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"My 6th
symphony will certainly
bring about some
mysteries, to which there
will be no other approach
than understanding and
re-thinking my previous
five symphonies". This
was Mahler’s comment to his
friend and biographer
Richard Specht, after he had
completed his 6th symphony
in a minor. The score was
completed in the summer
months of 1903 and 1904, a
time of more than obvious
happiness for Mahler: It was
the time of the very
successful cooperation with
Alfred Roller, whose
stagings made opera history
and gave a great deal of
reputation to Mahler’s work
as the director of the
courtopera, apart from his
success as a conductor. Yet,
above all it was the first
happy time of his marriage
to Alma, from which in 1902
and 1904 emerged his two
daughters Maria Anna and
Anna Justina. Yet, the
positive situation of life
in those years is only very
poorly reflected in the
works of the composer: On
the one hand Mahler
completes the song-cycle
“Kindertotenlieder” after
poems by Friedrich Rückert,
in which the death of his
two children is depressively
reflected. By choosing two
more poems of this
collection of more than 400
poems, Mahler finally
completes the work.
On the other hand he makes a
conception of the 6th
symphony, in which we can
easily find the opposite of
his private life: A dreary
and dull world is depicted
here. It seems that Mahler
wanted to confront himself
with the unchangeable, with
the end of human life and
human action, just as if to
form the opposite pole of
his life in personal
contentness and private
happiness. Yet there is,
according to Alma Mahler, no
other work, which “had
emerged so directly out of
his heart” and that had
caught his ear on the spot;
it is supposed to be “his
most personal work”.
The pessimistic world of
sonorities in the 6th has a
very strange motif, which
forms the basis of the
composition. It is not a
motif that functions as a
connection of the entire
musical themes, as it is a
feature of the “late
Mahler”. On the contrary, it
is a sort of Leitmotif,
which has the function of
representing a sort of
fateful meaning just by its
static existence, for it can
be heard in every movement
and whenever the mood
changes. Often it resists
the amassing of sonorities
and in return brings about a
heavy and destructive
atmosphere. In its musical
form this motif could not be
simpler: a minorchord, which
is preceeded by a
major-chord functioning as a
suspension. Seen as an
epigrammatic form it
represents a very determined
and short summary of
Mahler’s constant changes
between minor and major keys
in his symphonies.
The first movement begins
with an Allegro energico: A
march. In his compositoric
work the march-rhythm
belongs to the tools of
creating an atmosphere
describing "the movement of
existence", as we learnt
from Bruno Walter. This
rhythm is automatically
linked with the imagination
of marching and going
forward to one’s
destination. Mahler himself
talks of the
“Panta-Rhei-movement” of his
6th symphony in an interview
in New York. Nevertheless it
is not only the movement and
progress in the 6th, it is
also fate, which marches on;
the harmonic nervosity. As
we learn from Leonard
Bernstein, “this march is
something like Funeral
March, although it is not as
obviously written as that.
It is a modern “Totentanz”,
as difficult and complicated
as modern life. And beside
this march-motif there
develop other motifs, which
can be found in the other
movements, too. They are
particles of the Funeral
March”. The passionate
second theme, designated as
“jubilantly” in the score is
according to Alma Mahler a
portrait of herself; Mahler
is supposed to have said to
her during the composition:
“I have tried to fix your
personality in a theme - I
do not know whether I have
done this successfully. You
have to take it as it is”.
Three times we can hear the
march-rhythms of the
“Alma-theme”: Vigorously,
but Marcato, until a vision
takes lead over the
Totentanz-pessimism. The
ears are intoxicated by the
sounds of the celesta and
vibrating sonorities of the
violin. These sounds have
once been characterized by
Mahler as the last greetings
of the world to a
mountain-wanderer climbing
higher and higher. The
recapitulation however
breaks up this vision and
the fight for existence is
resumed with new energy.
The character of the second
and the third movement might
be looked upon as a
variation on the “interior”
subject of the first
movement. In the Scherzo a
powerful and sharply-edged
theme with accented trills
develops above prominent
drum-beating in 3/8-measure.
In the two Trio-sections
more delicate themes -
grazioso - rise up.
According to Alma Mahler
they are supposed to
represent the a-rhythmical
playing of their two
children, running in the
sand staggeringly. But the
balance is disturbed. Again
and again the major/minor
Leitmotif can be heard, as
if to admonish the listener
of the instability of
structure. In due course the
Trio-motifs are penetrated
by sharply outlined elements
of the Scherzo. The whole
procedure is marked by an
uncomfortable restlessness.
With its elegic and
exuberant melodies the Andante
forms a contrasting pole to
the deeply dramatic
atmosphere of the other
movements: an idyllic
picture in distant
E-flat-major. It is the only
movement of the symphony,
which loosens itself from
the main key a-minor and
above all it is an example
for Mahler’s “infinite
melodies”: The beginning and
the end of melodic lines are
linked with each other.
Arnold Schönberg has shown
that the entire movement
consists of a single melody.
The most essential part of
the symphonic development
however is to be heard in
the Finale. Everything is
directed to the final
movement, the extensive
dimensions of which are
quite extraordinary.
Concerning the formal and
musical contents, this is
the movement with the most
difficult approach. In it
Mahler has reached a perfect
balance between plasticism
and melodic individuality by
contrasting melodic and
rhythmical elements and thus
giving more and more shape
to each other. Mahler’s
conducting colleague Willem
Mengelberg writes: “The
powerful lines of this
movement (mainly played by
the brass section) are
carried by the sharp
rhythmic motifs of the
countertheme, while they
form the Repoussoir of the
other themes at the same
time. The result of this is
the extraordinary power of
sound in the Tuttis; all
voices are singing. It is a
singing, which is born out
of the highest emotional
intensity and in it lies the
only possible enhancement
compared with the rhythmical
attitude of the first
movement.” According to
Altria Mahler, her husband
described “his or his hero’s
fall. The hero receives
three blows of destiny, the
third of which makes him
tumble like a tree. These
areMahler’s words.”
The critics could find no
common judgement for the
first night, which took
place in Essen in 1906.
Although they were quite
fascinated by the emotional
expressivity, especially the
final movement’s, there were
quite some reservations
concerning Mahler’s
instrumentation. Richard
Strauss found the symphony
“over-instrumentated” and
had some objections
concerning the “interior
dramatism” of the Finale.
Alma reports: “Strauss said
to me: ‘Why is it that
Mahler takes away the
greatest effect from the
final movement by showing
his greatest strength in the
first movement and getting
weaker and weaker towards
the end? I do not understand
this.’ He has never
understood him. It was only
the theatre-obsessed man
speaking in those
statements. It should be
quite clear to everybody who
has understood the symphony,
that the first blow had to
be strongest, the second
weaker and the last
death-bringing one the
weakest of all. Perhaps the
momentous effect would have
been stronger if the dynamic
process had been reversed.
But Mahler was never
concerned with momentous
effects.”
In this context the choice
of a wooden hammer for the
realization of the three
blows of destiny plays a
very important role. He had
tried some sort of a club
before, but he was not
satisfied with the result.
In the score he writes:
“Short, powerful blow with a
hollow and non-metallic
character,” to which he
added later: “Like the blow
of an ax.” This second
version of the 6th, in which
Mahler had revised the
instrumentation very
thoroughly, is still in use
today. In this edition
Mahler deleted the third
blow before the beginning of
the Coda at the end of the
movement. This gave way to
quite a lot of speculations
and still forms a problem of
interpretation today.
Mahler’s revision took place
at the same time of his
compositoric work on his
“Symphony of the Thousands.”
He made those revision
during the composition of
the “Veni creator spiritus”
hymn and the final scene of
“Faust II”. The spirit of a
positive attitude to life
and certainty in his belief,
which are put into music in
those two works, have
probably had some effect on
the fatalistic conception of
his earlier work. In the
meantime, Mahler’s
experience of life and death
has got a quite different
meaning. Indestructability
has come to his
consciousness. In this
sense, Erwin Ratz, editor of
the complete edition,
understands Mahler’s
decision: “His feeling of
complete expiration (we
could call it the complete
collapsing of his hero) must
now be seen in a different
light. Man has fulfilled his
task. Even if it seemed to
have been a failure,
individuality has now
reached a higher state,
which cannot be taken away
anymore. So, death is not
the end any longer, but
gives way to the rising of
new spheres... Therefore the
third hammer blow has to be
deleted, for it would have
enhanced the feeling of an
absolute and irreversible
end too much.”
Andreas
Maul
The
Recording of Mahler’s
Symphony No.6 - Denon
Recording Division
Our goal
in making the "Complete
Collection of Mahler
Symphonies" was to faithfully
recreate an orchestral
space with natural depth
and expansion. For this
reason,
the recording was made
based on the simple A-B
method, considered to be the
origin of recording.
Some
features of this
recording method are as
follows:
l. Natural
balance with no
overstatement.
2.
Faithful recreation of
orchestral sounds with
natural perspective,
3. Clear,
unmuddled sound.
4.
Excellent mixture of
direct and indirect
sound,
The
concrete fruits of this
method can be heard in
the recording of the Symphony
No.4.
However,
with the vast orchestra
required for the
Symphony No.6, what with
all the
special instruments
(celesta, cowbells,
whips, hammers) and the
complex orchestration,
it is extremely
difficult to capture the
musical nuances of all
instruments with
only two microphones.
For this
reason, the output of
assistant microphones
(spot-microphones) were
mixed in
for the Symphony No.6,
though only at those
places where musically speaking
it was deemed absolutely
necessary.
When
conventional methods of
mixing are used,
however, problems arise
for the delay
in the propagation of
sounds, a result of the
distance between the
assistant
microphones and main
microphones. When one
listens to an orchestra
in a concert
hall, a natural time
relationship is
established, with the
sounds of the instruments
which are nearest
reaching the ear faster
and the sounds of
instruments further
off reaching the ear
with a time delay. When
assistant microphones
are placed
near certain instruments
and this sound is mixed
in, however, the natural
time
relationship is
destroyed and the sense
of depth is lost.
The
solution we devised for
this problem is the
“time delay alignment
mixing technique”.
With this
method, the output from
the assistant
microphones is delayed
by the amount
corresponding to the
distance between the
main microphones and
assistant microphones
in order to correct the
time lag between signals
which is produced with
simple mixing.
Using this
technique makes it
possible to mix signals
and still maintain
accurate time data,
producing a result which
sounds exactly like
simple A-B recording despite
the fact that assistant
microphones were used.
This
technique was announced
upon the first attempt
in the history of the record to
use it with a live
recording of "Der
Freischütz", performed
in commemoration of
the restoration of the
Semper Opera, and
received world-wide
praise.
Denon has
used its exclusive
technology to develop a
"digital time delay alignment
mixing device", and this
device was used for time
delay alignment mixing of
all the assistant
microphones used for the
recording of Mahler’s
Symphony
No.6.
Thus, it
is now possible to
recreate the same
natural depth and
expansion for parts
recorded with assistant
microphones as for
simple A-B recording.
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