the status of the subject in mahler's ninth symphony

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The Status of the Subject in Mahler's Ninth SymphonyAuthor(s): Julian JohnsonSource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 108-120Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746355

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h e

S t a t u s o f t h

u b j e c t

in

M ahler s

i n t h

ymphony

JULIANJOHNSON

A

discussion

of

Mahler's

music

in

terms of its

articulation of a musical subject risks some

obvious

dangers.

Not

least,

it

risks

sliding

into

the

very

ideology

of which it seeks to

provide

a

critique.

Even the coincidence

of

the

two words

Mahler

and

subjectivity

suggests

a clich6

of

popular

aesthetics that constitutes the antith-

esis of this

paper.

Such clich6s

have

their ori-

gins,

in

part,

in

the

programmatic panderings

of

nineteenth-century

composers

themselves.

The blame, however, lies not so much with the

composers

as with the dominant mode of re-

ception.

Put

simply,

for

an

age

in which the

uniqueness

of

the

individual

subject

is

a cen-

tral

principle

in

aesthetics

as much as

politics,

music is

necessarily

heard

as

addressed

both

to

and

from the

individual.

On this

level,

I

sug-

gest,

our

own

age

differs

little from the nine-

19th-Century

Music

XVIII/2 Fall

1994).

?

by

The

Regents

of the

University

of

California.

teenth

century.

Within such

a

context

all mu-

sic is vulnerable to a process of misappropria-

tion

as

the narrativeof a

projected

subjectivity,

and all music colludes in it

through

its un-

avoidably

subjective

elements.

With this

in

mind,

questions relating

to

the

model

of

subjectivity implied

by

Mahler's

mu-

sic need

to be

confronted

directly,

not

merely

alluded to as

a

tacitly

understood

given.

In

part,

the task is to

deconstruct

the

popular

notion that music such as this narrates the

adventures of some musical

protagonist.

While

such

a

stance is

easy

to dismiss

in

its

most

overt,

program

note

form,

the

same

assump-

tion remains

undetected,

because

undiscussed,

at the

root

of

more

scholarly

work

in

this

area.

This

article

argues,

most

fundamentally,

through

the

example

of

Mahler's

Ninth,

that

a

critical hermeneutics of music must

differenti-

ate between seeing such a musical work as a

set of narrativeadventuresthat

merely

confirm

the continued existence of

a

ready-made

sub-

108



JULIAN

JOHNSON

The

Subject

n

Mahler's

Ninth

ject

and an

understanding

of

music

as a site for

the

perpetual

construction and dissolution

of

the

subject.

This difference

is

precisely

that

between

ideology

and

criticism.

DUALITIES

In a

note on

Mahler's late

music,

Donald

Mitchell

singled

out

dualities, contrasts,

and

conflicts

as salient

stylistic

characteristics.'

All three

might

reasonably

be cited as

hall-

marks of the

Classical

style

in

general-cer-

tainly

of

Beethoven-but

Mahler's construc-

tion

of musical

dualities is

qualitatively

differ-

ent. With

Beethoven,

the dualities

generate

the

form.

They

are

the

starting

points

of

a discur-

sive

process

that

attempts

to work

through

the surface conflicts

to achieve

some

greater,

transcendental

unity-a

process

that,

viewed

retrospectively,

attempts

to

reveal

the

opposi-

tional elements

as different

aspects

of

a

greater

whole.

The

late works

of

Mahler

give

us some-

thing quite

different.

Here the

attempt

to

forge

a discursive

working-through

persists,

but the

dualities

tend to be

preserved

more

nakedly.

Their

opposition

articulates

a

permanent

state

of

affairs hat

has

to

be

constantly reapproached.

The

musical

process

is here

frequently

defined

by

the alternation of

oppositional

elements,

which are

presented

without

mediation or the

possibility of synthesis. This may be a binary

alternation

(as

in

the

first

and last movements

of

the Ninth

Symphony),

or

it

may

consist of

three

or more elements

(as

in

the second

and

third

movements).

This

represents

a

signifi-

cant

alteration

to

the

narrative

structure axi-

omatic to

much Classical

and Romantic

mu-

sic,

but

it occurs here

in

a musical

style appar-

ently

predicated

on that tradition.

Mahler's

con-

struction of narrativeforms hardlyneeds dem-

onstrating:

the control

of forward

motion and

of

its

disruptions

is

a hallmark of

his

style,

as

is

the debt to

Beethoven,

in

that this

patterning

of

progression

and

arrest is articulated

by

the-

matic materials whose

persistent

identities in

the

face

of

negativity

represent

the

basic

condi-

tion of the form. In other

words,

while Mahler

employs

all

the harmonic

and

thematic build-

ing

blocks

of

the

narrative

tradition,

the

result-

ant musical

forms-particularly

in

the late

works-deviate

markedly

from those of

that

tradition.

The distinction

between

Beethoven

and

Mahler is that between dialectics and dualities

(although

the latter

are

a

necessary

condition

of the

former).

The essence of

dialectic

lies in

its

ability

to transform

duality

into a

process,

one

achieved

by

seeing

the

poles

of a

duality

subsumed as

aspects

of a

larger unity.

This is

precisely

what

gives

dialectics its historical

and

cultural

potency

as

an

explanatory

narrative.

For

Kant,

this

unity

is

of

the

subjective

con-

sciousness,

which

is constructed

as

a

synthetic

center

by drawing together

within itself the

disparatepoles

of

duality

and difference.

In

this

way,

the

perception

of

the world as a

unity

is a

key

moment

in the

construction

of the

unity

of

the

subject

and of its

cognitive

faculties. For

Hegel,

this

process

is

of the whole

of

nature,

and

the

human dialectic of

working

through

difference to

higher unity

is

a

manifestation

of

this universal

process.

Mahler does not

aban-

don this deeply embedded cultural

tradition

of

dialectics,

but

he

massively emphasizes

the

un-

mediated

poles

of his musical dualities.

By

in-

tensifying

the

oppositions,

he

strains the

possi-

bility

of

finding

a discursive connection

be-

tween them-a fact first and foremost of musi-

cal

form.

In

the Ninth

Symphony,

the form of the first

and last movements

is

defined,

above

all,

by

duality. The strophicalternation of sections in

the tonic

major

and tonic minor-a

primary

duality-is

extended to

pervade

virtually every

other

parameter.

While

sonata form is

predi-

cated on

a

teleological

process,

the

dualities of

strophic

form

presume

neither a linear direc-

tion

nor the achievement of a structural

goal.

Similarly,

whereas the

sonata

process

was tra-

ditionally

the means

by

which

oppositions

are

reconciled, the dualities of Mahler's strophic

forms

produce

no such reconciliations.

The re-

sult is

initially

a

juxtaposition

of

mutually op-

'Donald

Mitchell,

program

note to Claudio Abbado's

re-

cording

of

Mahler's

Ninth

Symphony

Vienna

Philharmonic

Orchestra,

Deutsche

Gramophon

423

564-2,

1988).

Not-

withstanding

the

obvious

differences

between the model

employed

here

of a

major-minor

duality

and

the

double-

tonic

complex

model of

Christopher

Orlo

Lewis

in his

Tonal Coherence in Mahler's Ninth Symphony (Ann Ar-

bor, Mich., 1984),

both models share the

notion of

a basic

duality.

109



19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

posed

elements.

Subsequently,

when no

pro-

cess subsumes these

juxtapositions,

the result

is structural

rupture-a

structural

mpasse

that

testifies

to

the

inability

to

join opposing ideas

within the same

syntactical process.

The ab-

sence of this

process

accounts for the unmedi-

ated extremes of the late music of

Mahler,

and

this

provides

the

starting point

for

a search

for

alternative

strategies.

This crisis of

syntax

is

essentially

a

crisis

of

narrative.

Narrative im-

bues

all

the materials of Mahler's late music

and

yet

fails to

realize a

fulfillment to the ex-

pectation it creates.

Alban

Berg's

nterpretation

of the first

move-

ment of the Ninth

(that

the

whole movement

is

based

on the

premonition

of

death )

s

appo-

site

here,

not so much for

the

extramusical

dimension of his

remark,

but because

it

points

to

a

fundamental

model of irredeemable dual-

ity: being

and

nonbeing. Bergdevelops

the

point

further

with his

remark

that

in

the most

pro-

found and anguished love of life, death an-

nounces itself with the utmost

power. 2

n

other

words,

the dualities

are

most

closely

related

where

they

are

most

boldly

in

relief,

because

one is a condition of the other.

This

(Hegelian)

relation is

made clear in

the

music. The first movement

presents

two

differ-

ent kinds of

material: he

D-major

song,

char-

acterized

by

uninflected

diatonicism,

a slow

rate of harmonic movement resultingin a gentle

sense

of

motion;

and the D-minor

material char-

acterized

by

chromaticism,

dense

contrapuntal

textures,

registral

and

timbral

expansion, rhyth-

mic

complexity,

and intense forward

drive. Yet

the

D-minor music is

based on the same mate-

rials as

the

D-major

section;

it

represents

a

negativized

version

of the

opening

section.

Thus,

the tremolo

figure

in

the violas

(mm.

5-

6) is maintained (in mm. 27-31); the violin F#-E

(mm. 6-7)

is turned

into

a

half-step

fall of

Ft-E

(horn,

m.

27,

and thereafter violin

II

and vio-

las).3Despite

its obvious

differences,

the

violin

I

theme

(mm. 29-36)

recalls

aspects

of the

song

of

mm.

7-16.

It

shares the same

preoc-

cupation

with

a

single pitch

center

(C#

n

this

case)

and

similarly

extends itself

by

the same

generating rhythm (ex. la and b). What many

commentators have seen

as the

strongest nega-

tion of the

D-major

song (trumpets,

mm.

44-

46),

what

David Holbrook

calls the hate

theme

and

Deryck

Cooke the

tragic

anfare, 4

also turns out to be a

combination of the horn-

call

rhythm (m.

4)

and a

chromaticization

of

the

falling

second of the

D-major

song

(ex. 2).

The

return to

Tempo primo

at m. 110 delib-

erately evokes the opening of the movement

and

is

thus heard as a kind

of

negativized

re-

beginning.

Whereas the

fragmentary

nature of

the real

beginning

results

in a

process

of coales-

cence,

here

the

negativized

elements

remain

separate

and

dissociated,

such as the bass

clari-

net

figure,

which

is

essentially

a

foregrounded

accompaniment

figure.

This

parody

of

the

symphony's

opening

forms the

background

for

the tonally vagrant cello line of mm. 129-36,

which leads to the

gradual process

of coales-

cence

from mm. 136 to

147,

which

eventually

restores

the

D-major song.

In

other

words,

the

D-major

song

returns

by

being

reconstituted

out of the

fragments

of its own

antinomy.

While the return of the

D-major song

is an

event

in

a linear

process

(the

point

of its

return

also feels like an

arrival,

as

in

any

Classical

recapitulation),it is also the manifestation of

an

essentially cyclical

form. Because

the

D-

major

song

is

always

followed

by

its musical

antinomy

and a

collapse

that claws its

way

back to a rearrival at the

song,

one

might

as-

sume that this

process

is

potentially

infinite.

In

Nietzschean

terms,

the

teleological

thrust of

dialectics has been

replaced by

the

principle

of

eternal

return.

The

specific

musical

logic

of

this movement, however, demands that both

formal models are

kept

in

play.

Indeed,

I

would

argue

that

this music is most

faithfully

ana-

lyzed

by approaching

t as

a

thematicization

of

apparently

contradictory processes.

2Alban

Berg:

Briefe

an seine

Frau

(Munich, 1965),

cited

from Alban

Berg:

Letters

to His

Wife, ed., trans.,

and ann.

BernardGreen

(New York,1971), p.

147.

3All measure numbers

refer

to

the Universal

Edition of

the

score

(Vienna, 1969).

4David

Holbrook,

Gustav

Mahler

and The

Courage

To Be

(London,1975),p.

126;

Deryck

Cooke,

Gustav

Mahler:

An

Introduction to His Music

(2nd

edn.

Cambridge,

1988),

p.

117.

110



JULIAN

JOHNSON

The

Subject

n

Mahler'sNinth

a.

7

Vn.I

b.

29

Vn.

Example

1

44

Trpt.

3

0A

4

Hn.

I

s

L

Example

2

LINEARITY

Perhaps

the most fundamental of

the

opposi-

tions

within the

Ninth

Symphony

is

the simul-

taneous

operation

of

linearity

and

nonlinearity.

On

one

level,

the

principle

of

linearity

is self-

evident

in

Mahler,

whose

pervasive

use of

coun-

terpoint and directional harmony imparts a

characteristicforward motion

to the

music.

In

this

respect,

Mahler seems

an

unproblematic

heir to the Austro-Germanic

tradition. But

once

again,

although

the

familiar

elements of this

tradition

are

very

much

present,

they

are here

deployed

within

a

structural

framework

that

vitiates

their traditional

functions.

It is one of the

most remarkable

aspects

of

the Ninth Symphony, for example, that a style

of

functional

harmony

tending

toward

strong

forward motion

is

juxtaposed

with

a kind

of

harmonic

stasis based on the

saturation

of a

diatonic field.

It is with

versions of

the latter

system

that the

symphony

both

begins

and ends.

In

the

case of the

first

movement,

the

relative

harmonic stasis

of the

(purely

diatonic)

D-ma-

jor

song

is

one

of

the

qualities

that

defines

its

opposition to the D-minor material,which uses

a chromatic

harmonic

language

to achieve

lin-

ear

movement.

Moreover,

the

D-major

sections

are characterized

harmonically

by

the

prepon-

derance of unresolved seconds

and

sixths

sounded

with

the tonic chord. The similarities

with the final

section

of Der Abschied

in

Das

Lied von der Erde are clear

enough,

but

there

are

also

important

differences

in

func-

tion.

In Das

Lied,

the

pentatonicism

of

the

final section represents a sublimation of the

preceding

material;

in the case

of

the Ninth

Symphony,

it

is

present

from

the

outset

and

from here onward functions as

a

pole

in

a con-

tinually

reestablished

duality.

In the fourth

movement,

the

predominant

style

of

the

opening

material is a

dense,

late-

Romantic

counterpoint

in which

dissonances

are resolved

in an

apparently

conventional

lin-

ear scheme, although with a markedtendency

to

avoid cadential

points.

This creates

a

strong

sense

of forward

movement,

but one

generated

within

a context of

undefined,

and thus unreal-

ized,

goals.

The

first

appearance

of

a

contrast-

ing

harmonic stasis occurs

at

m.

73

(ex. 3).

Although

this

passage

uses the

same material

as the

opening

D1

section of

the movement

(principally

contrapuntal

ines built

around the

turn figure), their vertical control leads to a

very

different harmonic

result,

one

marked

ver-

tically by

the

preponderance

of

unresolved

sec-

111



19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

73

Wieder

ltes

Tempo

ob.

I

Cl.

in

B6

Azu

p-.-

2 L

pp

subito

P

Wiederaltes

Tempo

.__ _

hervortretend

Griffbrett.

Vn. I

pp

subito

verklingend

pp

espress.zcZ

~

~

pp

subito

dolciss.

pp

subito

espress.

Via.

PP

rpp

subito

dolciss.

Vc.r

pp

pp

sempre

PP

dolciss.

Cbsbosb

s u i t o

s u i t o

Example

3

onds,

fourths,

and sixths.

The resultant

satura-

tion

of the

diatonic

field

creates

a

relative sta-

sis

through

the

annulment

of

the tensions

em-

ployed

in

triadic

harmony-tensions

achieved

by

the

differentiation

of

degrees

of

the scale.

These

vertical

simultaneities,

however,

are

the

result

of

contrapuntal

ines

overlapping

nd elid-

ing in away that equivocatestheirnormalfunc-

tion.

This

accounts

for the

sense

of

implied

movement

in this

passage

that

survives

along-

side

its

static

qualities.

The

individual

lines

themselves

suggest

cadential

functions,

but

their

disposition

in

overlapping

patterns,

while

preserving

heir

cadential

characters,

debilitates

their

power

to

move

forward.5

Such tendencies

toward

stasis

in Mahler

are

readily

distinguishable

from

those

in, say,

Debussy:

Mahler's

moments of

stasis

are

cre-

ated

by

a deliberate

freezing

of

the

counter-

point,

an

elision

of

lines that

should

move

con-

trapuntally

in

time

against

each

other.

This

is

particularly

o

at

cadence

points

where

the

stag-

geringof resolving lines creates the impression

of

a

closing gesture,

but one

eroded

and

dis-

solved

by

a

disintegrating

process.

Example

3

shows

how

the

cadential

closure

into

m.

84

of

the

finale

(a

rare

example

in

this

movement)

is

delayed

by

the

voice

leading

of the

inner

parts-

most

obviously

in

mm.

77

and 81.

The

effect

is

the

opposite

of the

affirmative

quality

of

Clas-

SThis

freezing

of

the

moment

of

closure

caused

by

the

erosion

of

the

cadential

function

pervades

the

first

and

last

movements

of the Ninth

Symphony.

The

subject

of

closure

in Mahler's

late music

has

been

extensively

dealt

with

in Robert

G.

Hopkins,

Closure

and

Mahler's

Music:

The

Role

of

Secondary

Parameters

Philadelphia,

1990).

112



JULIAN

JOHNSON

The

Subject

in

Mahler's

Ninth

Fl.

Shervort

nmolto

spress.

Ob. I

p

molto

espress.

morendo

Cl.

in Bp

6--)>

morendo

orendo

Cl.

in

Bb

_

P

morendo

C1.

in B6

--n-

-

-r.

-r.

•-r-

morendo

Vn.

Solo

p

dolce

ma

espress.

pppdolciss.

-

8

--

pp- dolciss.

Vn. I

.

.I

F I Fl

dim.

ppp

Via.

morendo

PP

ppp

dolciss.

.

morendo

--

--ppp dolciss.

Cb - , -,-

Example

3

(continued)

sical

cadential

formulas.

The

close

of the finale

is another

particularly

salient

example

of

cadential

voice

leading

left

merely suspended

in

the

containment of a

saturated

vertical

com-

plex. In other words, the music here produces

static

moments

that

preserve

a

memory

and

desire for

resolution without that

resolution

ever

being given.

The end of the Ninth

thus

projects

a

vision of infinite

desire

for

resolution

without

any

resolution

actually

occurring.

The

proximity

of the

opposing

extremes of

Mahler's musical

dualities

and the lack of

any

consistent mediation between them

result

in

repeatedstructuralrupture. It is true that jux-

taposition

and the

risk of structural

rupture

are

undoubtedly

also

elements

in

Beethoven. In

that

music, however,

although

the

integration

of

opposing

elements

may

be

convoluted and

protracted,

he

dialectical

thrust of the musical

process

tends to assure an

ultimate

integration

of materials: the principles of transition and

resolution

eventually

hold

sway,

and

points

of

surface

rupture

are

usually explained

retrospec-

tively

as

tangential

connections.6

In

Mahler,

the

apparent

impossibility

of transformation

and

integration persists.

The

presentation

of a

musical

antinomy

runs

to

the

last measures of

the

symphony.

6The

games

played

in

the scherzo

of

the first

Razumovsky

Quartet,

op. 59,

no.

1,

are a

good

example.

113



19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

The absence

of

integration

between

oppos-

ing

musical

poles

results

in

a series

of

struc-

tural

ruptures.

These

frequently

occur

in

place

of an expected cadential figure.Particularly n

the

finale,

sections are not allowed to close

in

the

expected way.

This

is not

surprising

as the

whole movement addresses the

difficulty

of

making

an

ending.

The

finale, however,

also

makes use of a

type

of

rupture

not found earlier

in

the

piece.

In

this

type,

a harmonic

progres-

sion moves toward

a

climactic resolution via

an

increasingly

dissonant set of

harmonies,

but

the resolution or climax fails to materialize.

This sense of dissonance

eroding

its forward

drive

from

within

appearsnotably

in

mm. 21-

27, 70-72,

and

especially

142-47

(ex. 4).

This

break-up

of musical

linearity

complements

the

heightened

need

for resolution created

by

dis-

sonant

counterpoint.

The

musical frustration

at

failing

to

create a

resolution

through

this

linear

process

is

invariably

followed

by

a side-

step into music that is essentially static and

unenergetic (e.g.,

in mm.

28, 73,

and

148).

In

Mahler's

Ninth

Symphony,

then,

linear-

ity

and

nonlinearity

operate

simultaneously;

their

opposition

is not resolved

through

dialec-

tical

integration.

This results

in the

principle

of

rupture displacing

that of

adequate

closure

and therefore the

possibility

of realized

goals.

In the

Ninth,

rupture

eads

either to a theoreti-

cally eternal return of the dualistic poles, as

in the first

movement,

or in some kind of side-

step,

as in the

fourth

movement

(or ndeed,

the

third,

in

which

the

anticipatory

D-major

pas-

sage

in mm.

347-521

provides

the most sus-

tained

example

in

the

whole

symphony).

Ei-

ther

way,

the

teleological

implications

of the

musical material

are

repeatedly

frustrated.The

potential

for a

synthesis

of

dualistically

op-

posed material is continually implied, but it is

presented

within

a

context

in which the

musi-

cal vehicles for

achieving

it are strained

to

the

point

of

inoperancy.

THE

SUBJECT-IN-PROCESS

What are the

consequences

of

all this for the

musical

subject?

As

suggested

earlier,

in

Beethoven's middle period, the intrinsic narra-

tive of the music is

the narrative of the

subject;

both are constituted in the same

way, by

the

integrative synthesis

of a

single

identity

from

the

musical dialectic. In

this

process,

the

sig-

nificance

and

definition of an

identity

are

heightened by the points of rearrivaland reaf-

firmation that the

episodes

of

negativity

en-

gender.

A

very

different balance is evident in

Mahler's

late

music,

one

that articulates the

desire for

synthesis

through

a dialectical

pro-

cess,

while at

the same time

eroding

the

musi-

cal vehicles for

achieving

it.

The

subjectivity

articulated

by

this music is

apparently

inca-

pable

of

reconciling

its own

antinomies

through

a linear process. Instead, it oscillates between

the

desire to

forge

a

teleology,

a

narrativemean-

ing

for

itself,

and an

essentially

static state

in

which

the whole

principle

of

closure,

on which

the

subject's

definition

depends,

is

severely

eroded.

It would be

inadequate, however, merely

to

characterize the Ninth

Symphony

in

the

well-

worn

terms

of a

fin-de-siecle crisis of the sub-

ject-a crisis coterminous with the advent of

modernism. Such

characterizations doubtless

contain their element of

truth,

but

the

nonproblematized

way

in which

they

are usu-

ally

offered

often masks the

specific

signifi-

cance of the individual

work.

The

Ninth

Sym-

phony

is not

simply

a musical articulation

of

the

negativity

of

the

subject; rather,

it

suggests

an

active

search

for

alternative models

and

ar-

ticulations, for different strategies of the

subject's

ormal

definition.

Its

dialectic

between

structure and

rupture,

between the

integration

imposed

by

order

and the

heterogeneity

that

continually

opposes

it,

is one of the most

sig-

nificant elements

of the

piece.

If,

on one

level,

the

Ninth

has

nostalgic

or

valedictory

over-

tones,

it is

because

its

articulation of

heteroge-

neity

is

given

in

such

a

way

as

to

threaten

the

status quo of an implied subject, one predi-

cated on

maintaining

a central

identity

in

the

face of

heterogeneity.

One of the

defining para-

doxes

of this

symphony

is that

while

it

is

ob-

sessed with

gestures

of

closure,

its

principal

structural

moments are most often character-

ized

by

avoidance of closure.

The

finale's

in-

tense desire to

close,

coupled

with the simulta-

neous erosion of

the musical

possibility

of clo-

sure, represents a watershed in the structure of

the

subject

as articulated in Western

music.

Thus

Mahler

problematizes

the

concept

of

114



JULIAN

JOHNSON

The

Subject

n

Mahler's

Ninth

142

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Example4

subjective

identity by

undermining

the

condi-

tions for

musical dialectics

while at the same

time

employing

their

rhetoric. The results are

not

only

audible

in the structural

stases

exam-

ined but also

in the

nature

of

the musical mate-

rial itself.

According

to Theodor

W.

Adorno,

the specific difference of Mahler'streatment of

material

may

be located in the

concept

of the

variant. Adorno

carefully distinguishes

this

from

the

variation,

which

presumes

a the-

matic

identity

as

its

central

referent,

whereas

the theme in Mahler is

present

as

an invisible

center,

delineated

by

the sum of variants.

In

this

way,

Adorno

claims,

Mahler

avoids

the

(Classical)

presentation

of a thematic

process

as the realization through time of a self-iden-

tity:

The

variants

are

the

countervailing

force

to fulfillment.

They

divest

the theme of its

identity;

the fulfillment is the

positive

mani-

festation of what

the

theme

has not

yet

be-

come. 7

From this

perspective,

we

might say

that the Ninth

presents

extreme instances

of

the

insubstantiality

of thematic

material.

The

opening

and

closing

of the

first

movement,

the

closing

of the fourth

movement,

and the

pas-

sages

that serve as retransitions

back to the D-

major song

material in the first

movement

are

formed,

on

the one

hand,

by

a

fluid

process

of

dissolution or

liquidation

and,

on

the

other,

by

its reverse-a coalescence of the resulting frag-

ments.8 The effect creates a wider

continuum

for

the

musical

subject,

one that

flows between

widely separated

poles

of

assertive

identity (e.g.,

the first-movement

passage

of mm.

92-107)

and

its

dissolution

(e.g.,

the

first-movement

pas-

sage

of mm.

254-66).

The

significance

of this

limbo

material lies in its

being

located

between

the defined

identities of the

movement's

poles

(i.e., the D-major and the D-minor passages),

and thus

constituting

an

exploration

between

those definitions of the

subject

that find some

7Theodor

W.

Adorno,

Mahler:

A

Musical

Physiognomy,

trans.

Edmund

Jephcott (Chicago, 1992), p.

88.

8Liquidation

s a

key

term in

Adorno,

Mahler

and Peter

Revers,

Gustav

Mahler:

Untersuchungen

zu den

spaten

Sinfonien

(Hamburg,

1985).

Revers draws a distinction be-

tween the

disintegration

of

existing

formal schemes and

techniques

of

composition (as

in

Adorno),

and the

gradual

elimination

of

characteristic motivic features

(as

in

Schoenberg's

definition in Fundamentals

of

Musical Com-

position,

ed. Gerald

Strang,

with

coll.

of

Leonard

Stein

[London,1980], p. 58).

115



19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

clearly

articulated

representation.

This

repre-

sents a

significant

departure

rom

the Kantian

model of

subjectivity,

which

is defined

by

its

synthesizing

function.

The

principle

of

disso-

lution,

or

liquidation,

constitutes

a

reversal of

this

function.

It is

a

defining

characteristic of

the Ninth

Symphony

that

it

presents

both

pro-

cesses as

aspects

of

a

cyclical

destruction

and

regeneration

of

identity.

This

urge

toward the

amorphous

marks

the late works' involvement with

a new model

of the

subject.

Or

rather,

it is

the

tension be-

tween this urge and the desire to create forms

in the

face

of it that

characterizes

this music.

As Adorno

claimed,

The

originality

of Mahler's

music

takes

up

Nietzsche's

insight

that the

system

and

its

seamless

unity,

its

appearance

of

reconciliation,

is

dishonest. 9

In

this

case,

the

system

is more than

simply

the

musical

or the

philosophical system:

it is the

discursive

universe,

the

symbolic

order in which

signifi-

cance is constructed.As such, it is the system

in

which

the

subject

is constructed.

Adorno's

referenceto Nietzsche is

more

than

incidental;

it

points

to a connection that

is

far

more

profound

han

might

be

suggested

by

mere

contemporaneity.

The dualities of the Ninth

find their

corollary

in

the

dualities

central to

Nietzsche's aesthetic

theory.

His

model,

as out-

lined in

The

Birth

of Tragedy

(1872),

is well

known. Brieflysummarized,it advances a theo-

retical

opposition

between

the

individuality

or

identity

conferred

through

differentiation,

on

which

the Classical

concept

of form

depends,

and those forces

that break down the

forms,

dissolving

them

into a

single

energy

that

Nietzsche calls the

Dionysian.

This

energy

is

thus

seen as the whole

from which individu-

ated forms

are wrested and which

eventually

reclaims them. Nietzsche characterized the

world

of individuated

forms,

or

phenomena,

as

the

Apollinian.

Above

all,

the

Apollinian

is

concerned

with an

ordering

and

a

limitation of

the raw

Dionysian energies,

a

fixing

of what

is

inherently dynamic

in order

to achieve defini-

tion. In other

words,

it concerns structure.

The

significance

of this for

a

theory

of musical form

lies in

the

dynamic

relation between

the two

forces.

Like

the individuated

forms of

phenom-

ena,

the definition of musical

identities

(whether

of

theme,

key,

or

whatever)

are

wrested from a

dynamic

continuum that

may

erode and even-

tually

reclaim them.

Nietzsche insisted that

the

duality

of the

two is

a

perpetual

strife

with

only periodically

ntervening

reconciliations. 10

It is this

dynamic

model,

by

turns destructive

and

regenerative,

n

which formal identities

are

fragile, precarious,

and above all

temporary

achievements,

that binds

Nietzsche's

philo-

sophical

discourse to

Mahler's

musical one.

The connectionmay seem inadequateso long

as

one reads Nietzsche

only

in

terms of nine-

teenth-century metaphysics.

Indeed,

it

might

be read as

merely

another

example

of the

very

programmatic

work that we

rejected

earlier. Its

significance may

become

clearer,

however,

when it is

reapproached

through

another dis-

course-for

example,

that

of

the

poststructural

theory

of

Julia

Kristeva.11

Nietzsche's

discus-

sion of the Dionysian has often been consid-

ered a

precursor

of Freud's

theory

of the Un-

conscious,

and it is

essentially

here,

in a

psychoanalytical theory,

that the

points

of con-

vergence

of these different theories are most

closely

observed.

Kristeva,

following

Lacan,

takes as

central the

poststructuralist premise

that the

subject

is constructed in

language.

She

is

concerned with

considering

how

this is

achieved. LikeNietzsche's, her model is one in

which

precarious

orms are

continually

created

and

destroyed

by

the unstructured

energies

of

their raw material.

Here

that

raw material is

roughly

mappable

onto the

energies

and drives

of

the

Freudian

Unconscious,

but called

(some-

what

perversely)

in her

theory,

the

semiotic

chora.

In

distinction to

this,

what she calls

the

thetic

subject

is the

subject

that is

placed

through the operation of the Symbolic Order

9Adorno,

Mahler,

pp.

14,

64.

'0Friedrich

Nietzsche,

The Birth

of

Tragedy,

trans.

and

comm. WalterKaufmann

New

York, 1967), p.

33.

Julia

Kristeva'sdebt to the work of

Jacques

Lacan

s

well

documented.

See,

e.g.,

Madan

Sarup,Jacques

Lacan

(Lon-

don, 1992), pp.

139-44.

The terms of

her model-the

semiotic

and

the

symbolic-clearly

relate to the

Imagi-

nary

and

the

Symbolic

in

Lacanian

theory.

Most

signifi-

cant for her

theory,

it

was

Lacan who initiated

a move

away

from the

biological tendency

of Freudian

heory

and

towarda focus on the cultural determinantsof the

subject.

In a

poststructuralist

context,

language

has

of course

been

seen as the

single

most

important

of these determinants.

116



JULIAN

JOHNSON

The

Subject

n

Mahler'sNinth

(preeminently,

language),

a

placing

achieved

by

the

ordering

and

structuring

of the

energies

of

the

semiotic chora.12The

ordering

of

the sub-

ject

throughlanguage

however,

like Nietzsche's

model of

Apollinian

individuation,

is

always

open

to

disruption

and destruction

by

the unor-

dered

energy

that

it

attempts

to structure. This

process-in

which

language

establishes an or-

dering

grid

that

is

itself

open

to

disruption,

and

that is then

in

turn

reordered-is

seen as

per-

petual

and

ever-renewing.

Nietzsche's model is

articulated

as a

metaphysics-an

outmoded

framework

in

current

practice

but when this is

recast as a model of internal

processes,

as a

psychology

of

artistic

production,

its

relation

to Kristeva's

psychoanalytical

project

becomes

clearer. While there remain

significant

mate-

rial differences between these two

discourses,

both

produce

models of

a

subject

in

process

that

relates

directly

to the

musical

processes

at

work

in

Mahler's Ninth.

Kristeva'sconcept of the semiotic chora and

the

urge

toward the

amorphous,

noted

by

Adorno,

converge

in this

symphony.

The static

passages

of the first and last movements are

not

simply distinguished

from

the

directional

music to

which

they

are

juxtaposed; they

con-

stitute

the

musical

remains

after

each suc-

cessive

collapse,

remains

that become

a new

beginning

for the reformulation of a

contingent

identity. Such passages are thus both begin-

nings

and

endings,

and at the same time nei-

ther,

in

the sense

that the

cyclical

nature of the

movement

suggests

that

this

music must for-

ever

return

as the re-creative womb

that ab-

sorbs the death of

the musical

subject

and

pro-

duces its

rebirth.

Kristeva underlines the maternal connota-

tion of the semiotic chora

as a

key

element

in

her feminist theory; she cites the characteriza-

tion of the chora

in

Plato's

Timeus

as a

recep-

tacle, unnameable,

improbable, hybrid,

ante-

rior to

naming,

to

the

One,

to the father. Else-

where it is

variously

described

as a fullness

without

structure,

a

nonexpressive

totality

that

precedes

and

underlies

figuration

.

.

and is

analogous only

to

vocal or

kinetic

rhythm. '13

Examining

Mahler's Ninth in

these terms cor-

responds

well

with the

nature and

function

of

the first movement's

D-major

song,

which

is

also characterized

by

a

lack of

tension and an

essentially

static

repetition

rather

than linear

progression.

This element of

repetition (of

the

same

melodic

fragments

and the

same con-

stant

harmony,

register,

and

warm

orches-

tral

sonority)

is

definitive of the

D-major

mu-

sic.

Such

movement

is

a

kind

of

rhythmic

rock-

ing

achieved

through

the

repetition

of its ele-

ments. These

passages

contrast

strongly

with

the directional

force of the rest

of

the

music.

They

stand

apart

from the

process

of

musical

development

and

function

as a

state

of

being

that undermines the

dialectical

struggle,

en-

during

after it is

abandoned rather than

com-

pleted

or overcome.

In this sense, I am suggesting that the musi-

cal

configuration

functions here as a

musical

analogue

to

a

specific

cultural

concept

of

the

maternal. It

does so not

by

presenting

symbols

of

the

maternal-although

one

may

find

them

easily enough-but

in

the

very

conditions of its

language.

Thus one

may

cite

vivid

examples

of

maternal

symbolism

as

oceanic embrace

in

the finale of the Ninth and the first

movement

of the Tenth. The effect of the single, highly

intense line that

begins

the Ninth's

finale,

for

example,

is

unequivocal.

Its

opening

anacrusis

and turn

figure

are

musical

ciphers

for a

ges-

ture of

assertion,

but

in

fact

the line moves

steadily

and

inexorably

downward,

its inten-

sity

absorbed

by

a

quiet

but

all-embracing

DK-

major

chord

in

tutti

strings-a

musical ana-

logue

of the

reabsorption

of the tension of the

individualby a maternallyconnoted whole (ex.

5).

The

opening

of the Tenth

provides

a

more

extended

example

of the same

pattern.'4

What-

ever the

evocative

or

even

representational

orce

of these

passages,

it

is

primarily

at

the level

of

musical

syntax

that their

relation to the

con-

'2Kristeva's

heory

of the semiotic chora

is found in her

Desire

in

Language:

A

Semiotic

Approach

to Literature

and

Art,

ed. Leon S.

Roudiez,

trans. Thomas

Gora,

Alice

Jardine,

and Roudiez

(New

York,

1980),

and Revolution in

Poetic

Language,

trans.

Margaret

Waller,

with an intro.

Leon S. Roudiez

(New York, 1984).

'3Kristeva,

From

One

Identity

to

Another

(1975)

in De-

sire in

Language, p.

133,

and Revolution in Poetic Lan-

guage,

p.

26.

14The

pening

to the

finale

of Bruckner'sNinth

Symphony

is another obvious

example.

117



19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

Sehr

angsam

und noch

zuriickhaltend

a

tempo

(Molto

adagio)

v

G-Saite

V

groger

on

stets

groier

Ton

Vn.

I

b.A-e

,

>> > di

m.

a

>i

lang gezogen

p

molto

espress.

Vn.I

bb

SG-Saite

dim.

f

lang gezogen

p molto

espress.

p

molto

espress.

Vc.

p

molto

espress.

p

molto

espress.

Cb.

p

molto

espress.

Example

5

cept of the maternal s sustained. Bothexamples

comprise

a

single

line whose chromatic inflec-

tions create

a

pronounced

harmonic tension in

respect

to

an

unstated

tonic;

both lines ini-

tially

rise and then

slowly

fall

to

a

conclusive

goal

that

absorbs

he individual

voice

in

a whole

characterized

by

a

global

completion-defined

here

by

the

homogeneity

and

stability

of har-

mony

and

sonority.

It is of

course

symptomatic

of the Ninth Symphonythat the stability of the

tutti section

is undermined almost immedi-

ately

with

the shock of the

chordal shift

to

WVI

on the third beat

of m. 3.

Many

readers

may recognize

that this is

not

an

altogether

unfamiliar observation.

Indeed,

in

1975

David Holbrook

argued

hat the

Ninth

Symphony

.

.

. is a massive

piece

of

regression

to the

stage

of

primary

identification

with

the

mother, and a rediscoveryof this realm of 'fe-

male element

being'.

According

to

Holbrook,

the

D-major

theme

equates

with the most

primeval

sound of

the

gently

beating

heart

and the

lullaby

of the mother

and

suggests

that

this

represents

a search for an

'at-one-ness'

we

once

knew,

at the

beginning

of our lives.

He

makes a

further connection

with the music

that ends

Der Abschied :

The essenceof the love

song

or

peace ong i.e.,

D-major

ong]

n the Ninth is its

femininity-it

be-

longs to the primaryexperienceof being in the

mother's

arms,

cradled,

ocking,

crooned o: and

t

echoes

the

rocking

peace

of Der Abschied

(which

is

also the

peace

of at-one-nesswith MotherEarth hat

Mahler

chievesunder he

contemplation

f

death).'1

I

dispute

neither the maternal

connotation

of this music nor its

relation to

Der Abschied.

More

problematic, though,

is

Holbrook's

con-

tention that the symphony as a whole is a

massive

piece

of

regression.

This

oversimpli-

fies a

piece

that

has a maternal

symbolism

as

a

central element but is

by

no

means

merely

an

articulation

of

the maternal. More

precisely,

a

specific

cultural

concept

of the maternal finds

its

analogue

in

a

particular

kind of

musical

process

within the Ninth

but,

as

we

have

seen,

the

symphony

as a

whole

is

defined

by

the

opposition of different kinds of music.

Holbrook's assertion

suggests

not

only

an

in-

fantilism

at odds with the

sophistication

of

much

of the

symphony

but also

a

singularity

of

meaning

that Mahler's deliberate

fragmenta-

tion

opposes.

In

particular,

he ambivalent

atti-

'Holbrook,

Gustav

Mahler,

p.

55.

Quite

apart

from the

fact that the rhythm of

a

heart beat is usually given

the

other

way

round

(i.e., eighth note--dotted quarter

note),

Holbrook

ignores

the

negative

functions

of

this

rhythm

(e.g.,

m.

318).

See also

p.

125.

118



JULIAN

JOHNSON

The

Subject

n

Mahler'sNinth

tude to

closure, continually reapproached

throughout

the entire

symphony,

suggests

a far

more

complex

model. Holbrook's

desire to

read

the

Ninth both as

a literal narrative

and, worse,

as

a

personal

narrative

belonging

specifically

to

Mahler,

leads

him

to miss

an essential

point:

the Ninth is not about the

journey

of

any spe-

cific

subject,

but

explores

the conditions of sub-

jectivity

sui

generis.

Holbrook

argues

that in

his music Mahler was

seeking

to

preserve

an

identity

against

forces

which

threatened to

dis-

rupt

it,

or annihilate

it. 16 The

implication

of

this

approach

is the

envisioning

of an assault

on some

ready-made

dentity

whose battle

and

subsequent victory

over forces

which

threaten

to

disrupt

it is

precisely

the

ideology

of much

nineteenth-century

music.

My

contention is

different:

Mahler's

Ninth

is

a

musical

articula-

tion of the

subject

in

process.

This

is

given

most

strongly

in the musical

language

itself

rather than the

narrative that is carried

by

it.

This articulation is particularlyobvious in

the two

inner

movements

of

the

symphony.

Here the

plurality

of

material resists obvious

narrative

interpretations

and forces attention

onto

the

musical

process

itself. Whereas the

outer movements

of the

Ninth articulate

an

impasse

of the Romantic

subject-the

desire

for self-articulation

juxtaposed

with the

appar-

ent

inability

to do so-the

inner movements

take a differentapproachto the same problem.

Mahler's use of

irony

is

usually

discussed

in

terms

of

its

modernist

aspect,

in

which

irony

functions

as a

mask,

or series of

masks,

for the

speaking

subject-projecting

an

implied frag-

mentation of the

speaking

voice

and thus sub-

verting

the

notion of

a unified

subject

as

au-

thor.

But

Mahler's

use

of

irony

is hard

to

equate

with the

apparent

coolness

of,

for

example,

Stravinsky's masks. It representsrather a self-

denial and self-ridicule that retains

a sense

of

nostalgic

loss for

the

inability

to

talk with a

single,

unified

voice. Thus

the

ironic

in Mahler

is

not

merely

the

grotesque

distortion of the

familiar but also an

exploitation

of the

proxim-

ity

between

expressivism

and sentimentaliza-

tion,

a

deliberate derision of the desire

for

expressivism

within a

musical

style

in

which

expressive

aims

are

central.

These two movements take as their

mate-

rial

sources two

parallel

but

contradictory

con-

cerns of the

Austro-Germanic

tradition:

the

classicalization of

the

popular

on the one

hand,

and the

pursuit

of the

intensely

abstract and

intellectual on

the

other. Thus the

second move-

ment

uses dance

material,

with all its extra-

musical associations

of

wordly enjoyment

and

all its musical

associations of classicism and

formalism.

Although

less abstract and

philo-

sophical

than the

first,

this movement is

nev-

ertheless

highly

sophisticated

in

its treatment

of

familiar

materials. As

if

to underline its

con-

trast

to the first

movement,

it

makes with it

several thematic

connections,

producing

worldly

and absurd

reworkings

of the first

movement's

high

subject

matter. In

fact,

the

juxtaposition

of these two

movements

neatly

represents a historical and cultural watershed

between a

nineteenth-century

faith in

the au-

tonomy

of

the

musical

language

and its dialec-

tical

ability

to solve a musical

antinomy

through

musical

argument,

and a

very

different

approach

that deals

negatively

and

ironically

with familiar

material.

In

this

way,

the second

movement's evoca-

tion of dance

styles parallels

the first's evoca-

tion of an idealized representationof the ma-

ternal. It

presents

the

Ldindler

as the social-

maternal-the static world of an idealized

pas-

toral. The waltz

that

interrupts

it is

more ur-

ban, modern,

and

hectic. These

differences

are

given

in

the

music,

whose

semiosis

denotes

these

things (by using specific

musical

materi-

als

as

signs

for

things

outside the

music),

but

also

iconically

in

that the musical

language

changes between simple, stable, and basically

static

patterns,

and

those that

are

less

stable,

more

dynamic,

and more

complex.

At the same

time,

all of the dance forms are social

forms,

musical

representations

of

a loss of self-iden-

tity

in

the

rhythm

of a

larger

whole

(albeit

in

the case of the waltz

in

a

deliberately

senti-

mentalized

way).

The

grim

mania of the move-

ment

results

directly

from the

inadequacy

of

these social forms as vehicles for subjective

meaning.

They

are

literally

absurd.

They

con-

tain

no framework

in

which the existential

16Ibid., .

74. The same

implication

of a

preexistent

sub-

ject

to whom these events

happen

runs

through

David B.

Greene,

Mahler,

Consciousness and

Temporality (New

York, 1984).

119



19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

questions

of

the

first

movement can be ad-

equately

answered.

In

keeping

with the idea

of

an

ironic

reworking,

the second movement's

ending parallels

in

certain

importantways

the

end

of

the first-the

descent to

a

maternally

connoted

pastoral

C

major,

and a

fragmenta-

tion of the elements

of

the musical

discourse,

mirroring

with

irony

the

parallel

return

to

D

major

in

the first movement.

The third

movement contains

a

raw,

anar-

chic

energy

that is

pure

Dionysian,

but is

ex-

pressed

in the context of a

contrapuntal

tech-

nique whose traditional implication is rather

one

of

Apollinian

control. Strict

counterpoint

is a musical

symbol

of

logical

thought

and

an

intellectual

working-through-a

kind

of

philo-

sophical approach

to

music,

but here Mahler

sets

in

motion

a

movement

that breaks

open

this

process

from within:

hence the

eventual

need to

sidestep-to

look for

a

solution outside

the dialectical

process.

The

movement is char-

acterized formallyby the continual foreground-

ing

of new material:

an

incessant,

volcanic flux

of

material affected

by

a

perpetual shifting

of

background

and

foreground.

It is an extreme

example

of

Mahler's

declared

credo

that a

sym-

phony

should

include the whole

world ;

in

attempting

to do

so,

it strains the

possibility

of

coherence.

It thus mirrors

precisely

the

pro-

cess of the

semiotic chora

in

relation to

the

symbolic order. To attempt to present the

whole,

to include

all

within

language,

is

to

risk

slipping

back into

the

chora,

the

Dionysian

cauldron,

because

form,

symbolic

order,

and

meaning

are

predicated

on differentiation.

This,

in

turn,

implies

limitation

and exclusion.

The introduction

of

stylistic

quotation

in

the second

movement

and the

rapid

flux

of

material

in the third result

in a

high degree

of

formal disjunction. The intrusion of heteroge-

neous

elements

in

these

movements subverts

the

attempt

to maintain

a

unitary

voice

in the

outer

movements.

It contradicts

a basic

prin-

ciple

of Western

Classical

music: that of the

autonomy

and internal

consistency

of its mate-

rial,

predicated

on the

exclusion of the hetero-

geneous.

Such a

principle

is of coursea

primary

condition

of

the

musical

style

of an

autono-

mous,

internally consistent,

synthetic subject;

whereas the

proliferation

of

heterogeneity

is,

in

the Classical

framework,

akin to the de-

struction of the

centralizing

subject

and

a kind

of madness. In

this

very

different

way,

the

in-

ner

two

movements thus address he

same

prob-

lematic as the

outer movements.

All

four

strugglewith similar problemsof musical iden-

tity

and the

inability

to achieve narrative clo-

sure.

This is

not, however,

to

imply

a lack of

di-

rection

through

the

symphony

as a

whole;

the

attempt

in

the finale to

produce

a closure

ad-

equate

to the entire

piece

constitutes

a teleol-

ogy

of

its

own.

In

the

finale,

the tension be-

tween

the

desire for closure and the

inability

to

effect it becomes thematic. It saturatesthe final

Adagissimo.

The

piece stops

(rather

han

closes)

by

neither

achieving

cadential closure

nor

de-

nying

it,

but

by

allowing

the whole

process

to

fragment

and

dissolve without

an

unequivocal

resolution. Such

resolution,

founded

in

cadential

closure,

is definitive of tonal

music's

claim to

form. It

is

axiomatic to the self-iden-

tity

of the Classical

subject.

The

specificity

of

Mahler's Ninth lies precisely in its desire to

achieve

subjective identity through

closure

within

a musical context that renders

this

unachievable.

Its

straining

for closure

is

essen-

tially

Romantic;

its

exploration

of

alternative,

plural

strategies

is

essentially

modern.

Mahler's

Ninth is

a

symphony,

to borrow

Nietzsche's

words,

stretched

in

the contradiction

,h

etween

today

and

tomorrow. '7

'7Nietzsche,

The

Gay

Science,

trans.

and

comm.

Walter

Kaufmann

New York, 1974), p.

279.

120

the status of the subject in mahler's ninth symphony

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