Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)

The Symphony No. 3 in D minor by Gustav Mahler was written in sketch beginning in 1893, composed primarily in 1895, and took final form in 1896. Consisting of six movements, it is Mahler's longest composition and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, with a typical performance lasting around 95 to 110 minutes. It was voted one of the ten greatest symphonies of all time in a survey of conductors carried out by the ''BBC Music Magazine''.

Structure

In its final form, the work has six movements, grouped into two parts:

The first movement alone, with a normal duration of a little more than thirty minutes, sometimes forty, forms Part One of the symphony. Part Two consists of the other five movements and has a duration of about sixty to seventy minutes.

As with each of his first four symphonies, Mahler originally provided a programme of sorts to explain the narrative of the piece. He did not reveal the structure and content to the public. But, at different times, he shared evolving versions of a program for the third symphony with various friends: Max Marschalk, a music critic; violist Natalie Bauer-Lechner, a close friend and confidante; and Anna von Mildenburg, the dramatic soprano and Mahler's lover during the summer of 1896 when he was completing the symphony. Bauer-Lechner wrote in her private journal that Mahler said, "You can't imagine how it will sound!"

In its simplest form, the program consists of a title for each of the six movements:

Mahler, however, elaborated on this basic scheme in various letters. In an 1896 letter to Max Marschalk, he called the whole "A Summer's Midday Dream", and within Part One, distinguished two sections, "Introduction: Pan awakes" and "I. Summer marches in (Bacchic procession)"., ''Gustav Mahler'', English translation by Stewart Spencer, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 275. In a June 1896 letter to Anna von Mildenburg, Mahler reaffirmed that he conceived the first movement in two sections: I. What the stony mountains tell me; II. Summer marches in. In another letter to Mildenburg from Summer 1896, he said that "Pan" seemed to him the best overall title () for the symphony, emphasizing that he was intrigued by Pan's two meanings, a Greek god and a Greek word meaning "all".

All these titles were dropped before publication in 1898.

Mahler originally envisioned a seventh movement, "Heavenly Life" (alternatively titled "What the Child Tells Me"), but he eventually dropped this, using it instead as the last movement of the Symphony No. 4. Indeed, several musical motifs taken from "Heavenly Life" appear in the fifth (choral) movement of the Third Symphony.

I. Kräftig. Entschieden. (Pan Awakes: Summer Marches In)

The symphony, particularly due to the extensive number of movements and their marked differences in character and construction, is a unique work. The opening movement, colossal in its conception (much like the symphony itself), roughly takes the shape of sonata form, insofar as there is an alternating presentation of two theme groups; however, the themes are varied and developed with each presentation, and the typical harmonic logic of the sonata form movement—particularly the tonic statement of second theme group material in the recapitulation—is changed. The symphony starts with a ''fortissimo'' theme, stated by an 8-French horn choir. It is similar to the opening of the fourth movement of Brahms' first symphony with the same rhythm, but many of the notes are changed.
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The opening gathers itself slowly into a rousing orchestral march. A solo tenor trombone passage states a bold (secondary) melody that is developed and transformed in its recurrences.
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At the apparent conclusion of the development, several solo snare drums " offstage" play a rhythmic passage lasting about thirty seconds and the opening passage by eight horns is repeated almost exactly. This eventually brings a return of the march rhythms from earlier in the movement. At the movement's climax, a tam-tam crash rings out, leading to jubilant brass fanfares underpinned by pounding timpani, bringing the movement to its decisive conclusion.

II. Tempo di Menuetto, Sehr mässig (What The Flowers In The Meadow Tell Me)

As described above, Mahler dedicated the second movement to "the flowers on the meadow". In contrast to the violent forces of the first movement, it starts as a graceful menuet. Opening with a tranquil oboe solo, the music also features stormier episodes, one of which featuring rapid rolls in the rute. It calms down at its end, however, and the movement ends with a staccato note in the harp and glockenspiel.
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III. Comodo (Scherzando), Ohne Hast (What The Animals In The Forest Tell Me)

The third movement, a scherzo, with alternating sections in and meter, quotes extensively from Mahler's early song "Ablösung im Sommer" (Relief in Summer).
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In the trio section, the mood change from playful to contemplative occurs with an off-stage post horn (or flugelhorn) solo.
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This posthorn episode closely resembles standardised posthorn signals in Austria and Prussia of the time. The posthorn melody is suddenly interrupted (in measure 345) by a trumpet fanfare representing a literal quotation of the Austrian military signal for falling out (''Abblasen''). Another important quotation in the movement is a Spanish folk melody of ''jota aragonesa'' used by Mikhail Glinka in ''Caprice brillante'' and by Franz Liszt in '' Rhapsodie espagnole''. Most probably it borrowed here from Ferruccio Busoni's transcription of the Rhapsodie for piano and orchestra, as the harmonies are almost identical and passages are equally almost similar. Busoni himself was the first to remark on this quotation in 1910.

The reprise of the scherzo music is unusual, as it is interrupted several times by the post-horn melody.

IV. Sehr langsam-Misterioso (What Man Tells Me)

At this point, in the sparsely instrumentated fourth movement, we hear an alto solo singing a setting of Friedrich Nietzsche's "Midnight Song" ("Zarathustra's roundelay") from ''Also sprach Zarathustra, representing the cry of a night bird.
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V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck (What The Angels Tell Me)

The cheerful fifth movement, "Es sungen drei Engel", is one of Mahler's '' Des Knaben Wunderhorn'' songs, (whose text itself is loosely based on a 17th-century church hymn, which Paul Hindemith later used in its original form in his Symphony "Mathis der Maler") about the redemption of sins and comfort in belief.
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Here, a children's choir imitating bells and a female chorus join the alto soloist. (In order to make the imitations sound realistic, Mahler asks that the "m" should be hummed.)
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Halfway through the movement, the alto soloist's plea for pity and redemption sets off a sinister interlude, punctuated by tam-tam crashes and pealing bells, both choirs keeping up with their bell imitations. The menace quickly fades, however, and the movement ends just as cheerfully as it began.

VI. Langsam-Ruhevoll-Empfunden (What Love Tells Me)

Of the finale, Bruno Walter wrote,

In the last movement, words are stilled—for what language can utter heavenly love more powerfully and forcefully than music itself? The Adagio, with its broad, solemn melodic line, is, as a whole—and despite passages of burning pain—eloquent of comfort and grace. It is a single sound of heartfelt and exalted feelings, in which the whole giant structure finds its culmination.(p. 103 Gustav Mahler, A Study by Bruno Walter: published Hamish Hamilton, London 1958)

The movement begins very softly with a broad D-major melody in the strings, and after a failed climax, the music falls into near silence. Lonely flute and piccolo phrases backed by pianississimo tremolos in the strings rise up from the stillness, leading to a hushed chorale in the brass, namely on the trumpets and trombones. This slowly builds into a loud and majestic conclusion culminating in repeated D major chords with bold statements in the brass and timpani.

This movement in particular was a triumphant critical success. The Swiss critic William Ritter, in his review of the premiere given in 1902, said of the last movement: "Perhaps the greatest Adagio written since Beethoven". Another anonymous critic writing in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung wrote about the Adagio: "It rises to heights which situate this movement among the most sublime in all symphonic literature". Mahler was called back to the podium 12 times, and the local newspaper reported that "the thunderous ovation lasted no less than fifteen minutes".

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Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for large orchestra, consisting of the following:

;Woodwinds:
:4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling piccolos, 1st and 2nd doubling piccolos in movements 1, 3 and 5)
:4 oboes (4th doubling cor anglais)
:3 B, A, C clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet)
:2 E clarinets (2nd doubling 4th clarinet)
:4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon)

;Brass:
: posthorn (sometimes substituted by a flugelhorn or trumpet, used only in movement 3, offstage)
:8 horns
:4 trumpets (plus 2 more trumpets for reinforcement if possible)
:4 trombones
:tuba

;Percussion:
:8 timpani (two players, four timpani each)
:bass drum (with suspended cymbal attached)
:several snare drums (used only in movement 1, one onstage, the rest offstage)
:several pairs of cymbals (at the minimum 3)
:suspended cymbals
:triangle
:tambourine
:tam-tam
: rute (used only in movement 2)
:5 to 6 tuned bells (used only in movement 5, "on a high gallery")
:2 glockenspiels (2nd used only in movement 5)

; Voices:
:alto soloist (used only in movements 4 and 5)
:women's choir (used only in movement 5, "on a high gallery")
:boys' choir (used only in movement 5, "on a high gallery")

; Strings
:2 harps
:1st violins
:2nd violins
:violas
:cellos
:double basses (with low C string)

Text

Fourth movement

Text from Friedrich Nietzsche's ''Also sprach Zarathustra

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