Ojeda 1

Jorge Ojeda Munoz

Dr. Hudlow
MUS 5020.45N
May 6th, 2020

Discussing the overall meaning and form of the first movement of Symphony No. 2 in C

minor, “The Resurrection” by Gustav Mahler

Mahler’s second symphony, like his other symphonies, is framed around the aesthetics of

post-romanticism. He characterized this symphony using key points of post-romanticism, such as

orchestral exuberance and excessive symphonic developments. Although Gustav Mahler began

working on his Symphony No. 2 around 1888 at 28 years old, the true overall 'vision' of what he

wanted to create did not emerge until 1894. On February 12 of that same year, Mahler’s friend

Hans von Bülow, the great director, died in Cairo, Egypt. Throughout Bülow’s life, he had both a

friendly and hostile relationship with Mahler. Mahler made many attempts to express his

admiration for Bülow, but ultimately, they were futile and resulted in Bülow sending him an

arrogant missive. However, years later they would meet in Hamburg, where Bülow would be

dazzled by Mahler's way of directing and would show him his admiration.

This friendship, once again, suffered a setback in 1891 when Mahler insisted, he listen to

the piano piece Totenfeier (Funerals Rites), a symphonic poem he wrote in 1888 that was

inspired by an Adam Mickiewicz poem. Bülow's reaction to hearing him was to cover his ears

and claim that Tristan and Isolde was a Haydn symphony compared to that. Despite Bulow’s

distaste for Totenfeier, his death influenced Mahler to use the piece, with some modifications, as

the first movement of his Symphony No. 2.

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Yet in the end, Mahler chose not to associate his first movement with Totenfeier. The idea of death,
lost love, and resurrection as detailed in the 1901 program actually corresponds to the Mickiewicz
storyline in many respects, but by replacing the redemption of Gustav’s soul with the resurrection of
the human soul—whether Jewish or Christian—the composer actually broadens the “meaning” of his
Second Symphony.  And he did not even need to summarize this “content” in a program in order to
convey it to the audience: the texts sung in the last movements encapsulate the message, as does the
affective trajectories of the music. Presumably, the composer realized this after the Dresden
performance, since he never distributed a programmatic description at a performance of the
symphony.”1
Death, and the reason for life and the afterlife, affected him greatly since he lost several

of his brothers growing up. This, in turn, caused him to want to capture these feelings through his

music. In all of Mahler's symphonies there is a strong autobiographical component. The view of

Mahler’s compositional style as a piecing together of material encountered when he was young

leads in turn to a near conflation of Mahler’s music and his biography. “As such an

autobiography in sound, Mahler’s music is prized for its revelatory power, for its ability to tell us

details of Mahler’s life that we might not otherwise glean from documentary sources.”2 In

addition to highlighting these extra musical motifs, it should be noted that the Second

Symphony, like the others, is a marveling work of orchestration. The influence of Wagner and

Bruckner is persistent throughout this symphony’s orchestration, in which Mahler used extensive

resources and anticipated the 20th century in terms of the search for color in different

instruments and the use of small instrumental combinations. For him, orchestration was a tool to

obtain the greatest possible clarity in the different musical lines. This work is also a perfect

example of the massive sonority typical of the post-romantic orchestra.

The first movement is an Allegro Maestoso in C minor, labeled in the score, With

complete gravity and solemnity of expression. This movement accompanies listeners and

1 Bettie Jo Basinger. “Mahler Listening Guide: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (‘Resurrection’).” Utah Symphony,
August 22, 2018

2 Ryan Kangas, "Remembering Mahler: Music and Memory in Mahler's Early Symphonies.", The University of
Texas at Austin, 2009, 3.
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mourners to the coffin of a man they once loved. His life and his sufferings and aspirations pass

before their mind’s eye, encouraging them to collect their thoughts on the questions of life and

death and of the afterlife, but above all on the question as to the meaning of what we call life3. It

can fit into the category of Sonata form, but with expanded themes, altered repetitions and

unpredictable directions as opposed to that we encounter in the common practice style. Monahan

lays out a formal outline of the exposition and recapitulation of the first movement. He concludes

that the lack of ESC and the different key in the secondary theme of the recapitulation, makes

this movement a “Sonata Failure.” Here we encounter a sonata design diametrically opposed to

the one discussed in Mahler’s 1st Symphony; it is episodic, contrast-driven, and structurally

unsound, culminating in a graphic and programmatically motivated sonata failure.”4

Formal overview of Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, first movement by Seth Monahan

“The first subrotation establishes the movement’s main rhetorical opposition: the C-

minor funeral march (P), signifying the bitter present and its anguished uncertainties (“Why did

you suffer? Is it all only a vast, terrifying joke?”), and the luminous E-major Pastoral theme (S),

a poignant reminiscence of the hero’s former “passions and aspirations.”5 The movement starts

3 Jens Malte Fischer, and Spencer Stewart. "The Second Symphony." In Gustav Mahler.Yale University Press,
2011, 204.,
4 Seth Monahan. "Success and Failure in Mahler's Sonata Recapitulations." Music Theory Spectrum 33, no. 1, 2011,
43.
5 Ibid, 44.
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out as a funeral march but later transitions to different moods that evoke several aspects of

Mahler’s feelings. In the exhibition you can hear a well-established and very rhythmic theme,

played by cello and double basses in a fortissimo. Then, we arrive at our first theme played by

the oboe and English horn evoking the melodic aspect of this funeral march. This material opens

with pitches taken from the Gregorian chant “Crux fidelis” (“Faithful cross”). This is what we

call P in this outline of the Sonata form. Mahler plays with this theme in multiple ways, such as

changing the colors, dynamic contrast, key changes, among other elements. Our primary theme

concludes with a forceful and climactic PAC in the key c minor. Next, there is a small lyrical

transition played by the woodwinds, leading us to our secondary theme introduced by the violins

in the key of the E major, with the French horns playing in the background. The mood evoked

by this melody is pastoral and mournful.

Primary Theme Statement Secondary Theme

We come back to the very first statement, which means we are going to repeat P, but

since we are in the style of Mahler, the material is not going to be exactly the same. The melody

is slightly varied and now moves faster. The primary theme statement transforms into major

when the trumpets play it, which gives a more triumphal feeling and announces snippets of the

majestic finale of this symphony. The funeral march’s rhythmic elements are still embedded

during the triumphal section which later turns into darkness. Before the Soothing section in m.

97, we have what we call the EEC in the key of minor V. After this, we have the Closing section

which reminds us again about the somber aspects of death.

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Now, we have arrived at the development section, which meets the requirements of what

we are used to listening to in common practice compositions: new key, contrasting, episodic and

disorganized, which is probably the reason why Monahan avoided laying out the development

section. The development section starts out with violins, just like the secondary theme, but now

we have the introduction of a new pastoral idea brought by the english horn and then transferred

to other instruments with minor alterations of color and melodic direction. This pastoral mood

goes on for a while, but soon we encounter again the funeral and triumphal elements that slowly

builds up the dark and majestic atmosphere of the development section.

Introduction of the Development New Pastoral Statement

Soon, the flute introduces a new pastoral material which contrasts with the energetic

aspects that were built before, later answered by the violin. The triumphant trumpet tune is also

restated during the passage. The pastoral atmosphere does not last too long, and we surprisingly

hear the burst of the very first statement of the symphony. This might lead us to think we have

reached our recapitulation, but actually since we do not get our primary theme, we cannot call

this a recap. Instead, we get a short, slow, and bouncy bass melody. Mahler still keeps

developing ideas with small variations. During this section, we encounter themes from before as

well as the famous plainchant Dies Irae, commonly associated with death. This material is

played by the french horns. The development ends in a brutal way with chaotic, accentuated

percussive elements leading to a very dramatic culmination.

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Flute’s Pastoral Theme Dies Irae

The Recapitulation appears, now indicated with similar but not exact elements of the

exposition. We still get out P and S, however the themes seem to be presented in a shorter way

and they develop less. The pastoral elements are presented more solemn and in heavenly

character. As stated before by Monahan, the sonata form fails right before the Closing section of

the Recapitulation because Mahler does not give us a formal resolution before the start of the

Closing section.

And yet its ephemeral character continues neither sounding is ever validated by a proper four-
sharp key signature, and each disintegrates into minor without cadencing. In the latter case, this
results in a “doubly” failed recapitulation: a “wrong-key” S unable to produce an ESC. And as the
last light of E major fades (m. 388), the failed S-reprise quickly yields to the bleak C-minor of the
closing and coda zones. As anticipated, structural failure points the way toward expressive failure
frozen in the past tense, the hero’s idyllic E-major memories remain happily “untouched” by the
grim reality of the C-minor present. But neither are they able to transfigure that reality and lift the
music into a more affirmative C major. Their function here is mainly a bittersweet valediction.” 6

In the closing section, the mood remains gloomy, tragic, and we still get some of the

rhythmic elements of the funeral march, which lead to “abyss.” It intends to describe the feelings

that are experienced when losing someone and the questions that inevitably arise from it.

“Because the composer omits the major-mode version of “Crux fidelis” from the recapitulation,

the end of this portion of the sonata form also departs from the model of the exposition. Mahler

now synthesizes the materials of his funeral march with the minor-key variation of “Crux fidelis”

to make an extended, quiet close for the first movement. Only a succinct coda consisting of a

6 Monahan, 44
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descending chromatic scale in the full orchestra temporarily restores a more forceful, assertive

mood before the music fades out.”7

Climax of the Development Section Introduction of the Closing Section

The symphony is of paramount importance in the evolution of the genre, both for its

gigantic dimensions (frequently it reaches eighty minutes in length) and for the new approach

when it comes to fusing voice and music within a composition of these characteristics, which is

constituted in the first successful attempt to go beyond the point Beethoven reached in his Ninth.

Likewise, it is perceived in her the nostalgia of an era that was coming to an end intoxicated with

its own and still beautiful decadence. But the most important thing is that it expands aspects that

were presented in an embryonic and inhibited way in Symphony No. 1 "Titan", becoming the

first genuinely Mahler symphony, from which the fascinating construction of monuments such as

the Third, the Eighth and The Song of the Earth.

Bibliography

Basinger, Bettie Jo. “Mahler Listening Guide: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor

(‘Resurrection’).” Utah Symphony, August 22, 2018.

7 Bettie Jo Basinger. “Mahler Listening Guide: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (‘Resurrection’).

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Burkholder, J. Peter. "The Uses of Existing Music: Musical Borrowing as a

Field." Notes 50, no. 3 (1994): 851-70.

Fischer, Jens Malte, And Stewart Spencer. The Second Symphony. Gustav Mahler. Yale

University Press, 2011.

Franklin, Peter. "Mahler, Gustav." Grove Music Online. 2001; https://www-

oxfordmusiconline-

com.nsula.idm.oclc.org/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-

9781561592630-e-0000040696.

Kangas, Ryan R. Mourning as Remembrance in Mahler’s Second Symphony.

"Remembering Mahler: Music and Memory in Mahler's Early Symphonies.", The University of

Texas at Austin, 2009.

Monahan, Seth. "Success and Failure in Mahler's Sonata Recapitulations." Music Theory

Spectrum 33, no. 1 (2011): 37-58.

Walton, Chris. Lies and Epiphanies: Composers and Their Inspiration from Wagner to

Berg. Rochester, NY; Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 2014.