Previous
Symphony No. 1 - Mahler (1888)
Next
Soundtracks:
Tampopo
Create with parts and themes
Stories from the music history
Students' Project
Music mall
Listen to MP3

Symphony No. 1 in D, "Titan"

Mahler composed his 1st Symphony before he was 30 years old. This is the only symphony he wrote that still reminds us of symphonies in Beethoven's style. The symphony is one of Mahler's dramatic works, and for this reason it was given the name "Titan", meaning enormous. Originally, it had an additional movement, the "flowers movement", omitted from the symphony after a few performances.
1 The cuckoo's call opens the first movement, and the other themes will develop from it. Nature wakens to a new dawn, and in contrast, comes a chromatic theme in the low pitch strings - the cellos and the contrabasses.
2 The scherzo movement, that develops the themes of the first movement into a kind of a joyful country-dance, and on the other hand - an idyllic counter subject in trio, after which returns the lively scherzo.
3 A kind of a burial march that presents a parade of the mourning, ironically, whereas the music is built on the melody of a children's song known to all of us as "Frere Jacques", in fact an ancient French children's song. Here it is played as a canon and in a sad, minor key, and an optimistic melody that will enter in its midst, will soon be cast aside, for the sake of the depressing canon.
4 The concluding movement, which, as Mahler usually does, is the central part of the piece, forms the symphony's peak. This movement is dramatic and energetic, and it consists of three parts, as the tempestuous march theme opens, after which is a lyric section, and at the end - the impressive coda.

Mahler destroyed most of his early work, because he considered them not mature enough for playing. Symphony no. 1 was published after several songs he released in the "Songs of a Wandering Apprentice" and "A Boy's Magical Horn" collections, and the atmosphere that dominates it, is one of youth's memories, love and suffering.
Go to the main menu
Home
Listen to a MIDI example
Example
The country in which it was written
Country
About the composer
Composer
The form of the work
Form
The period
Period

Back to last screenMusixCool© By Nadav DafniTo The Listening Guide