The
Symphony No. 9 in D major by
Gustav Mahler was written in 1908 and 1909, and was the last
symphony that he completed. The work is considered by many
musicologists and critics to be the most intense of his symphonic works.
Mahler was at this time a champion of the emerging avant-garde movement, most notably
Arnold Schoenberg, and this placed him in a difficult situation as the standard-bearer of the past while being acutely aware of the future of music (and in particular,
atonality) opening up before him. The first movement of the Ninth in particular depicts this struggle between tonal stability and instability.
A typical performance takes about 80–85 minutes.
Movements
The symphony is in four movements:
- Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers. Etwas täppisch und sehr derb (C major)
- Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend (D-flat major)
Although the symphony has the traditional number of movements (four) 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 a
ländler. Some scholars, such as Jason Khogsenfield, holds a strong opinion about the similarity of the emotional scope between the the 9th symphony and
Tchaikovsky's
Symphony No. 6, for both consider the 1st movement as an epic, autobiographical storm through the tragedies, the 2nd movement as a dance, a third movement of fast, manic spin (along with flashbacks), and the finale as a farewell to life itself.
The first movement, while embracing a loose sonata form, consists of an extended conflict between the elements of life and death, here corresponding to major/minor, thus providing a continuation of the tonal juxtaposition displayed in earlier works (notably the
Sixth and
Seventh symphonies). The work opens with a hesitant, syncopated motif (which some have suggested is a depiction of Mahler's irregular heartbeat), which is to return at the height of the movement's development as a sudden intrusion of "death in the midst of life", announced by trombones and marked within the score "with the greatest force". Moreover, the main theme also quotes the opening motif of
Beethoven's
Piano Sonata No. 26 "Les Adieux", Op. 81a, which coincidentally marked a turning point in Mahler's early musical career as he performed "Les Adieux" during his graduation recital in college. This is the descending F#-E second which is resolved only at the end of the movement.
The second movement is a dance, a ländler, but it has been distorted to the point that it no longer resembles a dance. It is reminiscent of the second movement of Mahler's
Fourth Symphony in the distortion of a traditional dance into a dance of death. For example, Mahler alters traditional chord sequences into near-unrecognizable variations.
The third movement, in the form of a
rondo, displays the final maturation of Mahler's
contrapuntal skills. It opens with a dissonant theme in the
trumpet which is treated in the form of a
double fugue. The following five-note motif introduced by strings in unison recalls the second movement of his
Fifth Symphony. The addition of
Burleske (a parody with imitations) to the title of the movement refers to the mixture of
dissonance with
Baroque counterpoint. Although the term "Burlesque" means "humorous", the actual "humor" of the movement is relatively small compared to the overall filed 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" and the movement is no doubt intended as a sarcastic and withering response to the critics of his music at the time.
The final movement, marked
zurückhaltend ("very slowly and held back"; literally, "reservedly"), opens for strings only. Commentators have noted the similarity of the opening theme in particular to the
hymn 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 an
elegy. After several impassioned climaxes the movement becomes increasingly fragmented and the coda ends quietly. On the closing pages, Mahler quotes in the first violins from his own
Kindertotenlieder:
The day is fine on yonder heights.
Mahler died in May 1911, without ever having heard his Ninth Symphony performed. The work's ending was for many years interpreted as being a self-conscious farewell to the world—until increased knowledge of the draft of the unfinished Tenth Symphony made this interpretation untenable.
Instrumentation
Symphony No. 9 is scored for the following orchestra:
Premieres
The work was premiered on June 26, 1912, at the
Vienna Festival by the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Bruno Walter. It was first published in the same year by
Universal Edition.
Views on and quotes about the Symphony
The enjoyment of Mahler's Ninth Symphony prompted the essayist
Lewis Thomas to write the title essay in his
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. Many Mahler interpreters have been drawn to express similar prophetic views about the work:
- It expresses an extraordinary love of the earth, for Nature. – Alban Berg
- It is terrifying, and paralyzing, as the strands of sound disintegrate ... in ceasing, we lose it all. But in letting go, we have gained everything. – Leonard Bernstein
- I believe it to be not only his last but also his greatest achievement. – Otto Klemperer
- [The Ninth] contains what may be termed objective, almost dispassionate statements of a beauty which will be perceived only by those who can dispense with visceral warmth and who feel comfortable in a climate of intellectual coldness. – Arnold Schoenberg
Less favourable views include:
- 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
References and External links
See also
Symphony No. 9 (Mahler)de:9. Sinfonie (Mahler)es:Sinfonía n.º 9 (Mahler)fr:Symphonie nº 9 de Mahlerit:Sinfonia n. 9 (Mahler)nl:Symfonie nr. 9 (Mahler)ja:交響曲第9番 (マーラー)sl:Simfonija št. 9 (Mahler)sr:Simfonija broj 9 (Gustav Maler)fi:Sinfonia nro 9 (Mahler)uk:Симфонія №9 (Малер)zh:第9號交響曲 (馬勒)
