English Commentary by Sergio Cánovas 

Mahler’s Third Symphony was started in the summer of 1895 at his summer refuge in Steinbach am Attersee, his composer’s house by the lake. Although the first sketches date back to 1893, its realization on paper was done in the summer of 1895. He composed five movements and left the first in an initial design that would continue during the next summer. On June 11, 1896, he returned to Steinbach again, finishing the score on July 11.

The second movement was performed in Berlin on November 9, 1896 by the Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Nikisch. On March 9, 1897 the same orchestra, under the direction of Felix Weingartner, performed the second, third and sixth movements. When finished, the audience’s whistles almost drowned the applause. The critics wrote totally unfavorable reviews.

The première of the complete work would not take place until June 9, 1902 during the Krefeld Festival in the Rhineland, performed by the Cologne Orchestra conducted by Mahler. Among the public were Richard Strauss, Max von Schillings, Humperdinck, Eugen d’Albert, among others, who acclaim the work. It is Mahler’s first triumph as a composer.

It is Mahler’s longest symphony. The orchestral resources used are enormous, although their use is seldom simultaneous. Mahler originally proposed a work in seven movements, but the last one was suppressed. It was the lied «Das himmlische Leben», which he will later use in the finale of his fourth symphony. Mahler divided the work into two parts. The first with a single movement, leaving the rest for the second part.

The first movement had the subtitle «the arrival of summer or the awakening of Pan», later it was titled «what the rocks tell me». The form used is an enlarged variant of the sonata form, using two expositions. It begins with an introduction that contains a martial theme, performed by eight horns. The first theme is powerful and grandiose in nature, following the tradition of Bruckner. Trumpet blasts produce an uneasy climate. Then, the thematic fragments take shape. Separated by a pause, the second popular theme appears. It belongs to the military marches that Mahler listened to in his childhood and that impressed him so much. But the treatment of these naïve subjects is as developed as in the most transcendent ones. This sharp contrast between themes is characteristic of its author, who liked to oppose the human with the divine, in this case represented by nature.

After a new pause, a second exposition begins, with the grandiose theme of the mountain appearing more clearly. Then, the second theme is repeated, which increases its character as a military march, until it reaches its climax. The first theme reappears at the beginning of development. It is the bombastic call of nature, in the form of great mountains that dwarf man. Difficult solos for the trombone, which represents the voice of the Earth, are interspersed during the complex development. The violin solo represents the fragility of human nature. The double basses begin a crescendo that culminates with the performance of the march in a triumphant climate. A drum roll announces the beginning of the recapitulation. The powerful first theme is repeated that links to the start of the second theme, which through a crescendo, leads us to an explosive coda.

At the time of making a literary comment on the movement, we are met with reasonable doubts. We can make a double interpretation of it.The doubts come from Mahler himself. At the time of planning the symphony, he gave it the title «A Midsummer Night’s Dream» which would later become «A Midsummer Morning’s Dream», unrelated to Shakespeare’s play. Later, after reading Nietzsche’s work, he changed the title to «The Gay Science», the title of one of his books. The first movement titled it as «The arrival of summer» or «The awakening of Pan» and later «The courtship of Bacchus».

If we consider this version, the theme of the introduction represents the awakening of nature at the end of winter. Then comes the seasonal struggle with the spring transition. Summer will finally come with its final victory. The rhythms of the march signify the path that is inevitably traveled towards the summer. The composer himself explained the movement: “Pan waits, summer is coming, ringing and singing, frolicking in all directions. And all the time it is so eternally full of mystery and pain, like still life, which waits in sad immobility for the arrival of life ”.

Later Mahler changed the title of the movement to «What the rocks tell me». In this case the meaning changes. Mahler attributes a pantheistic meaning to the music. Mahler’s attitude towards the transcendence of life changes throughout his life. Starting from the initial Judaism, it passes to Christianity, but it will always be marked by Eastern philosophies. Pantheism is a philosophical doctrine that identifies God with the world. According to Eastern thought, it immerses God in the world. This new interpretation of his work seems more convincing than the first one. The gigantic mountain theme opposes human fragility.

Mahler never offered us a conclusive interpretation. Finally, he adopted the norm of eliminating all the descriptive notes and titles, so that the listener himself could make his own particular interpretation. Considering the works as pure musical studies, we leave it to the listeners and readers to draw their own conclusions. This Written comment is given for guidance only, without being dogmatic in any way.

The second part of the work begins with a tempo di menuetto. The title of the movement was «what the meadow flowers tell me.» The theme is performed by the oboe accompanied by pizzicatos from the low strings. A new theme is presented by the flute, forming an idyllic ensemble. The two themes alternate symmetrically. This movement was the first one Mahler composed, inspired by the flowers of the meadow that surrounded his lake house. Continuing with the second interpretation of the work, the second step of nature is the flowers. Following the evolutionary theory after the creation of the Earth, represented in the previous movement, it continues with the plants.

The third movement constitutes the scherzo of the work. The music comes from one of the “Lieder und Gesänge” (Wunderhorn Lieder), the so-called «Ablösung im Sommer» composed in 1890. It tells us that the cuckoo has died, being replaced by the nightingale. Spring is replaced by summer. The trio contains a off-stage horn solo. The orchestra responds with a dreamy duet from the horns. The off-stage horn repeats its call again.

The orchestra’s response again is made by the sharp violins. For the third time, the invisible horn responds. The scherzo is resumed with its cuckoo song. Towards the end of the scherzo, the atmosphere becomes thinner, the off-stage horn is heard again, which is then bent by the orchestral horns. When the last notes are turned off, the theme of the scherzo seems to resume, but is replaced by a cry of pain produced by a fanfare of the wind that leads us to the coda.

The subtitle of the movement given by Mahler was «What the forest animals tell me.» In this case Mahler presents us with the third evolutionary stage: the animal world. A movement with a simple song, but difficult to interpret on a deeper level. It seems to want to imply the fragility of the animal world, which is seasonally renewed to survive, in a lower stage of life. The simple character of the trio seems to reflect this character of a simpler nature from the animal world. The cry of pain that precedes the coda could reflect the damage caused by man in his intrusion into the life of animals, a kind of call to the conservation of wildlife, which is part of God.

The fourth movement had the subtitle «What the night tells me» and later changed it to «The man». It consists of the lied «Mitternachtslied», with the text taken from Nietzsche’s «Also sprach Zarathustra», a book in which Mahler had shown considerable interest. It is the adagio of the symphony. On a light and transparent instrumentation, the contralto sings the aforementioned lied that begins in an atmosphere full of calm and mystery.

Mahler uses a very free form in this movement, a static music, suggesting the calm of the night. In this movement, following the evolutionary cycle, man appears. In the heart of the night, life confuses Zaratrusta with its anguish and doubts. He meditates on the secret of the world, of the fragility of a life that will be called to eternity. The whole movement consists of a deep meditation of the man, who has just awakened, on his destiny. The following movements should give us the answer.

IV – Zarathustra’s Midnight Song

Contralto

O man! Take heed!

What does the deep midnight say?

I slept! I have awakened from a deep dream.

The world is deep,

And deeper than the day remembers.

Deep is its suffering.

Delight is deeper yet than heartache!

Suffering speaks: Begone!

All joy desires eternity, Desires deep, deep eternity.

V – Es sungen drei Engel

Women’s Chorus, Boys’ Chorus, Contralto (Bimm bamm!)

Three angels sang a sweet song

That set Heaven blissfully ringing with joy;

They rejoiced cheerfully in their song,

That Peter was freed of sin.

And while Lord Jesus sat at table

Taking the evening meal with his twelve disciples,

Thus spake Lord Jesus

:»Why are you here? When I look at you, you weep.»

«Should I not weep, my merciful Lord?

I have broken the Ten Commandments;

I go my way weeping bitterly.

Ah, come and have mercy upon me!»

«So you have broken the Ten Commandments?

Then fall on your knees and pray to God;

Love God alone all your life

And you shall attain heavenly joy

» Heavenly joy is a happy city,

Heavenly joy which knows no end.

Heavenly joy was granted by Jesus

To Peter and us for our eternal felicity.

The fifth movement had the subtitle «What the cuckoo tells me», later replaced by «The morning bells» and later by «The angels». It uses one of the lieds from the «Des Knaben Wunderhorn» collection, entitled «Poor Child’s Lullaby». A children’s choir imitates the sound of a bell, then, the female choir sings the lied. In its central part, the contralto sings the words of distress of Saint Peter, asking for forgiveness for his sins. The white voiced choirs, representing the angels, grant him forgiveness by taking him through Jesus to eternal life. The movement is a representation, in a naïve style, of the redemption of man. The closing phrases are accompanied by a bright orchestral background, as if to tell us that heavenly glory is infinite.

The last movement was titled «What love tells me.» It begins with a calm introduction from the strings of a mystical theme, which will lead us to a luminous conclusion. Two sections alternate in a series of variations, forming a kind of baroque cathedral, in a style that was born in Bruckner and culminates with Wagner’s Parsifal. The intensity of the music rises, as if walking a path to the heights. Some somber phrases still appears, but they are soon swept away by the redemptive hymn. A noble and serene music that speaks directly to the heart, in a way that is difficult to express through words. The work ends with a triumphant coda, marked by the blows of the timpani.

It is a great hymn in honor of the creator of the world and of man. After going through the creative ladder, through the preceding movements, with the redemption of man by Love, his journey to eternal light ends. According to a letter from Mahler to his friend Anna von Mildenburg, he comments that the title of the movement could also be «What God tells me, in the sense that God can only be conceived as Love.» This work is one of the most optimistic of Mahler’s, who from Earth leads us to God by the force of love, that is, to happiness, which is identified with Love and God.