English Commentary by Sergio Cánovas 

Mahler’s sixth symphony was started in 1903, during his summer vacation in the house that Mahler had built in Maiernigg, near Lake Wörthersee. He arrived on June 10 and immediately started composing his work. During this time, he partially composed three of the movements. Alma, in his memories, tells how Mahler told her that he had written a theme that represented her. It is the second of the first movement, as we will discuss later.

During the following summer, the work was finished. In the month of June of 1904 Mahler returned alone to Maiernigg. The weather was very bad and Mahler could not concentrate on his work. At the beginning of July, with a better time, he makes a excursion to the Dolomites. There in a few days he finds his inspiration to finish the work. When he prepares to return to Vienna at the end of August, he announces that he has finished his symphony. Then he plays the piano in front of Alma. She says that it is the most personal work of her husband and that it was born directly from his heart.

The work was premiered on May 27, 1906 in Essen, during the Allgemeiner Festival deutsche Musikverein conducted by the composer himself. The work, which was well received by the public, was not successful among critics. In the month of November it is interpreted in Munich changing the order of the movements. In second place the andante is interpreted and then the scherzo. But in the month of January of 1907 Mahler returns to restore the initial order, before its premiere in Vienna. The last revision of the work was done in 1908.

The first movement is written in the classical sonata form. The introduction begins with a march on which the first theme is constructed. A timpani roll opens an intermediate section with a blurred theme of a chorale that separates it from the second theme. An ascending theme that, according to Mahler, is a musical painting of the optimism of her young wife. With this theme the exposition ends. This section is repeated from the beginning. The development begins with the military march, which soon combines contrapuntally with a melody of the violins. Variations of the first theme follow, with the second theme appearing with the rhythm of the march.

Continues with a quiet middle section, reflecting the peace of the alpine fields, with memories of the chorale theme accompanied by cowbells. The horn introduces the second theme again and then plays a duo with the solo violin. The sound of the cowbells is heard again, until the march rhythm returns with memories of the chorale. The first theme clearly marks the beginning of the re-exposition, which is carried out in a varied way. The extensive coda uses elements of both themes, ending with a climax based on the second theme.

The second movement is a point of respite for his passionate lyricism, which contrasts with the rest of the work. A theme of simple appearance but that will vary throughout the movement. The second theme is presented by the English horn and completed by the strings. It is a passionate melodic theme. Later the horn will remind us of the theme, followed by the clarinet and completed by the strings. There follows a bucolic passage with the presence of cowbells that ends the first section. Then it goes back to the beginning in a varied way. The violins reach their highest registers before returning to the melodic second theme played by the oboe. The strings repeats it, taking it to its climax. The music is conducted towards the final cadence with the latest thematic motifs, before the soft end.

The third movement corresponds to the scherzo. The dance presented is not really a happy one, it contains mournful motifs as a variant of his typical dances of the dead. Its instrumentation is sour with the use of piccolo, clarinet and xylophone. The trio contrasts with the dance through an oboe phrase repeated by the strings. For its ceremonial counterpoint, it recalls an ancient dance. At the end of the trio a new motif of undulating rhythm appears. Then the scherzo is repeated in a variety of ways. The trio appears again as a recapitulation, but also in a certain form of development. In Mahler the constructions are never simple. This section ends with the memory of the undulating rhythm motif, which prepares the last intervention of the scherzo dance. It ends with a dissonant chord and seems to return to the rhythm of the trio, but the third undulating rhythm appears again briefly. Then the activity diminishes until the silence.

The final movement is one of the most extensive of Mahler. Written in a wide sonata form with a slow introduction. The multiple themes used in its construction make its analysis difficult. The slow introduction will serve as a point of reference, which will be repeated four times. Various subjects of the previous movements are pointed out, but none of them reaches a development. The violins start the introduction, but soon the brass enter with tragic notes. The tuba presents a funeral theme and the clarinets recall another, belonging to the scherzo.

The atmosphere becomes gloomy and heavy. A sad march is initiated by the wind, with acid trumpet calls. A motive of the first movement is heard, like the call of destiny. The march continues until it resolves into a crescendo, which marks the end of the introduction section. The first theme of the allegro is constructed by a kind of heavy march. The horns begin a complex second thematic group of more melodic character, with epic variants. Especially notable in the next section, containing an epic melody initiated by the horn.

The slow introduction appears for the second time and marks the beginning of the development section, which takes us back to the bucolic theme of cowbells. The second theme appears again. After a calmer section, a crescendo emerges, listening to the first blow of the hammer, which gives way to the central section of the development. Fragments of fanfares give way to a section with rhythm of a march.

Reached the calm, we arrive at a crescendo, that culminates with the second blow of hammer. The section continues until a cadence, whose resolution takes us a third time to the slow introduction. The theme of cowbells reappears. The oboe introduces a phrase with a certain resemblance to the theme of Alma, continued by the violin until reaching another crescendo that closes the development.

The recapitulation begins with the modified interpretation of the first theme. The second subject is hardly remembered. A crescendo is not resolved, bursting into a dissonant chord. The third blow of the hammer is produced and the music returns to the introduction for the last time. A slow march for trombones and tuba begins. When we seem to arrive at a quiet conclusion, a strong chord appears, like a brutal call of destiny, which ends the work in the greatest desolation.

We wonder how Mahler could write such a bitter work when he was in one of the happiest moments of his life. One response that the composer himself gave was: «there are the cruelties that I have suffered and the pain I have felt.» The work was known by the name of «The Tragic». Mahler writes an autobiographical work. The first movement expresses its strength, like a hero advancing with the rhythm of its marches. But again and again we find painful motives that tarnish his happiness. The vision of her young wife is done in an optimistic way. The peace found in nature is expressed with imitations like cowbells. The end seems to be triumphant, but not in a very convinced way.

In contrast, the andante is the only true lyric movement of the work. We find a passionate romantic theme and the peaceful new presence of the cows in the alpine pastures. It shows the moments of happiness that sometimes occurred in his life. The third movement revives its ghosts, with the idea of ​​death, expressed by the spectral dance. The trio with its ceremonial counterpoint, reminiscent of the past, is not too cheerful either. The interpretation of Alma saying that she saw in the movement the dance of his daughters, could have a premonitory meaning, dying shortly after the older one and becoming a dance of death. It should also be borne in mind that the last of the «Kindertotenlieder» (Songs to the death of children) composed it in 1904, that is, before the fatal misfortune.

The introduction of the last movement plunges us into a horrible chaos, a negative view of life. Every time our hero wants to get up to continue fighting, he is struck down by a symbolic hammer blow. The work ends with a pessimistic coda. A negative final chord seems to say no to life. It seems to express a rejection of earthly life, without any consolation, by not accepting another form of life, without believing in the existence of another world. As the director Bruno Walter commented: «the meaning of the work could be summarized in the following bitter phrase: the existence is a punishment, the death desirable and the life hateful».

This work supposed a premonition about what would happen in his own life. As if he had guessed his future, the year after its premiere, in 1907, he received three hard blows, apparently reflected by the three blows of a hammer, like hard hits of fate. In the spring was requested a resignation of their position in the Opera of Vienna, in July his eldest daughter Anna died at the age of four years, and finally, a few days later, a doctor diagnoses the cardiac disease that Mahler suffered and that would take him to the death.

Picture: «The Scream» (1910 version) by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.

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