Symphony No.4

Bedächtig. Nicht eilen

In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast

Ruhevoll

Sehr behaglich

In Hamburg in 1892, after writing little or no music for four years, Mahler completed five settings of songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in just four weeks. Apparently what inspired him to start composing again was a Bavarian folk song called Der Himmel hängt voll Geigen, which presents music as one of the heavenly joys alongside unlimited food and wine. Mahler admired it for its “roguishness and deep mysticism” and he was so impressed by the significance he found in it that he planned first to include it in his Third Symphony and then, when that proved impossible, to make a setting of it for soprano and orchestra as the “tapering spire of the edifice” of his Fourth Symphony.

The first three movements of the Fourth Symphony - which Mahler began at Aussee in the summer of 1899 and completed at Maiernigg in the following August - were written to provide an emotional progression which would culminate in Das himmlische Leben (or “Heavenly Life”) as he now called his setting of the Bavarian folksong. From the long-term structural point of view, the most important themes in the first movement are not the delightfully innocent first subject on violins in G major nor even the more expressive second subject lovingly introduced by cellos in D major. They certainly represent the joys of life, which is what the movement is all about, but the material which will carry the most significant echoes are the clip-clop motif on woodwind and bells in the opening bars and an apparently new theme (actually derived from the second subject) heard first in the development section on four flutes over a yodelling bass clarinet, trilling cellos, an pizzicato basses.

The scherzo is a jocular departure from the joys of life. It originally bore the title, “Friend Death strikes up the dance; he scrapes the strings most strangely and fiddles us up to heaven” - hence the leader’s second fiddle which is tuned a whole tone sharp to make an eerily shrill effect, in contrast to the voluptuous sounds of the two ländler-like trios.

If the second movement makes “your hair stand on end,” Mahler assured us, it is followed by an Adagio which “puts everything right and proves that its intentions were not so bad.” Based, like the equivalent movement of Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony, on two themes which are varied in turn - one introduced in G major by cellos over a pizzicato bass line shared by Schubert’s song An Sylvia, the other presented by oboe in E minor over a variant of Sylvia’s bass line on bassoon - it certainly is a haven of tranquillity. Or it is until shortly before the end when a massive E major outburst by the whole orchestra is followed by a proclamation on horns and trumpets of the flute theme from the development of the first movement. The sustained diminuendo to the D major chord at the end was described by Mahler as “music of the spheres” with “an almost religious and Catholic atmosphere.”

The point of the E major explosion and the forceful thematic reminder on the brass becomes clear during the course of the last movement. Mahler described the slow movement as “the basis of a transition to the finale” and, indeed, the finale begins with a clarinet melody in G major based on the theme just proclaimed by trumpets and horns. Similarly, the point of the clip-clop introduction to the first movement is identified by its presence here as a refrain between the stanzas of the song. It is not, however, until the last stanza - the one about heavenly music - that the key changes to E major and, quite unsensationally and at a dynamic level varying between p and ppp, the symphony finds its consummation.

Gerald Larner ©2005

Bedächtig. Nicht eilen

In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast

Ruhevoll

Sehr behaglich

In Hamburg in 1892, after writing little or no music for four years, Mahler completed five settings of songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in just four weeks. Apparently what inspired him to start composing again was a Bavarian folk song called Der Himmel hängt voll Geigen, which presents music as one of the heavenly joys alongside unlimited food and wine. Mahler admired it for its “roguishness and deep mysticism” and he was so impressed by the significance he found in it that he planned first to include it in his Third Symphony and then, when that proved impossible, to make a setting of it for soprano and orchestra as the “tapering spire of the edifice” of his Fourth Symphony.

The first three movements of the Fourth Symphony - which Mahler began at Aussee in the summer of 1899 and completed at Maiernigg in the following August - were written to provide an emotional progression which would culminate in Das himmlische Leben (or “Heavenly Life,” as he called his setting of the Bavarian folksong). From the long-term structural point of view, the most important themes in the first movement are not the delightfully innocent first subject on violins in G major nor even the more expressive second subject lovingly introduced by cellos in D major. They certainly represent the joys of life, which is what the movement is all about, but the material which will carry the most significant echoes are the clip-clop motif on woodwind and bells in the opening bars and an apparently new theme (actually derived from the second subject) heard first in the development section on four flutes over a yodelling bass clarinet, trilling cellos, and pizzicato basses.

The scherzo is a jocular departure from the joys of life. It originally bore the title, “Friend Death strikes up the dance; he scrapes the strings most strangely and fiddles us up to heaven” - hence the leader’s second fiddle which is tuned a whole tone sharp to make an eerily shrill effect, in contrast to the voluptuous sounds of the two ländler-like trios.

If the second movement makes “your hair stand on end,” Mahler assured us that it is followed by an Adagio which “puts everything right and proves that its intentions were not so bad.” Based, like the equivalent movement of Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony, on two themes which are varied in turn - one introduced in G major by cellos over a pizzicato bass line shared by Schubert’s song An Sylvia, the other presented by oboe in E minor over a variant of Sylvia’s bass line on bassoon - it certainly is a haven of tranquillity. Or it is until shortly before the end when a massive E major outburst by the whole orchestra is followed by a proclamation on horns and trumpets of the flute theme from the development of the first movement. The sustained diminuendo to the D major chord at the end was described by Mahler as “music of the spheres” with “an almost religious and Catholic atmosphere.”

The point of the E major explosion and the forceful thematic reminder on the brass becomes clear during the course of the last movement. Mahler described the slow movement as “the basis of a transition to the finale” and, indeed, the finale begins with a clarinet melody in G major based on the theme just proclaimed by trumpets and horns. Similarly, the point of the clip-clop introduction to the first movement is identified by its presence here as a refrain between the stanzas of the song. It is not, however, until the last stanza - the one about heavenly music - that the key changes to E major and, quite unsensationally and at a dynamic level varying between p and ppp, the symphony finds its consummation.

Das himmlische Leben

Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden,

D’rum tun wir das Irdische meiden.

Kein weltlich’ Getümmel

Hört man nicht im Himmel!

Lebt Alles in sanftester Ruh’.

Wir führen ein englisches Leben!

Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben;

Wir tanzen und springen,

Wir hüpfen und singen.

Sankt Peter im Himmel sieht zu!

Johannes das Lämmlein auslasset,

Der Metzger Herodes drauf passet!

Wir führen ein geduldig's,

Unschuldig's, geduldig's,

Ein liebliches Lämmlein zu Tod!

Sankt Lucas den Ochsen lässt schlachten

Ohn' einig's Bedenken und Achten,

Der Wein kost' kein Heller

Im himmlischen Keller,

Die Englein, die backen das Brot

Gut' Kräuter von allerhand Arten,

Die wachsen im himmlischen Garten!

Gut' Spargel, Fisolen

Und was wir nur wollen!

Ganze Schüsseln voll sind uns bereit!

Gut Äpfel, gut' Birn' und gut' Trauben!

Die Gärtner, die alles erlauben!

Willst Rehbock, willst Hasen,

Auf offener Strassen

Sie laufen herbei!

Sollt' ein Fasttag etwa kommen,

Alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen!

Dort läuft schon Sankt Peter

Mit Netz und mit Köder

Zum himmlischen Weiher hinein.

Sankt Martha die Köchin muss sein.

Kein’ Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden,

Die unsrer verglichen kann werden.

Elftausend Jungfrauen

Zu tanzen sich trauen!

Sankt Ursula selbst dazu lacht!

Cäcilia mit ihren Verwandten

Sind treffliche Hofmusikanten!

Die englischen Stimmen

Ermuntern die Sinnen,

Dass alles für Freuden erwacht.

(Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

Heavenly Life

We enjoy heavenly pleasures

As we avoid earthly things.

No wordly tumult

Is to be heard in heaven!

Everything lives in gentlest peace.

We lead an angelic life!

But we do it cheerfully;

We dance and we jump,

We hop and we sing.

Saint Peter in heaven looks on.

Saint John lets out the lamb,

The butcher Herod is waiting for him!

We lead a patient,

innocent, patient,

dear little lamb to death!

Saint Luke slaughters oxen

Without giving it a thought,

Wine costs not a penny

In heaven’s cellar,

Little angels bake the bread.

Good vegetables of all sorts

Grow in heaven’s garden!

Good asparagus, beans

And whatever we want!

Bowlfuls are ready for us!

Good apples, good pears and good grapes!

The gardeners let us have anything!

If you want roebuck, if you want hare,

In the very street

They come running up to you!

Should it be fast-day,

All the fish gladly swim to you!

Saint Peter is already on his way

With net and bait

To the heavenly pond.

Saint Martha must be the cook.

No music on earth

Can compare with ours.

Eleven thousand maidens

Dare to dance!

Saint Ursula herself is laughing!

Cecila with and her family

Are splendid court musicians!

Angelic voices

Cheer the senses

So that everything wakes with joy.

(translated by Gerald Larner)