Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.5 (movement 2): Score and Analysis
Gielen & SWR Symphony orchestra An introduction to the movement can be found in the pinned comment. EXPOSITION 0:00 - Theme 1, limb A. Instruments play incompatible, fragmented material with clashing rhythms, textures, dynamics, and harmonies, resulting in a frantic atmosphere. 0:34 - Theme 1, limb B. The instruments finally connect with each other for a brief moment, as stable rhythm, melody, and harmony are introduced. 1:02 - Violins play motives from limb B, while limb A starts to dominate brass and lower strings until it completely takes over. This leads to a collapse. 1:25 - Theme 2, phrase 1. The accompaniment is constructed from repeated notes, intertwined with leaping figures from theme 1 (0:07). The theme begins in minor. 1:50 - Theme 2, phrase 2. The music manages to modulate into major, and quickly begins to rise, trying to affirm a major tonality as the sonata's secondary key. 2:35 - The music collapses back into minor and returns to the first phrase, with a fuller orchestration. 2:50 - A variation on the second phrase re-introduces a major tonality. However, before the music ever manages to reach a strong cadence in the major tonality, the music becomes corrupted and leads us into exposition repeat. EXPOSITION REPEAT 3:38 - We're back to the frustrated first theme, with even darker orchestration. The theme collapses before limb B even makes an appearance. 4:29 - The leaping figures take on the role of a transition, and produce one of the most melancholic passages in all of music. The cellos leap higher and higher, yearning to leave this place behind. 5:31 - The second theme follows the structure of the first part of the exposition, only with fuller orchestration and more countermelodies. First phrase. 5:49 - Second phrase, again modulating into major. The music starts to get corrupted much sooner than before, which means that the second theme once again fails to affirm the secondary key. DEVELOPMENT 6:20 - We periodically start to leave the sonata form. The brass inverts the second theme, now plunging downwards. The strings desperately reach higher and higher, trying to shake off the minor key. 6:53 - Suddenly we arrive at the main theme of the first movement. The second theme follows with a brief statement before we're once again pulled out of the sonata form with a baffling march in major. 8:20 - After the climax, we're brought back to the sonata form with theme 1 limb A. Limb B again connects the instruments, but now motives from the second theme enter into the texture, for now completely distorted by the first theme. 9:26 - The second theme manages to reclaim the music, and starts to rise. Only its second statement is present. 9:56 - Another quote from the first movement invades into the sonata form- the violent fanfare. The second theme manages to lead the music back to the sonata and starts to rise yet again with its second phrase. 10:53 - At the second peak, the second theme again collapses. Without any energy left, it almost surrenders to the first theme, before out of nowhere, a giant, glorious climax in D major ensues. RECAPITULATION 13:16 - The first theme forcefully pulls us out of our vision, and reminds us of the bleak reality. However, the recapitulation of the first theme proves to be a complete failure, as the preceding climax dismantled the tonal schema of the movement, forcing the recapitulation to begin in D minor instead of the home key of A minor. The theme collapses very quickly. 14:27 - The recapitulation of the second theme is an even greater failure, as only fragmented accompaniment figures manage to form. The movement ends in A minor, in complete exhaustion. Mahler 5 playlist: • Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.5: Score and A...
