English Commentary by Sergio Cánovas

Mahler’s ninth symphony was started in the summer of 1909, once he had regained the inspiration to continue composing the previous summer. It seems that already in 1908, he had planned his work. Although he numbered it as the ninth, it was the tenth, since the symphony «Das Lied von der Erde» was the true ninth, overcoming the curse of the ninth symphony.

The compositional work took place in Alt-Schluderbach, located about three kilometers from Toblach. There he had a new shelter built, to remain isolated. The orchestration of the work was completed in 1910 in New York, upon his return to take over the New York Philharmonic. The symphony was never performed during Mahler’s life. It was premiered by Bruno Walter on June 26, 1912 in Vienna. 

The first movement is structured as an enlarged sonata form, with rondo elements. It begins with a brief introduction, where we witness the formation of all the elements that will make up the movement, with a three-note motif on the harp that will be repeated throughout the piece. The well-known motif of two descending notes also appears, which we found at the end of the previous symphony, with the word Ewig (Forever). It is remarkable to observe, how in so few bars Mahler presents us with all the material that he will use in the movement. With a great economy of means he builds a great symphonic building.

The violins present the main theme on a slow marching rhythm, like a painful resignation. The syncopated rhythm represents, according to Alban Berg, the symbol of death. It can also be interpreted as a call from destiny. This theme is repeated throughout the movement, but always transformed. A trombone chord leads to the second theme. The music increases its degree of tension until the most passionate repetition of the main theme. A new varied exposition begins that will take us to a powerful climax that closes the exposition section.

The development begins with dark notes from which the main theme will be reborn. A theme appears with a disfigured slow waltz rhythm, which is stopped by the imperious fanfare of the wind, which leads the music to a new climax with the main theme, until the orchestra collapses, being demolished in a kind of whispering. The second theme appears again, interrupted by dissonances. Again the scene is flooded with shadows in a section of great desolation. Suddenly, the slow waltz theme arises from within, which will lead us to the culmination of the movement through an expressive climax, from which the main theme emerges and then collapses like a fall into the void.

A painful march, with the trombone and timpani, will give way to an abbreviated recapitulation. After the first theme, we hear a summary view of the second. A solo on the flute leads us to the coda. Fragments of themes in full decline are interspersed, showing what could have been but did not succeed. The flute adds the last notes on the remains of the main theme and the two descending notes that in “Das Lied von der Erde” formed the word Ewig, the last note of which is stopped in time.

The second movement constitutes the scherzo. Contrasting with the seriousness of the previous one, this burlesque dance movement constitutes one of the elements of the contradictory nature of its author. He uses the ländler, a kind of Austrian peasant waltz to express the dance of life. The theme is vulgar and is treated without grace, with a sarcastic frivolity. It is a grotesque caricature, in a sarcastic style unheard of in the cult music of the time.

Stravinsky and the neoclassical musicians will use similar effects for years to come. The trio consists of a fast waltz that will accelerate, with repetition by the trombones in the style of carnival music. Then a new ländler is introduced with a slower tempo, in the form of a minuet. The elements are repeated with the waltz that accelerates in the new repetition of the trio. The initial ländler resumes until it disintegrates into a destructive ending.

The third movement is a rondo-fugue written in a burlesque way, as if it wanted to mock the wise critics of counterpoint, whom he called «my Apollo brothers». The instruments are treated as soloists, each obtaining their role in the fugue. The first interruption of the virtuous fugue is produced by the clarinet with a theme from the seventh symphony, reminiscent of Lehar’s «The Merry Widow». The second stops the rhythm of the rondo and introduces a motive that will be of great importance in the last movement. Finally the rondo resumes with the same climate with which it began.

The work ends with a long adagio. The initial phrase of the violins presents us with the essential motives of the movement, the first is the one heard in the second slow interlude of the previous rondo. The whole movement will revolve around these two simple motifs, in an almost Brucknerian style. We can divide the movement into four parts. In the first, the main theme is presented as a religious hymn. The second theme is shown in all its expressive simplicity. Then the music increases in intensity, reaching an exciting point of maximum tension.

The second section is more serene, showing a feeling of resignation. The intervention of the wood opens the third part, presenting a desolate landscape, from which the main theme will emerge transfigured, which will be brought to its climax accompanied by painful phrases. The last part corresponds to a pathetic coda, during which the songs will slowly fragment and degrade. The string with a mute ends the movement gently, the motif of the beginning being heard more and more slowly, until it disappears into the void.

In a first reading, this symphony can be interpreted as a farewell of the composer, a farewell to life, believing that his death was near. But a more detailed examination allows us to assess other points. Mahler, when he wrote the work, was in a period of great creative impulse. He had just finished composing «Das Lied von der Erde», and was already thinking about his next work, with a very similar philosophy. When he composed the work in 1909 he was preparing the next season as conductor of the New York Philharmonic, where he had to direct almost 60 programs. A lot of work for a man who felt the weakness of a dying man.

Another of the causes mentioned was the bad situation in which their marriage was at that time. Alma had stopped loving him and it seems that he had committed various infidelities. In the manuscript of the errant of the symphony the phrase is written: «Oh, disappeared youth! Oh fled love!» Whatever the reason, we are clear that a farewell is expressed in the first movement. A goodbye to life, nostalgically recalling past happiness. This is the same idea communicated by his previous work, «Das Lied von der Erde», as the Ewigs’ notes confirm.

The second movement expresses the dance of life from a life that has lost all its joy. It only has the ungainly rhythm left, without any grace. Finally comes its destruction. In the rondo, Mahler not only makes fun of the critics whom he treats as donkeys, which he had done on other occasions, but it is also a mockery of earthly actions, as a farewell to the world with a great laugh.

The final movement links with the austerity of the first, continuing a farewell to an underworld, but with great serenity. Continuing with the same Eastern philosophical ideas, exposed in the final comments of «Das Lied von der Erde», it ends in an immaterial climate, not signifying a hopeless end but the entry into a new life, a rebirth in a more spiritual world than the abandoned.

Picture: «Madonna» (1894-95) by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch

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