Gustav Mahler and the Symphony of the 19th Century: Translated by Neil K. Moran

Cover
Table of Contents
Introduction
First Part: Basics of the Symphony
	I. Mahler’s place in history
		1. Eclectic or original genius?
		2. Bruckner-Successor or Bruckner-Antipode?
	II. Beethoven and the new categories of symphonic music
	III. The history of the reception of Beethoven’s music
	IV. Mahler’s conception of the symphonic cantata
	V. Borrowings from the Lieder repertoire
		1. Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms
		2. Mahler’s intentions with his borrowings
	VI. Aspects of architectonics
		1. Varying number of movements and their arrangements – sectional structuring
		2. From Beethoven’s Pastoral and Berlioz’ Fantastique to Mahler’s Titan
	VII. Content and Form: The “axis” of the new aesthetics
	VIII. The cyclic form principle and the programmatic idea
		Beethoven
		Schubert and Schumann
		Berlioz
		Liszt
		The correlation between music and program in Liszt\'s Les Préludes
		Bruckner
		Tchaikovsky
		Mahler
		“Flashbacks”: Six examples from the symphonies of Beethoven,Berlioz, Bruckner and Mahler
	IX. Musical themes and the “poetical conception”
		1. The alteration and ornamentation of thematic characteristics as a means of expression in Berlioz, Liszt and Mahler
		2. Simultaneous reduplication of contrasting themes as a means of expression in Berlioz, Liszt, Bruckner and Mahler
	X. The Mephisto movement of Liszt’s Faust Symphony
		1. The themes and Liszt’s method of ornamentation
		2. The Malédiction for piano and string orchestra as a source for the Mephisto movement
		3. The curse as a central idea of the Mephisto movement
		4. Liszt’s setting of the Chorus mysticus
Part Two: The Universality of the Symphony
	XI. Characteristics in general
		1. Fundamentals
		2. Regarding Adorno’s conception of the “material theory of form in music”
	XII. Characteristics derived from vocal music
		1. Speaking parts: Recitative and Arioso
		2. The Chorale: Regarding the meaning of genres in the symphonies of Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Bruckner, Brahms and Mahler
		3. Hymns: The Hymn in Bruckner and Mahler as well as in Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms
		4. Lieder
	XIII. Characteristics derived from instrumental music
		1. March (marziale) and funeral march: The meaning of the category in the symphonies of Berlioz, Liszt, Bruckner and Mahler
		2. Entombment music: “like a very slow funeral procession”
		3. Pastorale: The genre in Beethoven, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Bizet, Brahms and Mahler
		4. “Music from afar”: Orchestra in the distance or illusion of an orchestra in the distance
		5. Crescendo (and diminuendo) as sound dynamics expressing musical form: March music from afar, gradually coming closer
	XIV. Scherzo, scherzando and dance characteristics
		1. Fundamentals
		2. Minuet
		3. Ländler
		4. Waltz and Valse
	XV. Conclusions
		Structure of the opening movement of Mahler’s Third SymphonyAnalysis in accordance with the characteristics
Third Part: Elements of the Symphonies
	XVI. The symbol in music
		1. Explanation of the concept
		2. Schering’s conception of the symbol
		3. Techniques for solving the problem (heuristic)
	XVII. The semantics of the sounds of birds
		1. Birdcalls and sounds as the “sounds of nature”
		2. Mahler and the birdcalls in Beethoven’s “Scene at the brook”
		3. Mahler and birdcalls in Wagner’s “Forest murmurs”
		4. The “bird of the night”
		5. The “bird of death”. The song of the nightingale as the “echo of earthly life”
		6. Bird cantilenas, duets and concerts
	XVIII. Elementary Motifs
		1. Calls and signals
		2. Sighing motifs: Plaintive cries, woes, motifs of suffering, “screams”
	XIX. Motifs of falling and symbols of the abyss
	XX. Symbols of night and of sleep
	XXI. Satanism and the Crucifix
		The polarity of the spiritual world in the music of Franz Liszt
		1. Liszt’s attraction to Goethe’s Faust and Dante’s Divine Comedy
		2. The polarity between calamity and victory
		3. The diabolus in musica and the “tonal symbol of the Cross”
	XXII. “Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso”
		1. Regarding a fundamental philosophical-poetical idea in thesymphonies of Liszt and Mahler
		2. Inferno and Lucifer motifs in Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Mahler
		3. The “tonal symbol of the Cross” as a representation of the“heavenly” in Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky
		4. Motifs for “eternity” in Wagner and Mahler
	XXIII. La Gamme terrifiante: The history of the whole tone scale
	XXIV. Rhythmic Leitmotifs
		Symbols of death, fate and combat
		Beethoven
		Liszt
		Wagner and Bruckner
		Strauss
		Tchaikovsky
		Mahler
	XXV. Guiding sounds (Leitklänge)
		Characteristic chords and symbols
		1. An “eerie“ minor third chord as a tonal symbol in Wagner, Liszt, Mahler and Strauss
		2. Major-minor motivic shifts in Schubert, Mahler, Strauss and Brahms
		3. The “terrifying fanfare” in Beethoven’s Ninth and in Mahler’s Second
		4. Four note chords as mottos
		5. Neapolitan sixth chords and dissonances at climaxes in Mahler, Schubert and Strauss
			Neapolitan Sixth and Fifth-Sixth Chords
			Diminished Seventh Chords
			‘Minor’ Ninth Chords
			Double Leading Tone Sounds and Double Dominant Sounds
			Thirteenth Chords
		6. The shape of Bruckner’s climaxes
		7. The nine-tone sound in the Adagio of Mahler’s Tenth
		8. Regarding the technique of imprévu: A “frightening note” in Beethoven, Berlioz, Bruckner and Mahler
	XXVI. Idiophonic sound symbols
		1. Regarding sound symbols generally
		2. The tamtam as a funereal and macabre sound symbol in Mahler, Wagner, Liszt, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Schönberg and Berg
		3. Bell sounds in Berlioz, Liszt and Strauss
		4. Bell sounds and a sound symbol for the eternal in Mahler
		5. The symbolic and coloring functions of the Glockenspiel
		6. Cowbells as a sound symbol for “otherworldly solitude”
Epilogue
Abbreviations
Notes
Selected Bibliography
List of Tables
Tables
Index