THOUGHTS & NOTES on Malher's 6th Symphony - 4th Movement:
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There are 20 or more memorable thematic statements in the Finale. There are so many, in fact, that coming in a semi-amorphous form (actually a distorted/morphed Sonata Allegro) where so many themes are synthesized from certain, harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic motives, it is hard to pinpoint or remember one or two! This is a completely astounding composition, both in the construction of the music (e.g. most all of thematic material in the recapitulation is slapped/slammed with other material straight through it; very wild harmonically) and in the use of individual instruments and orchestral timbres--REALLY wild! I'm waiting for the much-ballyhooed late-80s live recording of Bernstein and the Weiner Philharmonic after sifting through reviews and mini music samples online . . .
Yes, Mahler removed the 3rd Hammerschlag for fear of tempting fate with regarding his own death, but alas, this did not work for him!! Apparently, he was ready to reinsert the final hammer-stroke after conducting it and hearing it several times, but it was not published or corrected that way before he died.
So far (less than 20 listenings), I’m not the biggest fan of how the ending unfolds, or refolds, and concludes—with or without the final stroke… I am completely submerged in the allegro which follows the second fate motif in the Adagio opening of the Finale. It’s a “one-step-up, leap, one-step-up, leap-back-down while continuing one-step-up, pattern/template from which he fires off all sorts of varied theme-incarnations along the way. It also sets up one “straight” horn declaration of the most pertinent motif: Pum, pa-Pum, pa-pa-Pum pum (that’s “1 - 2 - 3” on the capitol Ps), and occurs statement—the meat of the exposition.
There is a melodic/harmonic, rhythmic, and also tonal ascent created with bits of thematic material morphed from Mvt. I and already stated differently in the only once—in the exposition. It either does not return at all in the recap (right before coda or pre-coda begins), or it’s completely slammed by a timpani fate motif and some other overlaid material. There is so much struggle and strife, and the summarizing emotional statements so power-packed and yet fleeting, that the absence of the return of that “endpoint of the struggle” horn call becomes a force in itself—like a big open wound that is not going to heal—Hammerschlag or not.
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There are 20 or more memorable thematic statements in the Finale. There are so many, in fact, that coming in a semi-amorphous form (actually a distorted/morphed Sonata Allegro) where so many themes are synthesized from certain, harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic motives, it is hard to pinpoint or remember one or two! This is a completely astounding composition, both in the construction of the music (e.g. most all of thematic material in the recapitulation is slapped/slammed with other material straight through it; very wild harmonically) and in the use of individual instruments and orchestral timbres--REALLY wild! I'm waiting for the much-ballyhooed late-80s live recording of Bernstein and the Weiner Philharmonic after sifting through reviews and mini music samples online . . .
Yes, Mahler removed the 3rd Hammerschlag for fear of tempting fate with regarding his own death, but alas, this did not work for him!! Apparently, he was ready to reinsert the final hammer-stroke after conducting it and hearing it several times, but it was not published or corrected that way before he died.
So far (less than 20 listenings), I’m not the biggest fan of how the ending unfolds, or refolds, and concludes—with or without the final stroke… I am completely submerged in the allegro which follows the second fate motif in the Adagio opening of the Finale. It’s a “one-step-up, leap, one-step-up, leap-back-down while continuing one-step-up, pattern/template from which he fires off all sorts of varied theme-incarnations along the way. It also sets up one “straight” horn declaration of the most pertinent motif: Pum, pa-Pum, pa-pa-Pum pum (that’s “1 - 2 - 3” on the capitol Ps), and occurs statement—the meat of the exposition.
There is a melodic/harmonic, rhythmic, and also tonal ascent created with bits of thematic material morphed from Mvt. I and already stated differently in the only once—in the exposition. It either does not return at all in the recap (right before coda or pre-coda begins), or it’s completely slammed by a timpani fate motif and some other overlaid material. There is so much struggle and strife, and the summarizing emotional statements so power-packed and yet fleeting, that the absence of the return of that “endpoint of the struggle” horn call becomes a force in itself—like a big open wound that is not going to heal—Hammerschlag or not.
