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Gustav Mahler opens his fifth symphony with a familiar, rhythmic figure.
Dat-dat-dat-dah.
It is the same figure Beethoven uses to open his fifth symphony.
While Beethoven’s music is stern, it is also joyful and even manages to make fun of itself a little.
Mahler’s symphony opens with a funeral march and the following section is titled, “Moving stormily with the greatest vehemence.”
One of my more temperamental friends once said of the opening section of the fifth, “I wish he would have just gone out and strangled a cat instead of writing this ugly stuff.”
While growing up in Eastern Bohemia, six of Mahler’s siblings died. Almost all his symphonies contain a funeral march and he also composed Kindertotenlieder, Song on the Death of Children.
I’m not sure but he seems to have had a fixation with death.
Amongst all of this storm and vehemence, a bright, shinning gem rests, almost out of place.
The adagietto of Mahler’s fifth is stunning. Scored for strings and two harps, it is tender and delicate.
Maybe this short movement of the symphony is merely the eye of the storm. Maybe it is a hazy ray of sunshine struggling through the storm clouds. I hesitate to label it because it doesn’t need anyone trying to explain its value.
What inspired Mahler to compose this gentle segment? I’ve not the slightest clue.
Knowing why Mahler wrote it cannot give it more meaning than it already posseses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXoADUoYy4&feature=related
Gustav Mahler opens his fifth symphony with a familiar, rhythmic figure.
Dat-dat-dat-dah.
It is the same figure Beethoven uses to open his fifth symphony.
While Beethoven’s music is stern, it is also joyful and even manages to make fun of itself a little.
Mahler’s symphony opens with a funeral march and the following section is titled, “Moving stormily with the greatest vehemence.”
One of my more temperamental friends once said of the opening section of the fifth, “I wish he would have just gone out and strangled a cat instead of writing this ugly stuff.”
While growing up in Eastern Bohemia, six of Mahler’s siblings died. Almost all his symphonies contain a funeral march and he also composed Kindertotenlieder, Song on the Death of Children.
I’m not sure but he seems to have had a fixation with death.
Amongst all of this storm and vehemence, a bright, shinning gem rests, almost out of place.
The adagietto of Mahler’s fifth is stunning. Scored for strings and two harps, it is tender and delicate.
Maybe this short movement of the symphony is merely the eye of the storm. Maybe it is a hazy ray of sunshine struggling through the storm clouds. I hesitate to label it because it doesn’t need anyone trying to explain its value.
What inspired Mahler to compose this gentle segment? I’ve not the slightest clue.
Knowing why Mahler wrote it cannot give it more meaning than it already posseses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXoADUoYy4&feature=related