Page 237 - Vinkler, Jonatan, in Jernej Weiss. ur. 2014. Musica et Artes: ob osemdesetletnici Primoža Kureta. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem.
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mahler’s tenth symphony: motivic development ...
others have documented, there may well have been some explicit intention
in Mahler’s mind. It would hardly be surprising if having conducted Wag-
ner’s Tristan und Isolde on numerous occasions, that some of the melodic fab-
ric of the work were not imprinted on Mahler’s consciousness, but it may well
have been intentional. Without question, like the Wagner melodies, Mahler’s
opening viola theme provides much material for the music that follows, espe-
cially in the short-short-long figure at the beginning and, in augmented form,
towards the end.
A further point is that Mahler gives the movement the title Adagio, but
the opening tempo marking for this theme is ‘Andante’. As Colin Matthews
asked: “What did Mahler mean by ‘Andante’ and ‘Adagio’?”25 Many perfor-
mances and recordings of the work play this theme in the same tempo as the
Adagio that follows, or worse still, make the Adagio even slower.26 That this
theme has a potentially skittish character can be heard in the accompanied re-
statement and elaboration marked Fliessend, but this is only the beginning of
the story. The initial impression of this movement is one of the alternation of
two themes, which are distinguished by tempo and by key (F sharp minor and
F sharp major). The two tempos should be clearly distinguished from the be-
ginning because of the way the movement progresses. As the music develops
the two become entangled motivically and the tempos become merged. We
can see that the first theme has begun to affect the Adagio theme, a process
that took place in the first movement of the Ninth Symphony.27 As in Mah
ler’s other symphonies, his themes rarely remain the same. Literal repetition
in Mahler’s music is very rare indeed.28 Rothkamm identifies 21 different ver-
sions of the opening viola theme in the first movement,29 ten versions of the
subsidiary motif,30 and 32 variants of the Adagio theme.31 The question could
25 Colin Matthews: “Tempo relationships in the Adagio of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony; and two
wrong notes,” The Musical Times 151, no. 1910 (2010): 4.
26 The performance by Berthold Goldschmidt with the Philharmonia Orchestra which accompa-
nied Deryck Cooke’s BBC talk on 19 December 1960 took the Andante theme much quicker
than in later performances.
27 O’Loughlin “The Dark Underside of Transformation: Motivic Interaction in Mahler’s Ninth
Symphony” [see note 20]: The gentle D major music and the threatening D minor section marked
Etwas frischer.
28 Exposition repeats in the first movements of the First and Sixth symphonies are the notable
exceptions, as well as presumably the recapitulation of the opening of the Purgatorio movement of
this symphony which Mahler marked simply with ‘da capo’, either deliberately and definitively, or
possibly as shorthand for a temporary stage in the composition process.
29 Rothkamm, Gustav Mahlers zehnte Symphonie: Entstehung, Analyse, Rezeption, 76–77.
30 Op. cit., 79–80.
31 Op. cit., 82–83.
235
others have documented, there may well have been some explicit intention
in Mahler’s mind. It would hardly be surprising if having conducted Wag-
ner’s Tristan und Isolde on numerous occasions, that some of the melodic fab-
ric of the work were not imprinted on Mahler’s consciousness, but it may well
have been intentional. Without question, like the Wagner melodies, Mahler’s
opening viola theme provides much material for the music that follows, espe-
cially in the short-short-long figure at the beginning and, in augmented form,
towards the end.
A further point is that Mahler gives the movement the title Adagio, but
the opening tempo marking for this theme is ‘Andante’. As Colin Matthews
asked: “What did Mahler mean by ‘Andante’ and ‘Adagio’?”25 Many perfor-
mances and recordings of the work play this theme in the same tempo as the
Adagio that follows, or worse still, make the Adagio even slower.26 That this
theme has a potentially skittish character can be heard in the accompanied re-
statement and elaboration marked Fliessend, but this is only the beginning of
the story. The initial impression of this movement is one of the alternation of
two themes, which are distinguished by tempo and by key (F sharp minor and
F sharp major). The two tempos should be clearly distinguished from the be-
ginning because of the way the movement progresses. As the music develops
the two become entangled motivically and the tempos become merged. We
can see that the first theme has begun to affect the Adagio theme, a process
that took place in the first movement of the Ninth Symphony.27 As in Mah
ler’s other symphonies, his themes rarely remain the same. Literal repetition
in Mahler’s music is very rare indeed.28 Rothkamm identifies 21 different ver-
sions of the opening viola theme in the first movement,29 ten versions of the
subsidiary motif,30 and 32 variants of the Adagio theme.31 The question could
25 Colin Matthews: “Tempo relationships in the Adagio of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony; and two
wrong notes,” The Musical Times 151, no. 1910 (2010): 4.
26 The performance by Berthold Goldschmidt with the Philharmonia Orchestra which accompa-
nied Deryck Cooke’s BBC talk on 19 December 1960 took the Andante theme much quicker
than in later performances.
27 O’Loughlin “The Dark Underside of Transformation: Motivic Interaction in Mahler’s Ninth
Symphony” [see note 20]: The gentle D major music and the threatening D minor section marked
Etwas frischer.
28 Exposition repeats in the first movements of the First and Sixth symphonies are the notable
exceptions, as well as presumably the recapitulation of the opening of the Purgatorio movement of
this symphony which Mahler marked simply with ‘da capo’, either deliberately and definitively, or
possibly as shorthand for a temporary stage in the composition process.
29 Rothkamm, Gustav Mahlers zehnte Symphonie: Entstehung, Analyse, Rezeption, 76–77.
30 Op. cit., 79–80.
31 Op. cit., 82–83.
235
