rotational form, teleological genesis, and fantasy-projection in the slow movement of mahler 6th

8/20/2019 Rotational Form, Teleological Genesis, And Fantasy-Projection in the Slow Movement of Mahler 6th

1/27

Rotational Form, Teleological Genesis, and Fantasy-Projection in the Slow Movement ofMahler's Sixth SymphonyAuthor(s): Warren DarcySource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Summer, 2001), pp. 49-74Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746914Accessed: 28/07/2010 15:08

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2/27

Rotational

F o r m

Teleological

Genesis ,

a n d

Fantasy Projection

n t h S l o w

ovement

o

M ahler s S i x t h

Symphony

WARREN DARCY

Gustav

Mahler's

Symphony

No. 6

in A

Minor

is often considered one of his most

personal

utterances,

a sort of

terrifying

Sinfonia

Domestica

in which the

composer

foretold his

own downfall at the hands of an

implacable

fate.1

This

impression

is reinforced

by

the

work's obvious

"negative dialogue"

with the

victory-through-struggle paradigm

so

important

to the

nineteenth-century symphony.

At its

most basic

level,

this narrative

trajectory

en-

tails the

"redemption"-the

drive toward a

metaphysical

Erlbsung,

to use a term with

ap-

propriately

Wagnerian

resonances-of an

ini-

tially

troubled

beginning

out

of

the

minor mode

into the

major

at the

end. This

negative-to-

positive trajectory may encompass

a

single

movement,

as in the finale of Mahler's First

Symphony,

or it

may span

an entire multi-

movement

work,

as it does in his Second and

A

version

of

this

paper

was

first

presented

in

December

1998

at the Annual

Meeting

of the

Society

for

Music

Theory

in

Chapel

Hill,

North

Carolina.

It

was

subsequently

read

at a graduate olloquiumat YaleUniversity (February 001),

a

symposium

on musical

scholarship

at the

University

of

Minnesota

(March 2001),

and a lecture series at the Uni-

versity

of

Cincinnati

(May 2001).

'For

example,

Dika

Newlin writes: "But there

can be no

doubt that even at the time he

composed [the

Sixth

Sym-

phony]

Mahler felt that its

tragedy

held some

special per-

sonal

significance

for

him."

See Dika

Newlin,

Bruckner,

Mahler, Schoenberg (New York, 1947;

rev. edn.

1978), p.

181. This notion

appears

to have

originated

with Alma

Mahler,

who wrote in her memoirs: "Not one of his works

came so

directly

from his inmost heart as this one. We

both

wept

that

day [when

Mahler

played through

the

sym-

phony

at the

piano].

The

music

and

what

it

foretold ouched

us so

deeply.

The Sixth is the most

completely personal

of

his

works,

and a

prophetic

one also." As

concerns

the

"domestic"

aspect

of the

work,

she wrote: "After he

had

draftedthe first movement he

came

down

from the wood

to tell me he had tried to

express

me in

a theme

....

This

is the

great soaring [secondary]

heme of the first move-

ment of the Sixth

Symphony.

In the third movement he

represented

the

arhythmic games

of the two little chil-

dren, tottering in zigzags over the sand." As for the com-

poser depicting

his own downfall: "Inthe last movement

he described himself

and his downfall

or,

as he later

said,

that of his hero: 'It is the

hero,

on whom fall three blows

of

fate,

the last of which fells him as a tree is felled.'

Those

were

his

words.

. .

. In the

Kindertotenlieder,

as

also in the

Sixth,

he

anticipated

his own life in

music.

On

him

too fell three blows of

fate,

and the last felled

him"

(Alma Mahler,

Gustav

Mahler:

Memories and

Letters,

rev.

and ed. Donald

Mitchell,

trans. Basil

Creighton [London,

1969]; orig. publ.

as Gustav

Mahler: Erinnerungen

und

Briefe

[Amsterdam,1940], p. 70).

19th-Century

Music,

XXV/1,pp.

49-74.

ISSN:

0148-2076.

?

2001

by

The

Regents

of the

University

of

California.

All

rights

reserved. Send

requests

for

permission

to

reprint

to:

Rights

and

Permissions, University

of California

Press, JournalsDivision,

2000 Center

St.,

Ste.

303,

Berkeley,

CA

94704-1223.

49


3/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

Fifth.2 When a minor-mode work remains

locked in its

original negativity

by

proving

in-

capable

of

breaking through

into

major,

one

might say

that the

Erlisung paradigm

is

thwarted or "fails" in some

way.3

Such "fail-

ure" does not

necessarily

call into

question

the

paradigm

itself;

the

positivity

of the

major

mode

remains a desirable

goal,

and the strained effort

to achieve

it,

even when

unsuccessful, provides

the central "content" of the work. In Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony,

which ends in A

minor,

the

Erl6sung paradigm not only fails but also car-

ries even

more

disturbing implications.

As it

proceeds

the work

appears

to

question

or even

deny

the worth of the

aspiration

itself: it

posits

utopia

as an

illusion,

a

self-deluding

conceit,

the

pursuit

of

which is

ultimately

futile. From

this

point

of

view,

the work

is not

adequately

characterized

by

its traditional

title: more than

"tragic,"

this

symphony

is

resolutely

nihilis-

tic.

Although

the

first movement concludes with

a

giddily

manic

celebration of A

major,4

this

hollow

triumph-unconvincing

even on its own

terms-is overturned

by

the

scherzo,

which

not

only

reverts

instantly

to the

tonic minor but

also seals off its

ending

in that

key.

In the

extended

harangue

of the

finale,

the fatalistic

drama is

played

out to

its bitter end.

Only

the

EL-majorslow movement, Andante moderato,

seems isolated

from the tonal strife of

the rest

of the

symphony, regardless

of whether it is

performed

before or

after

the

scherzo.5

As

Rob-

2The finale of the First

Symphony begins

with an off-tonic

sonata in the "Inferno"

key

of

F

minor,

which is eventu-

ally

overthrown

or transcended

by

a

D-major

breakthrough

(Durchbruch),allowing

the movement to conclude

in the

"Paradise"

ey

of

D,

the tonic of the

symphony

as a whole.

The Second

Symphony begins

with the C-minor

"Todtenfeier"movement; its finale launches an expansive

F-minor sonata whose

recapitulation

articulates an enor-

mous

lIII-V-Iauxiliary

cadence

in the "resurrection"

key

of

Ebmajor.

The Fifth

Symphony

begins

in

C#

minor;

apart

from the central

scherzo,

which adumbrates he conclud-

ing key

of

the

symphony,

the work

progressesby

descend-

ing

thirds

(C#

minor-A

minor-F

major-D major)

to con-

clude

in the

key

of D.

3This

is almost

always

the case

with

Mozart,

whose mi-

nor-modesonata-based

movements

invariablyrecapitulate

off-tonic material from the

exposition

in the tonic minor

ratherthan the tonic

major.

4The turn to A major occurs in the coda, not within so-

nata-space proper.

From one

point

of

view,

the coda does

not so much

accomplish

what the sonata mechanism

has

left undone as

demonstrate that which it was unable to

achieve.

5In

Mahler's

original

conception

of the

work,

the

scherzo

followed the

first

movement and the Andante moderato

preceded

the

finale;

the movements

occupy

these

posi-

tions in the first

published

edition of the score

(C.

F.

Kahnt,

1906;

rpt.

Dover, 1991). Mahler, however,

was

apparently

concerned that the

openings

of the first movement and

the scherzo were too similar and decided to reverse

their

order or the Essen

premiere

(27

May 1906);

his

reordering

was carried out in the second and third editions of the

score

(also

1906),

the last of which

(the

second

version of

the

symphony)

exhibits

many changes

in

orchestration

against

the first two. The Critical

Edition

(1963)

is based

on the second

version,

but restores Mahler's

original

or-

dering

of movements.

Although

Norman Del Mar criti-

cizes this

editorial decision

by

Erwin Ratz as

"wholly

un-

documented"

(and

indeed in his Revisionsbericht Ratzof-

fers not a

scrap

of

evidence

in its

support),

Hans-Peter

Jiilg

defends it on the basis of remarks

by

Paul Stefan and

Willem

Mengelberg,

as well as

the

fact

that, according

to

him,

the

composer

conducted

the work in this form at the

Vienna

premiere

(4

January1907).

As David Matthews

has

pointed

out, however,

both the

program

or this concert as

well as at least five reviews in the Vienna press confirm

that the Andante moderato was

played

before the scherzo.

Furthermore,

Mengelberg's

notation in his score that the

original orderingrepresented

Mahler's ast wishes

(a

state-

ment

printed

in

the

program

notes for a

performance

on

5

October 1919

in

which

Mengelberg

observed this

original

ordering,

as he

did

again

at

the Amsterdam Mahler Festi-

val in

1920) appears

o have

originated

n a 1919

telegram

from Alma

Mahler,

who could

of course have been ex-

pressing

her

personal preference

for Mahler's initial con-

ception.

It is thus

impossible

to be certain of Mahler's

final

wishes in this matter. See Norman

Del

Mar,

Mahler's

Sixth Symphony--A Study (London, 1980; rpt.New York,

1982),

p.

91;

and

Hans-Peter

Jiilg,

Gustav

Mahlers

Sechste

Symphonie,

vol. 17 of

Freiburger

Schriften

zur

Musikwissenschaft

(Munich, 1986), p.

39.

For

Matthews,

see "The Sixth

Symphony,"

in

The

Mahler

Companion,

ed. Donald Mitchell

and Andrew Nicholson

(Oxford,1999),

pp.

366-75,

esp. pp.

370-74.

Although

internal evidence can

be adduced n favor of

both

versions,

Adorno's tonal

arguments

are

persuasive:

"[Mahler's]

ast

arrangement

of the

movements,

with the

Eb-major

ndante before the

Finale,

should

be

respected,

if

only

for the modulation

scheme;

Eb

major

s the relative

of

C minor, with which the Finale begins, only to decide,

after

long preparation,

on

A

minor as

its

principal key"

(Theodor

W.

Adorno,

Mahler:

A Musical

Physiognomy,

trans. Edmund

Jephcott [Chicago,

1992];

orig.

publ.

as

Mahler:

Eine

musikalische

Physiognomik[Frankfurt, 971],

p.

85).

In other

words,

Mahler

originally

connected

the

Andante moderato

and the finale

through

a chain of de-

scending

thirds: E-c-a. On the other

hand,

one could ar-

gue

that,

although placing

the

Andante moderato before

the scherzo

disrupts

this

tonal

scheme,

it also

emphasizes

the movement's

isolation from its

surroundings.

t seems

best to conclude that

there are

really

two versions

of this

symphony, dependingon the order n which the innertwo

movements are

performed.

If we can deal

with the fact

that almost all the

Bruckner

symphonies

have

multiple

versions,

we

can

surely

live with two

versions of this one

Mahler

symphony.

50


4/27


5/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

work.

Following

this,

I

shall

methodically

"zoom

in"

more

closely

to

get

midrange

views

of the

main sections

of the

Andante moderato.

In section

II I shall move

on to

close-range,

more detailed

studies

of its individual

passages.

Finally,

I

suggest

in section

III how

the

analyti-

cal

methodology developed

in this article

may

be

applied

to

Mahler's other

works.

I

The most

basic,

grounding

feature

of

the An-

dante moderato

is that

it

exemplifies

the struc-

tural

principle

that

I call "rotational form."9

In

its

most common

manifestations

rotational

form is a

cyclical,

repetitive

process

that

begins

by

unfolding

a

series of differentiated

motives

or

themes

as a referential

statement

or "first

rotation"; subsequent

rotations

recycle

and

re-

work all

or most of

the referential

statement,

normally

retaining

the

sequential

ordering

of

the selected musical ideas. In addition, it some-

times

happens

that a brief motivic

gesture

or

hint

planted

in an

early

rotation

grows

larger

in

later rotations

and

is

ultimately

unfurled as

the

telos,

or

final structural

goal,

in the last

rota-

tion.

Thus

the successive

rotations

become

a

sort of

generative

matrix

within which

this

telos is

engendered,

processed,

nurtured,

and

brought

to

full

presence.

As a result

of this

process of "teleological genesis," the rotations

may

be

construed-within

the aesthetic

of

the

time-as

growing

successively

more "revela-

tory."

According

to

James

Hepokoski,

who

coined these

terms,

"the

concept

of

a

composi-

tion as

gradually

generative

towards

the revela-

tion of

a

higher

or

fuller condition

is character-

istic

of the

modern

composers,"

especially

Mahler,

Strauss,

and

Sibelius.1o

Rotational

form is best considered

an over-

riding

structural

principle,

an

Urprinzip

that

in

the instrumental

genres may

control

the

progress

of

movements

organized

according

to

more familiar

Formenlehre

categories

such

as

sonata form

or rondo.

Figure

1

displays

in

ultrasimplified

form the rotational

structure

of

the first

three

movements of

the Sixth

Sym-

phony.

The

opening Allegro

(fig.

la)

is

clearly

in

dialogue

with the

generic

expectations

of

sonata

form,

but

it is also

rotational:

the

marchlike

primary

theme

(P)

and

the

schwungvoll

secondary

theme

(S)

are

put

through

four

rotations,

which

correspond

to

exposition,

development,

recapitulation,

and

coda.

The

scherzo,

on

the other

hand,

is

in

dialogue with the Scherzo/Trio paradigm (fig.

lb):

here Scherzo

(S)

and Trio

(T)

are

put

through

three rotations.

In the slow movement

(fig.

Ic),

two

maximally

contrasting

thematic

blocks

(A

and

B)

are

rotated four

times. The

final rotation

achieves

a

synthesis

of the

two blocks.

This

synthesis

represents

the telos

of the

move-

ment-its

structural and

expressive

goal-and

is

represented

as

A/B.

Figures 2, 3, and 4 display the rotational

structures

of these

movements

in

more detail.

In the scherzo

(fig.

2),

the

trio material

appears

successively

in F

major,

D

major,

and

A

minor;

this

means

that, although

each

rotation

begins

in

A

minor, only

Rotation 3 ends

in the tonic.

Figure

311

shows that

the

large-scale

tonal

pat-

9The

concept

of

rotational

form has

been elaborated

at

some

length by

James Hepokoski

and

myself.

See

James

Hepokoski,

Sibelius:

Symphony

No.

5

(Cambridge,

1993),

pp. 23-26; "The Essence of Sibelius: CreationMyths and

Rotational

Cycles

in Luonnotar"

in The

Sibelius Com-

panion,

ed. Glenda

Dawn Goss

(Westport,

Conn., 1996),

pp.

121-46;

and

"Rotations,Sketches,

and

[Sibelius's]

Sixth

Symphony,"

in Sibelius

Studies,

ed.

Timothy

L.

Jackson

and

Veijo

Murtomaki

(Cambridge,

2001), pp.

322-51.

See

also

Warren

Darcy,

"The

Metaphysics

of Annihilation:

Wagner,

Schopenhauer,

and the

Ending

of

the

Ring,"

Mu-

sic

Theory Spectrum

16/1

(1994),

1-40;

and "Bruckner's

Sonata

Deformations,"

in Bruckner

Studies,

ed.

Timothy

L.

Jackson

and

Paul Hawkshaw

(Cambridge,

1997), pp.

256-77.

The

ways

in which

rotational

formintersects

with

the sonata paradigm,as well as a groundingof the term

itself in

philosophy,

literary

theory,

and

the natural

sci-

ences, may

be found

in

Hepokoski

and

Darcy,

Elements

of

Sonata

Theory:

Norms,

Types,

and

Deformations

in the

Late-Eighteenth-Century

onata

(Oxford,

orthcoming).

'oHepokoski,Sibelius: Symphony No. 5, p. 26. See also

Hepokoski,

"Beethoven

Reception:

The

Symphonic

Tradi-

tion" in

Cambridge History

of

Nineteenth-Century

Mu-

sic,

ed.

Jim

Samson

(Cambridge,

orthcoming),pp.

424-59.

For detailed

treatments

of

teleological

genesis

in the

mu-

sic

of Sibelius

and

Bruckner,

ee

Hepokoski,

"The

Essence

of

Sibelius,"

pp.

129-44;

and

Darcy,

"Bruckner'sSonata

Deformations,"pp.

259-62.

"In

fig.

3,

"essential

expositional

closure"

(EEC)

efers

to

the

moment

when the

exposition

achieves

its

essential

tonal

closure

through

a

satisfactory perfect

authentic

ca-

dence

(PAC)-usually

the

first such

cadence-in

the

nontonic key (here,F major).The analogous point in the

recapitulation,

the first

satisfactory

PAC

in the tonic

key,

marks

the movement's

achievement

of "essential

struc-

tural closure"

(ESC).

n this

movement, however,

the reca-

pitulation

reaches

a

PAC in the nontonic

key

of

D;

the

52


6/27

a.

Allegro energico,

ma non

troppo:

PS PS PS PS

P

=

Primary

theme

(minor mode)

S = Secondarytheme (majormode)

b.

Scherzo:

ST ST ST

S

=

Scherzo

(minor

mode)

T

=

Trio

(major mode)

c. Andante moderato:

AB AB AB

A/B

A

=

Section

A

(major mode)

B

=

Section

B

(minor

mode)

Figure

1:

Rotational structure of first three movements

(ultrasimplified).

Rotation 1

Rotation

2

Rotation 3

Measure: 1

98 199 273 372 409

Section: S

T

S

T

S T

Key: a F a D a a

S

=

Scherzo

T

=

Trio

Figure

2:

Rotational structure of scherzo

(moderately

simplified).

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

tern of the first movement

roughly

parallels

that of the

scherzo: the

secondary

theme

(alleg-

edly representing

Alma

Mahler) appears

suc-

cessively

in the

keys

of

F, D,

and

A.12

This

succession

suggests

that

the scherzo

invites us

to understand it as

reopening

the

formal/tonal

issues of the first movement-and

(most

im-

portant) undoing

its

"unearned"

major-mode

conclusion. In the first

movement,

Rotations

2

and 3 are

separated by

a

static,

dreamlike

epi-

sode that

progresses

toward the distant

key

of

EL

major.

Figure

4

displays

the structure of the An-

dante moderato. To

emphasize

the "otherness"

of this

movement,

Mahler cast it in the

key

of

EL

major,

the

tritone

counterpole

of the A mi-

nor that

governs

the other three movements.

As

shown

in

the

preceding fig.

3,

the

key

of

EL

major

has its

origin

in

the first

movement,

in

the

static

episode

that

lies,

like the

eye

of a

storm,

at

the center of its

development

section.

Unlike that of the other

movements,

the

rotational

process

of the Andante is not in

dia-

logue

with

any

other

Formenlehre paradigm;

it

relies

exclusively

on the

recycling

of two maxi-

mally

differentiated

thematic

blocks.13

Each ro-

moment thus possesses the rhetoricof an ESC,but not its

tonal function. Because the

recapitulation

closes in a

nontonic

key,

it is a

nonresolving recapitulation;

he tonal

ESC

is

deferreduntil well into the coda. For a discussion

of

EEC

and

ESC,

see

James Hepokoski

and Warren

Darcy,

"The Medial

Caesura and Its Role in the

Eighteenth-Cen-

tury

Sonata

Exposition,"

Music

Theory Spectrum

19/2

(1997),

115-54;

and

Hepokoski

and

Darcy,

Elements

of

Sonata

Theory.

For a discussion of the

nonresolving

reca-

pitulation,

see

James Hepokoski,

"Back and Forth from

Egmont: Beethoven, Mozart,

and

the

Nonresolving

Reca-

pitulation,"

this

journal

(forthcoming).

12Seen. 1 above. Assuming that it is the trio rather than

the scherzo

proper

that was to

represent

the

"arhythmic

games

of the

two little

children,"

t is

remarkable hat the

music

associated

with

Mahler's children

appears

in

the

same

sequence

of

keys

as that

representing

heir mother.

'3Mahler

had

already employed

this

procedure

n

the slow

movements of his Third and Fourth

Symphonies.

It was of

course not originalwith him, but was used by Beethoven

in the slow

movements of the Fifth and Ninth

Sympho-

nies

(where

it

is allied with the

concept

of double-varia-

tion,

as it is in

the slow movement of Mahler's

Fourth),

and

by

Bruckner n

many

of his

Adagios.

53


7/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

Fantasy-

Rotation

1

Rotation

2

Projection

Rotation 3

Rotation

4

I

I I

I I I I

Measure: 1 77 123 178 199 251 286 352 374 444

Section:

P

S

P

S

Episode

P- P

S

P

S

EEC

=

Rhetorical Tonal

F: PAC

ESC

=

ESC

=

D: PAC A: PAC

Key:

@

F

@

d

----

-

@

D A

iI

-

II II

I

Exposition Development Recapitulation

Coda

(nonresolving)

P

=

Primary heme

S

=

Secondary

heme

EEC

=

essential

expositional

closure

ESC

=

essential structural closure

PAC

=

perfect

authentic cadence

S=

tonal motion

Figure

3: Rotational structure of first movement

(moderately simplified).

Rotation

1

Rotation

2

Rotation 3

Rotation 4

i I I

I

-

I I

Measure: 1 21 28 56 84 100 115 139 159

Section:

Al

B1

A2 B2

FP1

A3 FP2 B3

A4/B4

Mode:

M

m

M

m M

M

m

M

Key: g

a

--

E-

a--

B-

A

=

Section

A

V I

B

=

Section B

t

tonic

FP

=

Fantasy-Projection

major

major

S=

tonal motion

of

symphony

symphony

Figure

4:

Rotational

structure of Andante moderato

(moderately

simplified).

tation

except

the last

presents

thematic-block

A in the major mode followed by thematic-

block

B

in the minor mode. Thus in

purely

modal terms each rotation revisits the idea

of

major collapsing

to

minor,

the

Urmotif

of the

entire

symphony.

Rotation 4

brings

us to the

telos

or

structural

goal

of the movement: the

reconciliation or

synthesis

of these two

the-

matic blocks. Each of

the first three rotations

begins

in the tonic ELand ends off-tonic. The

last rotation begins off-tonic and is the only

one to conclude

in the tonic

key.

As a crucial

supplement

to the

EL-major

ro-

tational

narrative,

this movement also holds

out the

key

of A

major

as

something

of a "fan-

tasy-projection." A major, of course, represents

the tonic

major

of the

symphony,

the

unattain-

able

key

of

Erlasung,

here

brought

forth

achingly

as a conscious illusion. This

A-major

illusion

surfaces

during

two musical "visions"

interpo-

lated into the rotational structure. These are

abbreviated on

fig.

4

as

fantasy-projections

FP1

and FP2. FP1 occurs in the

gap

between Rota-

tions 2 and

3,

while FP2

separates

sections A3

and B3 within Rotation 3. Together, the two

fantasy-projections

articulate a dominant-tonic

progression

in

A

major,

E

to A. The first func-

tions as a dominant

preparation

for the second.

54


8/27


9/27

S

)

I I

a)?

Io v)

T

~IE

I I

00

-

2

~Q

I

da

0~

(ilc

> 0

I I

.,

>l0

a)t

0

r


10/27


11/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

a.

Section

Al,

mm.

1-10

(parallelperiod).

4-note

6th leap

gapped scale

[t

fl-

--

i turn

[strings]

pp•

Jb

Anguish

chord

[ww.only]

Sigh

motive

S-~

sf

-=-czr

-zz-

P

PP

f

b. Section Al: Analysis of the parallel period, eliminating phrase expansions.

Antecedent

basic idea

contrasting

idea

I

-I

I

(HG

Consequent

basic

idea new

contrasting

idea

A

I

I-

-I

•1--Q~r-

~

ll? -- 1PAC7

Example

5

in the first

of the

Kindertotenlieder.16

As shown

in ex.

5b,

this musical unit

readily

fulfills

the

requirements

for the classical

parallel period

as

defined

recently by

William E.

Caplin;17

ts

nor-

mative

eight-measure length

is

expanded

to

nine-and-a-half measures

largely

through

two

instances of

rhythmic augmentation

(mm.

4

and

7). Although

in

Eb

major,

the theme

is

shot

through with minor-mode implications-the

Neapolitan

b2

in

m.

1,

the

gbl

in m.

3,

the

cb2

n

m.

6,

and

so

on. The theme

peaks

with a sense

of

anguish

in

m. 7

on a drawn-out

leading

tone

16As De La Grange remarks, "Several writers have noted

that

[the opening

theme of the

Andante

moderato]

still

belongs

to the world of the Kindertotenlieder." In a note

he adds:

"[Hans

Ferdinand]

Redlich notes the resemblance

between

bar

9 of the Andante

and

the

first Lied of the

cycle,

which

concludes

with

the

same strain"

(De

La

Grange,

Gustav

Mahler,

III, 828).

The

passage

in

question

first occurs

in

mm. 14-15 of the Lied at the end of the line

"als sei kein

Unglick

die Nacht

gescheh'n "

(as

if no mis-

fortune had

befallen

in

the

night).

It

subsequently

recurs

associated with the text "Die

Sonne,

sie scheinet

allgemein " (The sun,

it shines

on

everything )

and "Heil

sei dem Freudenlicht der Welt " (Hail to the joyous light

of the

world ).

All three vocal lines cadence in D

major,

but the third statement is undercut

by

a

subsequent

col-

lapse

to

D

minor.

'7See

William E.

Caplin,

Classical Form: A

Theory

of

For-

mal Functions

for

the Instrumental Music

of

Haydn,

Mozart,

and

Beethoven

(Oxford, 1998),

pp.

12-13 and 49-

55.

Caplin

does not use the

adjective

"parallel,"

because

for him there is no such

thing

as a

"contrasting period";

a

period by definition (Caplin's definition) comprises two

parallel phrases.

On

pp.

55-57

Caplin

discusses how

a

period

can be

expanded

beyond

its normative

eight-mea-

sure

length.

58


12/27

c. Section

Al,

mm. 1-10.

i i

(2)

i

i

Measure:

1

2 3

4 5

UN

6 7 8

9

10

UN

-

UN..

*

*

[

v

97]

[

v

7

]

I

V57 97

bii6[plus ] 7

V6_5

I

d.

Section

Al: Enharmonic

reinterpretations

of altered chords.

Measure:

1

7

17-19

E V A:

Eb:

~II6

=

A:6 Eb: Ger6+

=

E:V7

[+7]

Example

5

(continued)

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

suspended

over a

Neapolitan

sixth

chord.18

The

ensuing

cadential descent

unfolds a new

two-

note motive that

suggests

the old

topos

of a

musical

sigh (or gasp).

The

expressive impact

of this theme

lies not

so much

in its

phrase expansions

or its

modal

mixture but in its pronounced sense of musical

strain as it labors to

uphold

its

major-mode

premises,

labors to avoid

collapsing

into mi-

nor. As a

generalized

structure,

the

parallel pe-

riod,

it

might

be

argued,

was an

Enlightenment

product,

an

expression

of balance and

symme-

try.

In

other

words,

it had been

essentially

a

strategy

of

containment,

and Mahler

may

have

imposed

it

here

as

an

artificial

constraint,

forc-

ing

into an

ironically positive

mold music that

is otherwise saturated

with

negative

connota-

tions. Behind such

contradictory impulses,

of

course,

lies the

larger question

of how facile

Enlightenment

symmetries-part

of the

long

tradition of art music-could

possibly

be

still

appropriate

or

even

casually

available to the

vigorously modernizing society

of

the

early

twentieth

century.

Could

anyone

in

1904,

that

is,

still believe

in

good

faith

in

the unforced

simplicity

and solace of a

parallel period?

The

most telling connection of this theme with the

first Kindertotenlieder

song

lies not

in

a mere

similarity

of cadence

figure,

but in a common

attempt

to

mitigate grief by focusing

on a fa-

miliar

pattern-a

stock

phrase

of comfort-that

is

implicitly arraigned

as false

(a

child died in

the

night,

but the

sun will

still

rise in the

morning).

Example 5c displays

the

linear/harmonic

structure of the period: note especially how

Mahler

prolongs

the

anguished

predominant

(mm. 7-9)

that

supports

4.

Example

5d shows

how three altered chords in section Al

may

be

enharmonically reinterpreted

as

"gateways"

to

the

keys

of the two later

fantasy-projections.

The dominant-seventh chord with lowered fifth

may

resolve to the tonic of either EU

major

or

A

major.

The

Neapolitan

sixth

chord

plus leading

tone in the key of Ebmay resolve as V to the

tonic of

A

major.

Finally,

the familiar enhar-

monic

equivalency

between the German

aug-

'8Mahler frequently

uses a chord that combines

the root-

position Neapolitan

with the

leading

tone as a dominant

substitute;

because it contains

the

same tritone as

the

dominant-seventh chord

(4

and i), it can resolve to the

tonic chord.

Here,

however,

the

Neapolitan

is

sounded

in

first

inversion,

and the

chord

is

clearly functioning

as a

tense

predominant,

not a dominant.

59


13/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

mented-sixth chord and the dominant seventh

connects the

keys

of E1

major

and E

major.

The

ensuing

meditation

(mm.

10-20)

first

discourses on the four-note gapped-scale frag-

ment of m.

1,

then

(m. 14) merges

the

rising

sixth of mm. 1 and 5 with the

rhythm

of m. 8 to

produce

an initial version of what Paul Bekker

called a

Wiegenmotif

or

"rocking

motive."'19

This

meditation

passage

is

in

dialogue

with an

important generic trope

that occurs

frequently

in

late-eighteenth-

and

nineteenth-century lyri-

cal slow movements: a

specially highlighted,

postcadential, codettalike phrase or Nachsatz

that follows a theme that has been

formally

closed

off with a structural I:

PAC.

Normally

such a luminous codetta is a moment of

height-

ened reverence

or

grateful contemplation,

a

space

of

formally unnecessary, surplus

blessed-

ness.

Paradigmatic examples

may

be found in

the

slow movements of Beethoven's

Symphony

No.

6, "Pastoral," op.

68

(m.

14),

and Mendels-

sohn's Violin Concerto (m. 40), as well as

Brahms's Schicksalslied

(m.

23).20 Here,

how-

ever,

the

decay

to the tonic minor

(m. 18)

runs

counter to the

generic

model

in

very tragic ways.

I

turn now to section

B1,

the

contrasting

second thematic block

(ex.

6a).21

Whereas sec-

tion Al was

tonal, periodic, harmonically

closed, homophonic,

and

scored

largely

for

strings,

section

B1

is modal

(G

Aeolian),

aperiodic,

harmonically

open, polyphonic,

and

scored

entirely

for woodwinds. To some ex-

tent, however,

the two share the same motivic

material: the

English

horn solo of

B1 (possibly

an

allusion

to the alte

Weise

from Tristan und

Isolde,

act III: ex.

6b) freely

inverts the

Kopfmotif

of

Al,

and

the four-note

figure

of

mm. 24-26

probably

derives from the earlier

gapped

scale

fragment.

In

these

respects,

the

second

theme functions as a

negative image

of

the first. Whereas section Al

represents

an at-

tempt

to

cope

with the dark

negativity

estab-

lished in the earlier

movement(s),

section

B1

strips away the Enlightenment veneer and la-

ments that minor-mode

reality

in a

purer

form.

Example

6c shows that the

contrasting

theme

is controlled not

by

a functional harmonic

pro-

gression,

but

by

a

linear succession of

6

parallel

chords.

Having completed

its first

rotation,

the cen-

tral task of what follows is to

synthesize

these

dialectical

opposites.

As indicated

earlier,

in

order to accomplish this synthesis, section A

must be

opened up,

its cadences

undermined,

and its

periodic

structure

dissolved,

so

that

its

motivic material

may

flow into and

merge

with

the material of section B. In

addition,

the re-

sultant thematic

synthesis

is to be led

away

from minor toward a

perfect

authentic cadence

in E1

major-the

cadence that

will

provide

es-

sential closure to the movement as a

whole.22

This synthesis process takes place in various

stages.

The

first

step

occurs

during

the medita-

tion

portion

of Rotation

2,

section A2

(mm.

36ff.;

ex.

7a).

Here

the

rising

chromatic

line

leads to a new five-note

"spotlight"

motive

(m.

39,

varied in

m.

40),

which Mahler

gives

a

spe-

cial halo-like

framing.

This

newly interpolated

passage

functions

as

the

melodic/harmonic

telos

of section

A2,

and this music will

ultimately

grow

into the

grand

telos of the entire move-

ment. The

analysis

in

ex. 7b shows

how it uses

g2,

introduced

during

the

consequent phrase

of

the

preceding period,

as the local

Kopfton

of a

3-line. The

spotlight passage

thus

looks

to

the

future

by adumbrating

the

large-scale

3-line that

will

ultimately

replace

the

5-line

that had been

established earlier. Its secure

perfect

authentic

cadence in m.

42

unlocks the definitive version

of the

subsequent rocking

motive

(mm.

42ff.).

'9See

Bekker,

Gustav

Mahlers Sinfonien, p.

220.

20The Brahms

passage

is

remarkably

similar

to

the

Mahler:

it follows a I:PAC

in the

same

key

and

begins

with the

identical

i-#--3 (ebl-el-fl)

melodic ascent. It is difficult to

believe this

similarity

is

fortuitous, especially

as an earlier

passage

in the Brahms

(mm.

1

1ff.)

bears a

striking

melodic

similarity

to Mahler's

"spotlight"

motive

(mm. 39ff.).

21Del Mar, Floros, and Samuels interpret this G-minor pas-

sage

as the

contrasting

middle section of the first thematic

block. For Schmitt it is Section

B,

for

JTiilg

t is the

Seitenthema.

22The

key

in which

a

movement

opens

should be

regarded

as a

provisional

or

proposed tonic,

not

a

definitive one.

The central musical

process

of

any

movement

grounded

in

the

major-minor

tonal

system may

be understood as a

formal

procedure through

which a

given

tonic is made

fully present, realized,

or called forth toward the end of its

essential

process.

The

specific

formal

procedure

at work

will

depend

on the

generic

paradigm

with which the move-

ment is in dialogue. Only at the point of essential struc-

tural closure

(ESC)

does the tonic

proposed

at the outset of

the work come into full

presence

and attain concrete real-

ity.

See

Hepokoski

and

Darcy,

Elements

of

Sonata

Theory.

60


14/27

a. Section

B1,

mm.

21-27, plus

return of section

A,

mm.

28-29.

Rocking

motive

(m3

variant)

sequence of 4-note figure

I

21 .

.[FI.,

C1.]

..

4-note

[C1.]l

FP

5th leap figure

•

=

•

[E.h.]

-

-x

p

espr.B. C.

-

"Alte

Weise"

(cf.

Tristan,

act

III/i)

rit.......................................-

--..

. .

a tem

p

o

p

espres.

-

26

dim.

_

[Hn

[Cl.

p

---

f

b. Tristan und Isolde, act

III, sc. 1:"Die alte ernste Weise."

?

Eh

-

- ,

c. Section

B1,

mm. 21-26.

Eb:

5

(=g: 3)

22 23

24 25 26

6

6 6

4

Example

6

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

After

a brief introduction

based on a minor-

mode

version of the

rocking

motive

(mm.

56-

59),

section B2-the

second

part

of Rotation

2-begins by restating

the alte Weise

melody

in

A

minor,

the tonic of the

symphony

(mm.

60ff.

.23

This initiates a

suddenly urgent

rising-

fifth

Steigerung

through

the

keys

of

E

minor

(m.

65)

and B minor

(m.

72).

As shown

in ex.

8,

part

2 of this section

(mm. 65-71)-the

E-mi-

nor

passage-introduces

a new four-note "striv-

ing"

motive

(m.

66),

and terminates in a

plagal

cadence whose

final tonic

(m. 71) collapses

from

E

major

to minor. Most

important,

how-

ever,

part

3

(mm. 72-83) produces

a

fortissimo

statement of the

"spotlight"

motive from

section

A2

(mm. 74ff.).

This is the idea sin-

gled out,

we

recall,

for

growth

toward the

movement's later telos and

here,

significantly,

it

brings

ideas from both thematic

blocks in

3Measure

56

begins

Del Mar's

First

Episode

and Floros's

Section B,

both

of which extend to m. 99 and

comprise

both my B2 and FP1. My B2 is equivalent to Samuels's

first B section and

Jiilg'sSeitenthemenvariante.

Schmitt

labels mm. 56-64 as

B'

and

interprets

mm. 65-83 as the

first

Entwicklungsteil.

61


15/27


16/27

(new)

Pt. 2 Striving motive

Vln.,

FL.] 65

pP-

f

sempre

f

E minor

e:

iv

Plagal

resolution

Spotlight motive (from A2)

"Alte Weise" (from B1 and B2)

Envisaged

synthesis

,

Striving fromB2) Sigh

motive

(from

Al)

~iI i

[St[Vrn.].

1

P

i

i

i

sf

7[Vn.

+

Ob.]

[Ob.

+

F1.]

[Vln

Bass: C B

Dominant

preparation

for

E

Example

8: Section

B2,

parts

2 and

3,

mm. 65-82.

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

Example

9

reproduces

the

opening

of the

first

fantasy-projection

(mm. 84ff.).

With its

horn fanfares and

impressionistic scoring

(including

cowbells,

harp,

and

celesta),

this

pas-

sage provides

a classic instance of a "Durch-

bruch" or

"breakthrough,"

a

formal,

category

devised by Adorno to describe Mahlerian pas-

sages

that

appear

to "break into" the musical

work from

outside,

sundering

its immanent

formal

logic.26

As

an

analytical concept,

break-

through

has been treated more

rigorously by

Bernd

Sponheuer

and

James

Hepokoski.27

The

intended effect here

certainly

seems to be that

of a

suspended

"vision of

paradise,"

especially

since the

key

of

E

major

suggests

the similar

"celestial visions" in the last two movements

of the Fourth

Symphony.

But

here,

as

a

con-

scious

illusion,

a mere

fantasy,

it

is foreor-

26See,

for

example, Adorno, Mahler, pp. 5-6, 10-13,

41-44.

The term

Durchbruch was used earlier

by

Paul Bekker to

describe

the

E-major

passage

under discussion

here,

as well

as the

E-major

tutti

eruption

in the slow movement of the

Fourth

Symphony.

See

Bekker,

Gustav

Mahlers Sinfonien,

p.

221.

27See

Sponheuer, Logik

des

Zerfalls, pp.

51-89;

and

James

Hepokoski, "Fiery-Pulsed

Libertine or Domestic Hero?

Strauss's Don

Juan

Reinvestigated,"

in

Richard Strauss:

New

Perspectives

on

the

Composer

and His

Work,

ed.

Bryan

Gilliam

(Durham, 1992),

pp.

135-75.

One further treatment of the

topic

might

be

mentioned,

if

only

to set it aside as

misguided.

In

"'Breakthrough'

as

Critique

of Form: The Finale of Mahler's First

Symphony,"

this

journal

20

(1996), 125-43, James

Buhler combines a

fundamentally

flawed

understanding

of the

concept

of

the

Durchbruch

with an

analysis

of

the finale of Mahler's

First

Symphony

that is

both naive and

indefensible.

Ac-

cording

to

Buhler,

"unless it is formulated in terms inter-

nal to sonata

form,

breakthrough

must be

posited

as an

alternative,

transcendent formal

procedure

intruding

on

sonata form from outside"

(p. 135).

But Buhler

misses the

point, namely,

that

breakthrough

as

a

deformational tech-

nique emphatically

does constitute a

transcendent

critique

of

sonata form.

In the

finale of his First

Symphony

Mahler

employs

a

D-major

breakthrough

in order to

overthrow

and transcend a "failed" F-minor

sonata.

In

order

to

rescue

breakthrough

from the

stigma

of a transcendent

critique,

however,

Buhler

posits

a

D-major

"breakthrough

sonata,"

whose

development overlaps

with the

recapitulation

of

the F-minor sonata. It would be charitable

to

pass

over

this fictive construction in

silence were it not that this

interpretation

is

typical

of

analysts

for whom

generic

tra-

dition

counts as

nothing;

such an ad hoc

coupling

of two

sonatas would have been

unthinkable to a late-nineteenth-

century symphonic composer. Still,

one

might

note

that,

although

Mahler's

breakthrough

is

transcendent

in

terms

of the

finale,

it is immanent in

terms of the

symphony

as

a

whole-not,

perhaps,

in terms of sonata form

(why

should

it

be?),

but in terms of the

thematic/tonal

processes

set in

motion

by

the first movement. This is

the

point

of the

analeptic

references in the finale: to make sure

that the

listener

"gets

it"

(although apparently

Buhler did

not).

63


17/27

84

"Striving

motive"

E.h.

f

BsC.

12

3

5

Hn.

4

_•

==

f

b

Bs.

C_ _

__

•

I

I

7

•

a3.

y -----

a 3

Timp.

p

im

Orchester

v

xvK vv •

Cowbells

o____

-----a___

_

Trgl.

Cym.

P

Example

9:

First

Fantasy-Projection,

mm.

84-88.


18/27

84

Harp

(several)

_ _ _ _ ______

Pentatonicism:

E,

F#,

G#, B,

C#

cel.

-,.,,•,,•'3

iI

3:•

1

t•

c.f.

"Nature"

motive from

Das

Rheingold,

Scene

1

mit Damfe

s

r~/

I

I

get.

pizz

mit

Dampfer

arto

Vn.

I

#f~

m Dm

s

1

I

1 -I J t

I I

"

JI t

I

"

piz

I

I

--t

n. II

pzg

pizz.

dim

V

.ppf

"zz

Vca.

-

sempref dim. f

ppz

Example

9

(continued)


19/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

a.

Section

A3,

mm.

100-05:

Antecedent

of

period.

I

-_

.

_

_

_>

_

Vln]

10

.

....

•.. ,

_

[Ww.]

pp

molto

espr.

[Hn.]

b.

Section

A3,

mm.

108-13:

Meditation.

"Rheingold "

Rising

chromatic ine

-

No

spotlight

108

[Vln

+Fl

]

espr.

B

_s

B

Bass:

Bb

Example

10

dained to

collapse,

which it does

through

a

striking

chromatic

disintegration.

But one

may

read

the intertextual

allusions

even

more

broadly.

For

indeed,

Mahler seems

unmistakably

to

have

planted

numerous refer-

ences to

well-established

passages,

techniques,

and

harmonic

effects

in

the

Wagner

canon. The

pentatonicism

and

E-major

tonality

almost cer-

tainly

refer also to

the "Forest

Murmurs" scene

of

Siegfried,

act

II,

while

the

rising

arpeggiated

figures

strongly

resemble

the Nature

motive

from Das Rheingold, scene 1. Coupled with

the

trumpet's

"rocking" motive,

the

entire tex-

ture

suggests

a return

to

infancy,

a

regression

to the

womb of

nature similar to

that

experi-

enced

by

both

Siegfried

and

Brtinnhilde

in

their

E-major

scenes.

Like the child's vision

of

heaven

that

closes

Mahler's Fourth

Symphony,

how-

ever,

this is a

lost

paradise

that can now

exist

only

in the

imagination.

Following this interpolation, the rotational

process

resumes with

Rotation 3

(m. 100)

and

the

third

appearance

of section

A,

the

opening

of

which

is shown in

ex. 10a.

During

the

paral-

lel

period

a

new

countermelody

continues the

large-scale

arpeggiation by

establishing

bbz2

s a

local

Kopfton

(m. 100).

The

ensuing

meditation

(mm.

108-14)

is

notable

for the

telling

absence

of

the

"spotlight" telos-even,

one

might say,

its suppression-(see ex. 10b); instead, the ris-

ing

chromatic line

leads to a

prolonged

domi-

nant

(mm.

112-14),

over

which

Mahler-surely

intentionally-quotes

the

cry

of

Wagner's

Rhinedaughters

bewailing

the loss

of

their

gold.28

The hermeneutic

significance

of

this

quotation seems clear: once again, a lament for

a

paradise lost,

most

immediately here,

the

loss of the

delusional

hope

that had been

ear-

lier

provided by

the

expanding

"spotlight."

This

unresolved

dominant-its nonreso-

lution

(that is,

its crucial

moment of

opening-

up,

unlocking

its

closure)-effects

the

liquida-

tion of the meditation

section. In

addition,

the

subsequent deceptive

resolution

to C

major

(m.

115) unlocks the second fantasy-projection.29

In this

key appears

a

major-mode,

"clarified"

version of section

B2,

part

2. The

airy

purity

of

this

C-major

passage-enhanced

through

its

or-

chestration-suggests

a wish to

escape

to a

fully

positive, shadowless,

and

redemptive key;

and

28The idea

first occurs in Das

Rheingold,

sc.

1,

as

the

Rhinedaughters praise

the

gold

to the words

"Rheingold

Rheingold " (Schirmer vocal score p. 33, mm. 5-6). The

motive

comprises

a

half-diminished

leading-tone

seventh

chord

resolving

to a tonic triad over

a tonic

pedal;

Mahler

places

it over

a dominant

pedal

and

resolves it to a

V7

chord. In sc. 4

(p. 216,

mm.

4-5)

the

sisters

sing

a

chro-

matically

altered

version of this

motive

as

they

lament

the loss of their

gold.

29This second

fantasy-projection

is a

separate

section

for

Schmitt,

who

interprets

it as

Episode

2,

and

Jiilg,

who

labels it

simply

Misterioso;

both

note the

division into

C-

major

and

A-major

subsections. For Del

Mar, Floros,

and

Samuels,

these are

but the first two

subsections of a

longer

unit, Del Mar's Episode 2 (extending to m. 172), Floros's

Section

Bi

(to

m.

159),

and

Samuels's second

B-Section

(to

m.

145).

Samuels's formal diagram, incidentally, gives

the

C

major at m.

115 as C# major

(and

the C# minor at m.

146

as C minor).

66


20/27

pp

sempre

zart

----------------

[Vln.]

P~

'

-

-

_

,4n.8

,,

7 7

'-

4

-J-

-

p

, -i i

-

'

-..

.

t

-

[Hn.

'

Rocking

motive

[=

return to

infancy]

."~

-Pp

morendo

131

.

.

[Vln.]

S[Vla.]

-

A:IV#

I

Wagnerian

plagal

cadence

Example

11:

Second

Fantasy-Projection,

part

2,

mm. 124-38.

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

indeed this

key

is soon

produced

(ex.

11).

In

m.

124

the music locks onto

A

major,

the unat-

tainable

parallel major

of

the

symphony.

In

this

context,

A

major

functions as the ultimate

symbol

of

potential positivity-the sonority

of

a

hoped-for

Erlosung-but

within this

E5

movement it is

perceptible

only

as its tonal

counterpole,

subordinated a far tritone

away

from

the Andante moderato's

governing

tonic.

High-register

divisi violins evoke the Grail

realm from

Lohengrin,

and

they, together

with

the shimmer of celesta and harp, provide a back-

ground

for the

return-to-infancy

"rocking"

mo-

tive

(horns,

mm.

124ff.).

The

episode

is sealed

off with a

characteristically

Wagnerian plagal

cadence

(mm. 135-37),

one in which the

sub-

dominant

inflects to minor.

Wagner

had often

employed

this

plagal

cadence as a

gesture

of

valediction

(as

for instance at the conclusions

of

G6tterdimmerung,

Tristan

und

Isolde,

and

the revised version of Der fliegende Holldnder).

Its semiotic

significance

here is

unmistakable:

it

represents

a farewell to the

beautiful but

illusory

notion of

paradise

and

the

possibility

of a

cleansing, redemptive

release out of the

everyday

world. And

indeed,

as

if

to confirm

this vision as a mere

illusion,

the

fragile

A

major collapses

to minor in m. 139 as the

alte

Weise

melody

resumes Rotation 3

in

the tonic

minor of the symphony, A minor.

Example

12a

shows the second

part

of sec-

tion B3.

Following

a

jolting

tonal

shift from

A

minor to

C#

minor

(m.

146),

the

alte

Weise

appears

in low

strings,

beneath an earlier

countermelody.

The intertextual

significance

of

C#

minor becomes clear at m.

148,

where

Mahler introduces

nothing

less

than the

Gotterddmmerung

motive from the

Ring,

and

in

precisely

the

same tonal context

(Neapoli-

tan of

C#)

as it had

appeared

in

Das

Rheingold,

sc. 4-the moment when Erda

prophesies

the

end of all

things.30

In

addition,

the conflation of

Neapolitan

(D

major)

and dominant

(G#) pro-

duces a

transposition

of

Wagner's

"Curse" har-

mony.31 Launched by such nihilistic Wagne-

rian

allusions,

Mahler's music moves

toward

F#

as

dominant of

B

major (mm.

154ff.),

em-

ploying

the

parallel

6-chord

technique

shown

in ex.

12b,

and all the time

evincing

massive

strain in its

effort to

regain

the lost

major

mode.

The

ensuing

Rotation 4

(ex.

13,

mm.

158ff.)

30This

occurs at p. 194, mm. 8-9 of the Schirmer vocal

score,

at Erda's

words

"Ein

diistrer

Tag

dimmert

den

G6ttern"

(A gloomy day

dawns for the

gods).

The

G6tterdaimmerung

motive

is

a

melodic inversion of the

Nature/Erda

motive that

immediately precedes

it

(mm.

4-

7),

and which

accompanies

the

goddess's prophecy

"Alles

was

ist,

endet "

(Everything

that

is,

ends ).

31The

Curse

harmony

first

enters

in

Das

Rheingold,

sc. 4

as Alberich

lays

his curse on

the

ring

of

power (Schirmer

vocal score

p. 175,

m.

12);

oriented around B

minor,

it

superimposes

a

C-major Neapolitan

triad over an

F#

domi-

nant

pedal.

The

harmony

resolves to a dominant-ninth

chord, but in Gatterdiimmerung, act II, sc. 3 (Hagen's ral-

lying

of the

Gibichung vassals)

it

plays

a

nonfunctional,

referential

role,

freed from all

obligations

to resolve

(see

the

Schirmer

vocal

score of

Gtterdiammerung,

p. 151,

mm.

12ff.).

67


21/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

a. Section

B3,

part2,

mm.

146-57.

Striving

motive

(augmentation)

Gotterdidmmerung

motive

Countermelody from B2, Pt. 2 ("Alles was ist, endet ") Striving (aug.)

8

II

I

8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i.f

"

4-note motive

"Alte Weise" Curse

harmony

[G#/D

TT]

Striving

8

------------loco

sf

152 >>>->

s$ sempre

,Ff

56

> >

'

-

'

i•'

_•..•_.

'-

>

>>'

if >

[Timp.]

B: V Dominant

preparation

b. Section

B3, part 2,

mm. 147-59.

8

147

148 149 150 151 152

153 154 159

5-- 6 6

6 6 6 6 6 6

5ths

c#:i

B:

ii

V

I

Example

12

begins

with a varied version of the antecedent

phrase

of the first theme's

parallel period-

now

in

the

key

of

B

major

instead

of its accus-

tomed

Eb.

The familiar A

melody begins

in

the

bass and

migrates

to the middle

register,

while

the

countermelody

heard earlier in section A3

68


22/27

Countermelody

from

A3

Antecedent

sempre

158

fs

f

IB:

HG

SS

~~~>

S--BH

Theme

begins

in bass

Theme in middle

register

Consequent

(liquidated)

Rocking

Gapped

scale Turn

Capped

scale

•"

'

I

-~zz~jf

1zz

-

f

>zz-

~

jfl

sem ref

Z

z~'f I

II

f

r_ f7

z

Chorale

from first movement

(middle

register)

"Rheingold "

"Rheingold "

Liquidation

of

Consequent

fC

s u

p

fca

no

-

fi

j

16

_

,,_.4

C

cannot

i', ,

Consequent

cannot

cadence in B major fS

Example

13:

Section

A4,

mm. 158-72:

Liquidation

of

period.

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

now

establishes

f#2

(5

of B

major)

as the local

Kopfton (m.

158).

The

consequent phrase (m.

163),

however, proves

unable

to

cadence,

and

the

line descends

only

as far as

c#2, effectively

liquidating

both

the

period

and

the

expected

completion

of its related

5-line.32

We have

now arrived at the

doorstep

of the

central

event of

the movement.

The

existing

B

major

is

reinterpreted

as CL

m.

172),

and

Mahler

now

pushes

the music forward into the

movement's

tonic

Ebmajor (m.

173)

where,

at

32As

the voice-leading graph in ex. 15 shows, the line

reaches B:

3

(d#2)

at

m.

165,

but

proves

unable

to descend

further within this

register;

the return

of the

first-move-

ment chorale

in the middle

register provokes

a

neighbor-

ing

motion with e2

rather than a descent

to c#2. The

A

s

therefore shifted

into the bass

(D#)

at m.

167,

where

it

resolves

to

i (C#).

This out-of-register

resolution, however,

is

obviously

unsatisfactory

with

regard

to the

5-line that

began

on

f#2,

and it

proves

unable to

descend further.

As a

consequence,

the

3

is shifted into a

higher register (d#3)

at

m.

168,

where

in the context of the

Rheingold

chords it

resolves twice to

2

(c#3)before giving up the attempt to

descend

to

i

altogether.

In mm.

172-73

it rises chromati-

cally to

g3,

completing

the

long

ascent

to

the

global

Kopfton

(Ek:

3).

69


23/27

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

Grand

Telos [Thematic synthesis

of A

and B]

Alte

Weise"

Spotlight motive

"Alte Weise"

Eb:

Kopfton

173

iaf?

-e

__ - . __

-T

__

sempref

-

==-

=

m. 76

= m. 77

con 8

a

Eb: 5ths

"Rheingold "

Striving

motive

Sigh

motive

Rheingold

8 --------------------------------

=m

m

80

m

=1m.78--

=1m.79..gIJ[

_

-

f_

i

"o-4

_d

•

=

mm.

81-82 = m. 112

-

"--

-o-----

-V

Structual dominant

2

1 Closure

of

Urlinie

88

=m. 113

f

__

I Structural tonic

plagally

undermined

Example

14:

Section

A4/B4:

Grand

telos,

mm.

173-85.

the climax of the

movement,

the

arpeggiation

to the

global Kopfton

g3

is

completed

(m. 173)

and the

"grand spotlight"

telos

fully

unfurled

(ex. 14).33Above all, this peak experience brings

with it a

transposition

to

EL

of the telos-music

from section B2

(m.

176

=

m.

76,

etc.),

thus

effecting

the

long-sought synthesis

of the two

thematic blocks.

Verbal

metaphors

seem flat

and

inadequate

for such a

moment,

but

they

might

include the observation

that this

synthe-

sis on

one level of

understanding might repre-

sent a more

productive

way

of

coming

to terms

with the

charged

negativity

of Mahler's

present-

day experience than attempting to force its con-

tradictions into

outmoded structural

symme-

tries-the

parallel period-or dreaming

about

an

imaginary utopia

that

the modern world has

rendered inaccessible. For this

synthesis

to suc-

ceed,

however-or to

give

at least the

tempo-

rary

illusion of success-it must be led

to a

grand

authentic cadence in the

home

key,

thus

bringing

EL

major

into

full tonic

presence.

Now

in

fact,

does resolve to at m. 185, thus

clos-

ing

the

Ursatz at the

background

level. On the

other

hand,

at the

foreground

level the final

33Asn ex. 8, the metaphoricalspotlightcontinues to shine

throughout

mm.

176-77,

even

though

in

those measures

the

spotlight

motive

proper

is succeeded or

replaced by

the alte Weise.

70


24/27

tonic is

plagally

undermined, seriously

under-

cutting

this

all-important

moment of

essential

structural

closure. The second half of the

graph

in ex. 15 shows that Mahler manipulates the

musical narrative

as

if to

seek

a

"second chance"

at this

cadence

(m.

187),

but once

again,

unal-

loyed

closure is unattainable. This time the

cadential

6

chord is

reinterpreted

as a conso-

nant

64

(m.

188);

a

progression by descending

thirds

(Eb-C-Ab)34

eads to the minor subdomi-

nant and a

transposition

to EL f the

Wagnerian

plagal

cadence

(mm.

190ff.),

followed

by

shat-

tered fragments of the fantasy-projections. This

crumbling-away

of

the

long-awaited

PAC as

well as its

replacement by

a

plagal

cadence is to

be

understood as a final

negative signal.

Not

only

is

a

lasting

redemptive space (A

major)

unattainable,

but even the more limited com-

forts of EL

major

are

subject

to

decay.

"Even

this is denied

you,"

the music seems to

say.

The

movement fades

away

in a mood of conso-

lation and valediction.

III

In what

precedes

I have

attempted

to show

how a formal

analysis

based on the

concepts

of

rotational form

and

teleological

genesis

can

pro-

vide not

only

more

supple

models to

perceive

the

underlying

musical

logic

at hand but

also a

solid

conceptual

foundation

that invites us to

move beyond the notes to a defensible

hermeneutic

interpretation.

Here

analysis

and

hermeneutics

may merge,

and at the most en-

gaging

moments it

may

be difficult to tell

the

one from

the other. Nor are these ideas

limited

to

the slow

movement of the Sixth

Symphony.

On

the

contrary,

these new formal

concepts

may

be

productively

applied

to

many

of

Mahler's

other

symphonic

movements,

includ-

ing those also in dialogue with more familiar

patterns.3s

Many

traditional

analyses

of Mahler

have

sought

to

shoehorn his

highly

complex

struc-

tures into

preformatted

Formenlehre

catego-

ries-sonata

form, sonata-rondo,

scherzo/trio,

double

variations,

ternary, strophic,

and so

on-

even while

suggesting

that such

forms

might

have been treated freely. But this is a strategy

that

produces

an immediate and inevitable

neu-

tralizing effect,

one that

simultaneously

reduces

the

processes

of

extraordinarily

complex

and

subtle

compositions

to all-too-familiar

formal

categories

and

suggests,

once the

shopworn

la-

bels are

applied,

that one need not

inquire

much

further

into

questions

of formal

layout

and

the

expressive

significance

of deviations

from

com-

monly held expectations. More fruitful would

be a

pluralistic

approach

that focuses

on

the

interaction

of traditional formal schemes

(and

the

ways

they

are

subjected

to various

types

of

deformations)

with rotational

principles,

po-

tentially

much enhanced

also

by

the

voice-lead-

ing

guidelines

of Schenkerian

analysis.

For,

certainly, understanding

the

flexible

principles

of rotational

form, including

their

capacity to incorporate surprising turns and ex-

pressive

interpolations

and

their

ability

to en-

courage

creative

adaptations

of

fossilized

forms,

takes us a

long way

into

these

pieces.

It

per-

mits

us to ask different

formal

questions

of

them,

helping

us to

understand them from

a

fresh,

hopefully

more

adequate

perspective.

An

analysis

of

the first

movement of the Fourth

Symphony,

for

instance,

that

attempts

to deal

with the extraordinary postexpositional tonic

return of the

primary

theme

(and

concomitant

closure of the

exposition

in the tonic

key)

merely by

consigning

the

piece

to the

category

of

sonata-rondo36

reveals itself

as

resolutely

antihistorical

and insensitive to

the

generic

tra-

dition

within which the

work was

originally

composed.

For

one

thing,

notwithstanding

a

handful of

extravagant

claims to

the

contrary,

there is no historical reason to think that so-

nata-rondo

form was

ever an

option

for

a

sym-

phonic

first movement.

More

likely,

over

the

years

such claims

have

emerged

from shallow

or

underconsidered

reflections on these

forms.

This is

hardly

the

place

to

begin

an

analysis

of

yet

another

movement

by

Mahler,

but one

WARREN

DARCY

Mahler's

Sixth

Symphony

34Werecall

that

Mahler connects the Andante moderato

with

the finale

through

a

similar chain of

descending

hirds;

see n. 5 above.

35The

present

author is

currently

working

on a

large-scale

project

that

examines how rotational form

operates

on

multiple

structural evels in the

Mahler

symphonies.

36This s the stance taken by Raymond Knappin his ar-

ticle

"Suffering

Children:

Perspectives

on

Innocence and

Vulnerability

in Mahler'sFourth

Symphony,"

this

journal

22

(1999),

233-67.

71


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43E(3)

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rotational form, teleological genesis, and fantasy-projection in the slow movement of mahler 6th

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