninth Symphony would last about twenty minutes. –Deems Taylor[23]
^Constantin Floros,Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies (2000)
^Hefling, Stephen E., "The Ninth Symphony", inThe Mahler Companion (eds.Donald Mitchell and Andrew Nicholson). Oxford University Press (ISBN0-19-816376-2), p. 474 (1999).
^Barford, Philip, "Mahler Symphonies and Songs".BBC Music Guides, University of Washington Press (Seattle), pp. 55–56 (1971).
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