The Expansion of Symphonic Space in Mahler, S First Symphony

The Expansion of Symphonic Space in Mahler's First Symphony
Author(s): THOMAS PEATTIE

Source: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 136, No. 1 (2011), pp. 73-96
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Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 136, no. 1, 73-96 jjj^ Ttyo?Branc?G™P
The Expansion of Symphonic Space in

Mahler's First Symphony
THOMAS PEATTIE
The opening bars of Gustav Mahler's First Symphony unfold a comp

tableau in which a small group of instruments sounds from the di
performance this establishes a space that is immediately grasped by the
lying beyond the confines of the orchestral platform. In terms of their basic
characteristics, instrumental assignment and spatial deployment, these
utterances complicate both topical and generic expectations in what
Mahler's first foray into symphonic writing. The offstage figures introdu
identifiable musical topics - the hunt and the military fanfare - but are u
the dynamic manner in which they are treated. Rather than emerging en mas
a single location, they originate from multiple positions outside the au
Moreover, the published score provides detailed performance instructions
a number of subtle shifts in the relative distance of these figures from
traditionally defined by the concert stage. What remains puzzling about this d
spatial deployment is that it bears no obvious relationship either to the m
early programmatic title or to the composer's frequently cited claim th
introduction depicts the awakening of Nature from the long sleep of win
That Mahler began his first essay in the symphonic genre by establishin
consciously a space at the threshold not only of the audible but also of th
suggestive of at least three concerns that can hardly be dismissed as mere
experiments. The composer's early and largely unexamined fascination w
I shall term the peripheral, the mobile and the theatrical is, I believe, crucial fo
nuanced understanding not only of the First Symphony but also of the later
this respect Mahler's treatment of offstage space has little to do with either
The initial version of this article was presented as a paper to the Boston University Society of
April 2008. Subsequent versions were read to the Canadian University Music Society in
(June 2008), at Tufts University (October 2008) and at the Annual Meeting of th
Musicological Society in Nashville, Tennessee (November 2008). I would like to thank Jose
Reinhold Brinkmann, James Johnson and Jeremy Yudkin for their valuable comments on ear
Translations are my own unless otherwise noted.
'Die Einleitung stellt das Erwachen der Natur aus langem Winterschlafe dar.' This d
appeared for the first time as part of the programme distributed at the symphon
performance, which was conducted by Mahler in Hamburg on 27 October 1893.
ISSN 0269-0403 print/ISSN 1471-6933 online

© The Royal Musical Association
DOI: 10.1 080/02690403.20 1 1 .56272 1
http://www.informaworld.com
74 THOMAS PEATTIE
original programm
the unorthodox na
terms. In order be
I propose to exam
symphonic writing
years Mahler's wor
received less atten
integrated into the
nineteenth centur
become increasing
established the vit
tradition and the i
between opera ho
engagement with t
Among the readin
strategies afforded
the finest critical
2 Concerning Mahler
Wiener Oper (Vienna
Documentary History
Bernd Schabbing, Gu
Gustav Mahler und d
Mahler's experience i
Newlin, 'Mahler the
York, 1947; rev. edn
discusses each sympho
and Eighth symphonie
both theatrical and o
serve as an invitation
(Oxford, 2009), 171
The pioneering work
into focus the many
Songs and their Influ
1970); Donald Mitchel
and Los Angeles, CA,
instrumentalen Symp
Knapp has revisited th
his Symphonic Metam
CT, 2003). Exerting a
question of narrative
the Nineteenth Cen
Archetypes and Mahl
(Cambridge, 1992), 1
century Music , 20
Narrativity in Beetho
THE EXPANSION OF SYMPHONIC SPACE 75
is governed by utterances that are

distant, mobile and abstract.4 In this
of Mahler's expansion of symphonic s
in terms of his widespread use of p
raises broader questions surroundin
symphonist with such a bold gesture,
(1) the symphonic tradition in whi
(2) the operatic and theatrical conv
familiar as a conductor. During this d
on works that were of central imp
Beethoven's Fidelio (Act 2, scene i)
scene i) and Beethoven's Ninth Sy
March' in the Finale of the Ninth,
motion part of its orchestral appara
re-imagine the First Symphony in
theatre, and above all as a conduct
consider the implications of Mahler
moment of breakthrough both in t
Conventions
Most standard accounts of the First Symphony observe that the work opens with a
clear nod to symphonic tradition. Indeed, in many respects the opening bars adhere
closely to the conventions of the slow introduction.5 The symphony's introductory
space also contains a number of gestures that can be traced to specific works from the
nineteenth-century symphonic literature. Prominent among them is the extended
pedal point overlaid with a series of descending figures that appear in this context in
the woodwinds. Raymond Knapp has suggested several models, including the
opening bars of Beethoven's Sixth and Ninth symphonies, Haydn's Creation and
Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht , while Walter Frisch offers a more specific
proposal, suggesting that Mahler had in mind the passage at bar 234 of the Finale of
Brahms's Second Symphony.6 One could just as easily propose the openings of the
Fourth Symphonies of Beethoven and Schumann, which in many respects more
4 Julian Johnson refers in passing to the 'offstage voice' as a fundamentally operatic device found in the
symphonies in his Mahler's Voices , 181. My interest in the present context is, more specifically, with
the mobility of these distant utterances as well as the fashioning of both literal and imagined spaces
that are ultimately devoid of any specific narrative or programmatic meaning.
5 These conventions are outlined in some detail in James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of
Sonata Theory: Norms , Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford, 2006),
295-304.
6 See Knapp, Symphonic Metamorphoses , 171 and 288 (note 16); and Walter Frisch, Brahms: The Four
Symphonies (New Haven, CT, 2003), 87.
76 THOMAS PEATTIE
closely resemble th
only so far. If,
symphonic traditi
context.
In fact, from the perspective of both form and genre, other scholars h
introduction as anything but conventional. Zoltan Roman, for exampl
recently that 'the "exposition" is underway from the first note of the
Roman's assertion is based in part on his belief that 'on the motivic
"introduction" presents (and immediately manipulates) the germ
the entire Symphony: the interval of the fourth'.8 Gianmario Borio a
the novelty of the introduction but at the same time argues against a cha
of this material as thematic. Borio observes that 'the assemblage of these
their raw form enhances the music's lack of directionality'.9 Despite a
its unusual construction, neither Roman nor Borio discusses the introd
striking feature: the precise articulation of an offstage space. Donald
contrast, offers many compelling observations concerning the 'subtly dif
acoustic experience that [Mahler] was aiming to construct'.10 Follow
description of Mahler's manipulation of the offstage instruments, he sum
importance of the introduction in a passage that is worth quoting in f
It is only when Mahler's elaborate performing directions are scrupulous

(which, alas, they rarely are) that the introduction over which he laboured
such a long period makes its full impact. What we ought always to hear in pe
a brilliantly articulated instrumental analysis of the work's motivic comp
magical evocation of the sounds of Nature, in which the subtlest shadings of
variation of orchestral colour, and a prophetic manipulation of directiona
brought into a highly sophisticated and organized relationship. No wonder
Mahler a very long time to get this passage to sound exactly as he wanted it. H
represents a pioneer exploration of the potentialities of musical space.11
Although Mitchell offers an eloquent and, in its own way, pioneering

the introduction, he does not consider what might have motivated Mahler
such a complex musical tableau or, more crucially, what implications i
elements might have for the work as a whole.
7 Zoltan Roman, 'Song and Symphony (I)', The Cambridge Companion to Mahler , ed.
(Cambridge, 2007), 72-88 (p. 85).
8 Ibid.
9 T assemblage di questi elementi in stato grezzo accresce 1'impressione di non direzionalita della
musica'. Gianmario Borio, 'Le parole cancellate e le tracce: Sul primo movimento della Prima
Sinfonia di Mahler', Studi sul Novecento musicale in memoria di Ugo Duse , ed. Nino Albarosa and
Roberto Calabretto (Udine, 2000), 15-28 (p. 23).
10 Mitchell, Gustav Mahler , ii, 204.
11 Ibid., 217.
Programmatic markers
Perhaps the best-known aspect of the
textual annotations that preserve a tra
something that has remained a constan
symphony. In the work's original guis
with the exception of the funeral m
programmatic tides or references. A
1889, the first movement simply
(Introduction and Allegro commodo'
1898, the introduction underwent num
the generic identity of the work and
music. Although most accounts of the
Mahler did not initially provide a writ
that the composer may have spoken
individual movements. Constantin Floros believes that the 'hermeneutic indications'
which appear in August Beer's review of the work's premiere were probably based on oral
explanations provided by Mahler;13 these include Beer's description of the movement as a
'poetically imagined forest idyll' ('poetisch gedachtes Waldidyll') that possesses a 'true
spring atmosphere' ('echte Friihlingsstimmung').
Mahler's habit of subjecting his works to constant revision is well known, but the
extent of the changes he made to the First Symphony between its premiere in 1 889 and
the appearance of the first printed edition a decade later is remarkable even by his
norms. More than any other composer of his generation, Mahler annotated his music
obsessively. Sketches and autographs, as well as published scores and parts, are filled
with performance directions, programmatic indicators and even cryptic references to
his personal life. Among the most famous examples is the unconventional indication
'Wie ein Naturlaut' ('Like a sound of Nature'), which appears at the opening of the
symphony. Continuing the critical tradition established by early programmatic
readings, most scholars have treated this marking as the basic interpretative key for the
12 Zoltan Roman observes: 'Although it is true that no programme notes were available at the concert,
"explanations" of the "symphonic poem" were published in some newspapers prior to the concert.'
Roman, Gustav Mahler and Hungary , 209 (note 136). For a recent account of the symphony's early
history, see idem, '"Vocal Music" in the Symphonic Context: From 'Titan', eine Tondichtung in
Symphonieform to Das Lied von der Erde, or the Road "Less Traveled'", Perspectives on Gustav
Mahler, ed. Jeremy Barham (Aldershot, 2005), 3-21. For a discussion of these issues within the
broader context of Mahler's ambivalent attitude toward programme music, see Stephen E. Hefling,
'Mahler's "Todtenfeier" and the Problem of Program Music', 19th-century Music, 12 (1988-9), 27-
53 (pp. 43-4), and idem, 'Miners Digging from Opposite Sides: Mahler, Strauss, and the Problem of
Program Music', Richard Strauss: New Perspectives on the Composer and his Work, ed. Bryan Gilliam
(Durham, NC, 1992), 41-53.
Constantin Floros, Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, trans. Vernon and Jutta Wicker (Portland, OR,
1997), 31.
78 THOMAS PEATTIE
introduction as a wh
to the full orchestr
perhaps even greater
late addition, appea
was based and thus
Mahler borrowed th
where it makes its f
The other promin
introduction as a n
voice of a cuckoo'),
Taken together, the
discussing these ann
Not surprisingly, a
an untainted Na
composer, Adorno
The First Symphon

except for the lowes
the violins, it is an
engines. A thin cur
grey cloud layer, sim
With his typically

traditional understa
14 In his review of the

with forest murmurs,
birds, even the crowin
hunters whose horn m
point.' Abranyi's revi
Mahler and Hungary ,
15 In all of the early m
a comprehensive discu
Mahler's First Symph
and Sander Wilkens, E
Mahlers: Kritischer Ber
The Stichvorlage is h
further discussion of
Broken Pastoral', Mah
17 At one bar after reh
At six bars before 2. T
manuscript housed in
several layers of corr
possibly even the Berl
1889 Version of Mahl
Theodor W. Adorno, M
nature by invoking technology

disturbance. Both Reinhold Brinkm
interpretative glosses on Adorno's te
case of Brinkmann, a careful analysi
neither Brinkmann nor Franklin eng
established by Adorno or indeed w
Stage directions
Ifthe relatively late inclusion of the te
comment, what has received even less
refine the introduction's numerous p
between the work's premiere and its
instructions are related to the concept
like figures that dominate the ope
significantly transforms the introduc
bounds. It is through a more careful
come to terms with one of the most p
of space that resists obvious program
That Mahler's use of hunting calls
duction has been more often describ
number of detailed readings to wh
true that the introduction of a hunt
unusual, what stands out is that, in
hunting call (bars 9-15) to the 'wr
performed by a quartet of horns at t
edition of the work from 1898 Mahl
Adorno described the effect of this t
20 See Reinhold Brinkmann, 'Vom Pfeifen

Theodor W. Adornos', Beitrage zur musikal
113-20, esp. pp. 1 17-19; and Peter Franklin
Mahler Studies , ed. Stephen E. Hefling (
The Scherzo of Anton Bruckner's Fourth
topic is introduced in a prominent fashi
topic, see Raymond Monelle, The Music
2006), 35-110.
The calls were first assigned to the clari
Stephen McClatchie has cautioned that Ma
to place the quartet off stage does not offe
manner at the premiere. McClatchie, 'Th
same time the presence of a ppp dynamic m
stage at the Budapest premiere and that t
later addition.
80 THOMAS PEATTIE
a theatre curtain
clarinets in their
sounding faintly
penetrate, its stre
strain to be hear
further amplifies
Mahler's penchan
reported to have
produce a soft, su
but rather to one
forcing itself and
Bauer-Lechner a
stake here. Seven
audience is confr
distant trumpet
immediately a t
call. Whereas the
sehr weiter Fem
presumably occup
trumpet falls sile
far distance' take
weiter Entfernun
Despite the unor
but casual. They u
parageneric spac
movement's sonat
this passage is th
actually traversed
offstage instrum
writing, Mahler's
that is not just 'd
more complex th
23 Adorno, Mahler ,
Natalie Bauer-Lech
(Cambridge, 1980),
At five bars after 1.
26 For a discussion o
305.
27 The most famous
Symphonie fantastiq
cases, however, the
programmatic mean
argue that Mahler is engaged in n

bars.28 By establishing a scenario in
heard as they traverse the offstage
figures tenuously inhabit the border
its traditional confines. This limina
the symphony as genre and a range
beyond 'the symphonic'. At the sam
stage acquires a theatrical potency b
Symphonic traditions
During the 1890s, when Mahler w
simultaneously in two rather diff
was attempting, through a comp
reinvent the symphony as a genr
everything in his power to attain h
the Vienna Court Opera. If these
conception of the symphony, Ma
understood without our first tak
For most music historians Mahler
symphonic writing, a tradition th
eighteenth century. Already by
Austro-Germanic symphony qua
held together primarily, if at all, b
has suggested that such a state of a
acquire a self-consciously historical
doubt' and 'skeptical questioning'
the symphony as a 'late' genre, s
taking his leave of this tradition
tradition that includes Theodor W
who in the words of Margaret Notl
as having come to an end'.31 Such a
28 Writing in slightly different terms

phenomenological sense Mahler exploit
musical space'. Laura Dolp, 'Sonoristic
119-30 (p. 120).
29 James Hepokoski, 'Beethoven Recep
Nineteenth-Century Music , ed. Jim Sa
Reinhold Brinkmann, Late Idyll: The Se
(Cambridge, 1995), 2-4.
31 Margaret Notley, Lateness and Brahm
(Oxford, 2007), 6.
82 THOMAS PEATTIE
Ernst Krenek: 'M

imitative or carr
from his unfinis
downfall; and th
interest in the p
Notley has argu
nevertheless 'saw
nineteenth-cent
evidence the fina
'To us Mahler's to
worldview, is at
If the case for M
modernism is w
nineteenth-centu
his music stan
Modernism.35 W
owes to Beethove
figure of Beeth
Brahms gave voi
have no idea of th
(Beethoven) mar
yardstickby wh
1835 review of B
perspective of ge
of the Ninth.37 T
of continuation
appearance of M
32 Ernst Krenek, M
33 Notley, Lateness
34 Paul Bekker, Die
and Brahms , 167.
This question has be
Arts (Berkeley and
Viennese Modernism
Birthday , ed. Phi
Modernism', Perspe
36 'Du hast keinen
(Beethoven) hinter s
1904), i, 171-2.
37 Robert Schumann
Nineteenth Centur
Hepokoski, 'Beetho
Music historians, by contrast, hav

that served to redefine the very idea
been understood as inspiring a suc
genre. As Lewis Lockwood observes:
to build his immense symphonic st
their exemplification of his concept
Bonds has suggested that the impac
first three symphonies, although it w
on the
later ones as well.40 Yet it
reverence for Beethoven's music, M
Beethoven than composers of prev
Beethoven's symphonies, including t
he was less interested in preserving
for which he paid a heavy price, a
betraying the spirit of Beethoven.
engagement with the legacy of Beet
his radical re-imagining of the Tur
may have drawn inspiration from
wrestled with a canonic work such
Retuschen
During the course of his lifetime, M

most important works in the sym
Retuschen involve relatively minor ch
one occasion in particular he re-ima
more radical fashion.42 In the sprin
during rehearsals for a performan
Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
the Bl> major march in the Finale to
he requested that over the course
39 Lewis Lockwood, Beethoven: The Music

0 Bonds goes on to draw a more explicit pa
in his After Beethoven: Imperatives of Ori
41 Such criticism was often laden with an
surrounding Mahler's Beethoven perfor
Mahler, Beethoven, and the Viennese Cri
42 For an excellent discussion of Mahler's B
Interpret or to Follow? Mahler's Beetho
Beethoven Forum , 11 (2004), 1^0. See also
and Werktreue' Cambridge Companion to
84 THOMAS PEATTIE
instruments shou
audacious. By att
clearly hoped to
including Walter,
notable about Mah
distance, he exagg
the Finale as a wh
met in the analyt
independent table
territoriality' by
Although the de
difficult to estab
with extensive
reinterpretation
in which Mahle
symphonic aren
from which his c
Mahler's radical
theatricalize sym
the continued vit
debt is perhaps le
an element that h
It is perhaps no
temporal implic
coincided precisel
43 Emil Nikolaus vo
(1920), 298-300 (p.
(Stockholm, 1947),
Pavel Eisner (Pragu
For a brief discussi
Schenker's striking
Cook, 'Heinrich Sc
Analysis , 14 (1995
'radical otherness',
Beethoven's "Ode t
45 A summary of th
Mahler as Interpre
Gustav Mahler als
Beethoven's Ninth
46 Maynard Solomo
Adagio, the repeate
break a mood of de
Maynard Solomon,
(1986-7), 3-23 (p.
as the growth of his reputation as a

the works he prepared and conduct
distant and mobile horn calls and
symphonic writing. By way of int
machinery, we must now turn our
represented one of Beethoven's crow
Fidelio" s fanfares
With its unwieldy dramatic struct

viewed with ambivalence. Yet it is an
conducted on numerous occasions over
drawn to what is perhaps the work's
Quartet' in the first scene of Act 2. A
Florestan, Leonore issues an ultimat
pierce this heart!'48 After drawing her
and you are dead!'49 At this mome
through the musical fabric and bri
fanfare, which announces the arrival
turning point in the dramatic action;
and reunited with Leonore, and in d
This fanfare is a textbook example of
heard by the characters. Stage music
presence 'abandon [s] the omniscien
speak, into the theatrical action, seein
hear]them'.50 At the conclusion of th
resumes, and we re-enter the flexib
encounters the simultaneous reactions
Leonore: Ah, you are saved! Praise to

Florestan: Ah, I am saved! Praise to G
47 Mahler conducted 72 performances of Fide

already led at least five performances of the
revising the First Symphony, Mahler cond
of his activity as an opera conductor, see
Biihnentatigkeit 1880-1910', Neue Mahleria
Seventieth Birthday , ed. Giinther Weiss (
8 'Der Tod sei dir geschworen! Durchbohr
Fidelio , Ludwig van Beethovens Werke , 2
9 'Noch einen Laut - und du bist Tod!'
Luca Zoppelli, '"Stage Music" in Early N
Journal , 2 (1990), 29-39 (p. 36).
86 THOMAS PEATTIE
Pizarro: Ha! The Minister! Death and damnation!

Rocco: O! Righteous God. What is this I hear?51
And then, without warning, the trumpet sounds again. Pizarro and Rocco are rendered
momentarily speechless as the reunited Leonore and Florestan embrace. Here
Beethoven indicates in the score that the trumpet should sound louder ('Man hort
die Trompete starker'), creating the impression that the fanfare has moved closer. Thus,
by appearing to traverse the offstage space, this fanfare does not function merely as an
abstract signal. Rather its apparent mobility implies a degree of agency and suggests a
connection to a character that actively inhabits the dramatic space. Although Beethoven's
stage directions do not instruct the player to move closer physically, the effect in the
theatre of a space traversed is unmistakable. By framing the reactions of the four
characters with this seemingly mobile fanfare, Beethoven creates a scenario that, like the
introduction of Mahler's First Symphony, is ultimately characterized by the precisely
controlled manipulation of an imagined space. In the case of Fidelio this apparent
manipulation of space is clearly exploited for a specific dramatic purpose. By contrast, in
the introduction of the First Symphony the reasons for a more literal, but still unseen,
manipulation of space are not immediately evident. As we will see shortly, however, the
motivation for this can, at least in part, be accounted for in terms of a fundamental
connection between the symphony's opening tableau and the work as a whole.
Mahler in the opera house

Mahler's intimate familiarity with operatic conventions was acquired over the course of
a distinguished conducting career spent largely in the opera houses of Central Europe.
After working during his student years in a succession of small provincial theatres,
Mahler received his first significant appointment in 1883 as second conductor at the
Court Opera in Kassel. Two years later he took up a post at the German Theatre in
Prague before moving on to Leipzig and then Budapest. Following his six-year tenure at
the City Theatre in Hamburg (1891-97), he attained his ultimate goal, becoming
director of the prestigious Court Opera in Vienna, a position that he held until 1907.
Shortly after resigning his post in Vienna he sailed for America, where he ended his
operatic career as a guest conductor at New York's Metropolitan Opera (1908-10).
During his early years in Kassel, Prague and Leipzig, Mahler's responsibilities were
restricted mainly to rehearsing and conducting the singers and orchestra. His
activities in Budapest, however, reveal he had far greater ambitions. In a letter of
recommendation addressed to the management of the Vienna Court Opera in
January of 1897, Count Albert Apponyi emphasized how Mahler's involvement in
51 Leonore: 'Ach! Du bist gerettet! GroEer Gott!' Florestan: 'Ach! Ich bin gerettet! GroEer Gott!'
Pizarro: 'Ha! Der Minister! Holl' und Tod!' Rocco: 'O! Was ist das? Gerechter Gott!'
the daily workings of the Royal

Budapest had gone far beyond wha
Mahler is not merely - like some f

musician, but with all the works he
expressions and movements of act
performance prepared and conduc
dimension. His eye ranges over the e
lighting. I have never met such a wel
During the 1 890s Mahler's involvem

culminating in his celebrated prod
Court Opera with the Austrian stag
Considering this lifelong preoccu
surprising that Mahler chose never t
attempted several operatic projects
exception is his completion of Carl
Pintos , published in Leipzig in 1 888,
Far more intriguing is Mahler's rathe
his first major work, Das klagende
whether this work was initially co
reveals Mahler's intimate familiarity
opera. Nowhere is this more appare
treatment of offstage space: the m
relationship to the work's narrative
52 Quoted in Roman, Gustav Mahler and

staging practices in Budapest and Vienn
Mahler in Budapest and Vienna', Report of t
Bonnie Wade (Kassel, 1981), 484-92.
For a recent assessment of this relationsh
Die Reform der Opernbiihne aus dem G
Floros, 81-128.
54 For a discussion of this question, see
Mahler , trans. James Galston (New Yor
The abandoned projects are Herzog Erns
Argonauten (1880).
For a detailed overview of the music, se
(London, 1958; rev. edn, Berkeley and Los
Earliest Completed Works: A Voyage Tow
Donald Mitchell and Andrew Nicholson
complex compositional genesis, see Edwa
Studies , ed. Hefling, 25-52, and Jeremy B
Fragments to Das klagende Lied' Cambrid
88 THOMAS PEATTIE
Jeremy Barham
another'.57 While
general preoccup
themselves this t
concerns.
All this raises the question to what extent Mahler's lifelong p

opera left a mark on his symphonic writing. It seems clear th
theatrical indications that fill his scores from Das klagende Lie
Tenth Symphony are derived less from the symphonic tradit
extensive knowledge of the operas of Mozart, Beethoven, Ros
Wagner. But if we dig deeper, it becomes apparent that M
conception is at its core theatrical. This aspect did not escape t
contemporaries: many reviews manifest an acute sensitivity bo
nature of Mahler's music and, in a number of cases, to its reson
of opera. Shortly after the Viennese premiere of the First Sympho
Max Graf wrote the following in the pages of the Wiener Rund
The structure of the symphony reminds one of a play in which the ca

during the interlude between the second and third acts. The dramatic
the emotional denouement has been placed behind the scenes. The a
the listeners' imagination, allowing them to construct the bridge be
third acts of his tone-drama.58
Similarly, an anonymous review in the Neue freie Presse refe

Symphony as an 'imaginary stage play' ('imaginares Theaterst
Viennese premiere in 1899. 59 More than seven years later, in a
Symphony in the Berliner Tageblatt , Leopold Schmidt offere
57 Barham, 'Juvenilia and Early Works', 70. This tendency has led several scholars
Mahler's music and film. In his discussion of the Third Symphony's opening m
speculates: 'Perhaps, nearly a century later, we are better able to deal with this e
exposition because the juxtaposition of initially mysterious fragments of unconnect
in the equivalent introductory business of the Second Symphony's finale, has bec
film-producers.' Peter Franklin, Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Cambridge, 1991), 84
deeply by Raymond Knapp, who uses the experiments of Russian film-make
theoretical writings of V. I. Pudovkin as a way of coming to terms with th
discontinuity in the Third and Fourth Symphonies. Knapp, Symphonic Metamo
recendy Jeremy Barham has considered the broader connections that exist betw
the moving image. Jeremy Barham, 'Mahler, Music, and the Moving Image
Research , 57 (2008), 28-48.
Review dated 1900, quoted in Karen Painter and Bettina Varwig (ed. and tran
Language Critics', Mahler and his World , ed. Painter, 267-378 (p. 287).
59 Neue freie Presse (10 April 1899), 1. Henry Louis de La Grange believes this
to be by Richard Heuberger. Henry Louis de La Grange, Gustav Mahler , ii:
Challenge (1897-1904) (Oxford, 1995), 152 (note 65).
reference to the theatrical provenanc

as both 'theatre music' ('Biihnenmu
in the previous year Max Kalbeck, in
to the influence of the theatre orc
In Mahler's earlier works it was al

imagination - however, not the orch
masters of instrumental music, but ra
only colored Mahler's orchestra but al
instrument. So too did they invade the
reformers transplanted the overloade
theater and turned it into the docile in
led this opera orchestra from the the
envoicing his musical intentions with
Despite Kalbeck's assertion that

[Mahler's] symphonies, tearing it t
might be manifested in the works th
The tendency to refer in passing to
symphonic writing is also evident i
Boulez, for example, has invoked
'meeting-places of the imaginary t
poem; musical expression asserts i
assume complete responsibility for ev
philosophy, while escaping the limi
Williamson has made reference to
Lied , while Warren Darcy and Seth
gestures in the Sixth Symphony.63 M
the presence of what he terms 'op
60 Leopold Schmidt, 'Mahler's "Sechste"', B

Max Kalbeck, 'Gustav Mahler und seine S
quoted in Painter and Varwig, 'Mahler's
the following qualification: 'Perhaps Kalb
styles and instruments into his symphon
Beethoven constituted a different case, co
reforms of music drama.' Sandra McColl,
20 (1996-7), 167-84 (p. 173).
62 Pierre Boulez, 'Mahler: Our Contempora
Cooper (Cambridge, 1986), 295-303 (p.
Williamson, 'The Earliest Completed Wo
Genesis, and Fantasy-Projection in the Slo
Music , 25 (2001-2), 49-74 (pp. 66-7); Set
the Novel-Symphony in the Finale of M
(p. 89).
90 THOMAS PEATTIE
and, more signif

rhetoric, structu
the Eighth Symp
that is paradoxic
from Goethe's Fa
directly to the in
very unstageabilit
scenes in the dr
metaopera. Mah
metaphysical term
this scene because
texture is not me
very essence tend
Perhaps the mo
symphonies can
That Mahler, who

to that of opera in
of the objective in
opera, Mahler's nov
of fulfillment such
to otherwise absolu
Under the rubri

transfiguration
'ultimate' form
operathat has be
formulation mu
polemic, it also o
Adorno's observ
symphonies are u
and absolute mus
64 Johnson, Mahler's
Michael P. Steinberg
NY, 1990; repr. 200
Adorno, Mahler , 71
67 Among the best tr
has been explored m
that the question of
belongs to the histo
Issue', Cambridge Co
Isolde's hunting horns

Once we sense in Mahler's sympho
tempting to qualify this impulse a
part to Mahler that Wagner's musi
which he worked. Over the course
performances of Wagner's operas, in
Carl Dahlhaus has famously observ
history 'the years around the turn
witnessed the appearance of Mahl
mark of Wagner's music dramas'.69 Y
it is precisely the link between Wagn
offers a new way of assessing his
decades of the nineteenth century.70
Mahler's treatment of the orchestra
primary influence in the use o
Ultimately, then, the extent to w
the operas of Wagner on both mu
scrutiny.
Of the works that he conducted over the course of his career it was in connection
with Tristan und Isolde that Mahler experienced some of his greatest critical
triumphs.72 Although he did not have occasion to conduct the opera until 1 89 1 , it is
a work with which he had already gained an intimate familiarity. During his tenure
in Hamburg, which lasted from 1891 to 1897, he conducted the work on 23
occasions.73 At a time during which Mahler was so preoccupied with refining the
spatial dimension of his own symphonies, the complex treatment of the conventions
of stage music in Tristan und Isolde could not have failed to impress him. As is the
case in the introduction of the First Symphony, Wagner plays here with the listener's
expectations regarding the projection of distant and, in this case, imagined sound.
Nowhere is this exploited to greater effect than at the beginning of Act 2, where
Isolde, accompanied by her maidservant Brangane, awaits the arrival of Tristan.
68 Martner, 'Mahler im Opernhaus', 170.

69 Carl Dahlhaus, Foundations of Music History , trans. J. Bradford Robinson (Cambridge, 1983), 39.
70 Although connections between Mahler and Wagner have often been drawn in the literature, there are
relatively few studies dedicated to this important relationship. See, however, Horst Weber, 'Mahler
und Wagner', Gustav Mahler und die Symphonik des 19. Jahrhunderts: Referate des Bonner Symposions
2000, ed. Bernd Sponheur and Wolfram Steinbeck (Frankfurt am Main, 2001), 201-10.
71 Kurt Blaukopf, Gustav Mahler, trans. Inge Goodwin (London, 1973; repr. New York, 1985), 250.
For the importance of Berlioz as a point of comparison in this respect, see Mitchell, Gustav Mahler ,
ii, 333^3.
See in particular the account of the celebrated 1903 production at the Vienna Court Opera. La
Grange, Gustav Mahler, ii, 571-85.
Martner, 'Mahler im Opernhaus', 170.
92 THOMAS PEATTIE
From behind the b

explicit about the
opening scene the
an instance of s
characters. Yet de
unable to hear an
faded into the dis
still near; hence th
been deceived ('An
for a fleeting mom
orchestra pit. As t
has been deceived
laughingly in the
chooses ('You are
mean time, the s
entfernter'). By tr
is able to create
turn allows the a
character, invested
Durchbruch
There is little do
Tristan und Isolde
offstage space in t
symphonic cont
concurrent applic
First Symphony
introductions in t
74 For a brief discuss

Wagner: Von der Op
75 'Horst du sie noch
Isolde Vetter and Eg
76 'Noch sind sie nah
77 'Sorgende Furcht b
78 'Dich tauscht des L
79 'Dich tauscht des W
80 For a well-known
Voices , 131. The que
Raymond Knapp in
describes as the 'in
Metamorphoses , 1 38
that in the final version of the symp

is restricted only to the opening ba
with off-stage sound is not revisited
First Symphony, although the init
offstage again, they nevertheless mak
orchestral platform: twice in the d
three times in the Finale.81 In part b
their presence is in many respects ev
from afar at the beginning of the wo
accounted for in the literature in t
than not, against the backdrop of A
breakthrough ( Durchbruch ) just prio
Then, at the height of the movement,

fanfares explode in the trumpets, hor
orchestra's previous sound or even th
crescendo has reached a climax as that
rupture originates from beyond the
outside.82
John J. Sheinbaum, for example, has recently underscored the crucial role played by
timbre at this moment in a way that suggests a link between the opening of the
symphony and the conclusion of the first movement: 'Only at the moment of
breakthrough does colour - unmuted massed trumpets and horns, fortissimo and in a
comfortable register - allow the fanfare gesture to realize its rhetorical promise.'83
The conceptual complexity of the breakthrough has, predictably, received
considerable attention from the perspective of form.84 For Adorno: 'The break-
through in the First Symphony affects the entire form. The recapitulation to which it
81 In the first movement they reappear at 23, and six bars before 26 (the first of these statements being a
muted and abbreviated anticipation of the second, which leads directly into the recapitulation). In
the Finale they enter three bars after 38, five bars after 49, and at 52.
Adorno, Mahler , 4-5.
John J. Sheinbaum, 'Adorno's Mahler and the Timbral Outsider', Journal of the Royal Musical
Association , 131 (2006), 38-82 (p. 50).
84 Adorno's conception of breakthrough in connection with Mahler's music can be traced to Paul
Bekker's discussion of the First Symphony. Paul Bekker, Gustav Mahlers Sinfonien (Berlin, 1921;
repr. Tutzing, 1969), 37-64. John J. Sheinbaum has noted that although Bekker's primary example
comes from the symphony's first movement, most commentators have focused their attention on the
Finale. Sheinbaum, 'Adorno's Mahler', 48. See also Bernd Sponheur, Logik des Zerfalls:
Untersuchungen zum Finalproblem in den Symphonien Gustav Mahlers (Tutzing, 1978), 51-89;
idem, 'Der Durchbruch als primare Formkategorie Gustav Mahlers', Form und Idee in Gustav
Mahlers Instrumentalmusik , ed. Klaus Hinrich Stahmer (Wilhelmshaven, 1980), 117-64; and James
Buhler, 'Breakthrough as Critique of Form: The Finale of Mahler's First Symphony', 19th-century
Music , 20 (1996-7), 125^3.
94 THOMAS PEATTIE
leads cannot rest

epilogue.'85 But i
here. The distant e
not only establish
might have its ori
breakthrough int
the work's formal
this viewpoint, th
initially sounded f
moment of bre
reinterpretation o
Gianmario Borio, f
that literalizes it
opening of a the
the unfolding of s
like breaking thro
the hunting calls a
In addition to two
theatrical fanfare
movement.87 In pa
that allows us to
relationship betw
In the first mov
recapitulation, wh
by contrast, their
case in the first m
barely contained
Of course one of
unifying device, s
century symphon
terms of the broad
this moment of b
85 Adorno, Mahler , 5
material theory of fo
8 'Se l'introduzione ra
svolgimento della vic
( Durchbruch ) della
87 The second recolle
interest in that the in
88 Adorno, Mahler , 6
The beginning of th
90 Five bars after 59
dramatic usage of the fanfare i

denouement.91 By returning to t
moments of the symphony, Mahle
theatrical gesture that, on the one
other, now serves as a signal that brin
fanfares 'break through' the set once
Epilogue
In the traditional interpretative framework in which the late nineteenth-century
symphony has been discussed, the theatrical treatment of space has seldom merited
more than a cursory mention. In his superb discussion of the symphony after
Beethoven, James Hepokoski has surprisingly little to say about the potential
relationship between symphony and opera. Hepokoski convincingly exposes the false
dichotomy between so-called programme and absolute music and in its place calls for
a number of 'hermeneutic genres' in which the multiplicity of approaches to
symphonic writing in the wake of Beethoven might be discussed. These genres are:
(1) the purely abstract symphony; (2) dialogues with the musical tradition; (3)
Nationalistic' symphonies; (4) tacit, implicit or suspected programmes throughout or
for substantial sections; (5) programme symphony/suite, symphonic poem and
overture.92 While it is tempting to add to this list the impact of operatic and
theatrical conventions, there is perhaps another way of articulating Mahler's
remarkable contribution to the symphony at the end of the nineteenth century. As
we have seen, the complex layering of programmatic markers and performance
directions in the work's introduction reveals the extent to which the young Mahler
was struggling to define his own position in the history of symphonic writing.
Indeed, it is his expansion of symphonic space that offers the most compelling
evidence of a composer determined to re-establish the vitality of the Austro-German
symphony. By infusing his first fully symphonic work with a fundamentally
theatrical sensibility, Mahler sets the stage for a compelling and often explosive
meeting of the symphonic and the operatic. Of equal importance is the way in which
this audacious symphonic debut reflects a number of other preoccupations that also
deserve further exploration. As we have seen, Mahler's dynamic spatial deployment
in the First Symphony suggests a deep attraction to a kind of music that exists at the
91 In an unpublished paper Katarina Markovic-Stokes has argued that Mahler's 'recomposition' of the
second act of Fidelio , in particular his placement of the third Leonore overture during the scene
change before the opera's Finale, can be read as a creative manifesto that re-emphasizes the moment
of Durchbruch. 'From Imprisonment into Freedom: Mahler's "Re-composition" of Act II of Fidelio
as a Creative Manifesto', paper delivered at the National Meeting of the American Musicological
Society, Washington, DC, 2005.
92 Hepokoski, 'Beethoven Reception', 434^7.
96 THOMAS PEATTIE
threshold of the
musical discourse
work's periphery
frame of referen
underscores the
guiding metaphor
If the First Sym
writing, it is per
continue to play a
decade during wh
to the First Symp
offstage space, m
movement is ofte
offstage instrume
equally compellin
experience in the
This can be seen,
both onstage and
dramatic framewo
trajectory. If in h
deployment, his
doxically intensif
symphonic writing
evident in 'Der Abschied' from Das Lied von der Erde. When his works are taken
together, however, what they share is something far more powerful: an ability to
challenge our most deeply rooted assumptions concerning the symphonic tradition,
generic norms and even the very spaces within which these works are performed.
That they contain traces of Mahler's theatrical experience suggests that they might be
better understood not as examples of programme or absolute music, but rather as a
form of abstract theatre.
ABSTRACT
This article explores the treatment of space in Gustav Mahler's First Symphony from
perspective of the composer's experience as a conductor of opera. It considers the 'theatric
located offstage utterances in the work's introduction in light of passages from Beetho
Fidelio (Act 2, scene ii) and Tristan und Isolde (Act 2, scene ii), and against the backd
of Mahler's controversial attempt to assign the Alia marcia section from the Finale
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to a small offstage orchestra. By considering in turn
implications of Mahler's treatment of offstage space on the work's overall structure, specif
with respect to the moment of 'breakthrough' in the first and last movements, I suggest
Mahler ultimately re-establishes the vitality of the symphony as genre at the intersec
between the waning symphonic tradition and the immediacy of operatic convention.

The Expansion of Symphonic Space in Mahler, S First Symphony

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The Expansion of Symphonic Space in Mahler's First Symphony

Author(s): THOMAS PEATTIE

The Expansion of Symphonic Space in

The opening bars of Gustav Mahler's First Symphony unfold a comp

ISSN 0269-0403 print/ISSN 1471-6933 online

is governed by utterances that are

It is only when Mahler's elaborate performing directions are scrupulous

Although Mitchell offers an eloquent and, in its own way, pioneering

The First Symphon

With his typically

14 In his review of the

nature by invoking technology

20 See Reinhold Brinkmann, 'Vom Pfeifen

argue that Mahler is engaged in n

28 Writing in slightly different terms

Ernst Krenek: 'M

Music historians, by contrast, hav

During the course of his lifetime, M

39 Lewis Lockwood, Beethoven: The Music

as the growth of his reputation as a

With its unwieldy dramatic struct

Leonore: Ah, you are saved! Praise to

47 Mahler conducted 72 performances of Fide

Pizarro: Ha! The Minister! Death and damnation!

Mahler in the opera house

the daily workings of the Royal

Mahler is not merely - like some f

During the 1 890s Mahler's involvem

52 Quoted in Roman, Gustav Mahler and

All this raises the question to what extent Mahler's lifelong p

The structure of the symphony reminds one of a play in which the ca

Similarly, an anonymous review in the Neue freie Presse refe

reference to the theatrical provenanc

In Mahler's earlier works it was al

Despite Kalbeck's assertion that

60 Leopold Schmidt, 'Mahler's "Sechste"', B

and, more signif

That Mahler, who

Under the rubri

Isolde's hunting horns

68 Martner, 'Mahler im Opernhaus', 170.

From behind the b

74 For a brief discuss

that in the final version of the symp

Then, at the height of the movement,

leads cannot rest

dramatic usage of the fanfare i

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