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General Category => Gustav Mahler and Related Discussions => Topic started by: worldprecipice on May 14, 2017, 05:50:33 PM
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Hi everyone,
First time I'm posting here - I've been browsing a bit - it's great!!
I have a question about a theme that's been on my mind for almost a decade now. I love listening to his music but don't have a music theory background to make sense of this. I hope someone here might be able to help:
The theme I am referring to is here: https://youtu.be/_pxPYWJqaPI?t=695
I know the same theme is used in his Ruckert Lieder: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen.
I vaguely recall hearing it again in one of his later symphonies. Does anyone know more about this theme? It's absolutely stunning.
Thank you.
WP
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Hmmmmm . . . there is a bit of music in the 10th symphony that's only vaguely similar. You say "Ruckert Lieder", but I think there's a spot in the "Kindertotenlieder" that's a bit more similar - I believe in the fourth song. I'll think on this some more.
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That would be great. I've not heard this theme in Kindertotenlieder. I'm listening to it again now. I've heard it on the 4th song of Ruckertlieder though :-)
I'll listen to the 10th - I haven't listened to that in a long while!
I'm in love with that theme. I would love to learn more.
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If you're talking about where the flute first enters, that theme begins as a pentatonic scale, more or less. You can easily demonstrate that scale to yourself by playing only the black keys on a piano. It's the scale that's generally associated with Asiatic music. It then morphs into a diatonic idiom - mostly in major - with some chromatic (half-step) neighbor tones thrown in. In other words, it becomes the type of melody that one could easily identify as being 'late romantic' or late 19th century. It's beautiful, though, isn't it? Mahler simply doesn't get enough credit as a melodist (writer of melodies).
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Mahler simply doesn't get enough credit as a melodist (writer of melodies).
Agreed! I vote for the flute-solo in the Final movement of the Tenth. Even though this piece wasn't completed by Mahler, this flute-music is all Mahler (if I'm not mistaken)!
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I'm on-board with Barry, about what a remarkable melodist Mahler was, and how so few in music are aware of this.
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For what it's worth the flute melody is in the original manuscript sketch of the 10th symphony in Mahler's handwriting. I showed the brilliant 1924 facsimile to a professional flutist. This is the facsimile so accurate that
Alma famously mixed up original pages with pages from this facsimile they are so similar. My flutist friend, who also teaches courses on Mahler, instantly identified the flute melody of the last movement in the manuscript facsimile.
Best,
Tom in Vermont
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