# Understanding Mahler's 2nd Part 4.2 (Finale)



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

_*V. Finale*_*

Form*

0:00~1:35 Introduction (C minor/major)
1:36~5:03 Horn calls, themes (F minor/major)
5:04~7:30 Lamenting theme (B-flat minor)
7:30~9:30 Exposition Coda (C major/minor)

9:30~13:10 March (F minor->F major->F minor)
13:10~15:05 Lamenting theme, off-stage band (E-flat minor->F minor)
15:06~16:42 Intro return (C-sharp minor->D-flat major)
16:42~19:15 Horn calls, flute and piccolo exchange (C-sharp minor)

19:16~22:46 Choir enters, 1st stanza and orchestral answer (G-flat major)
22:46~26:30 2nd stanza (G-flat major)
26:30~29:48 Lament "O glaube", 3rd stanza (B-flat minor)
29:48~30:41 Alto/Soprano Duet (A-flat major)
30:41~32:14 "Mit flugeln" (dominant of E-flat major)
32:14~34:54 "Aufersteh'n" and Coda (E-flat major)

This movement, encapsulating the entire symphony, opens in C minor and moves towards a final E-flat major. The first third introduces all of the themes, and rests firmly in C, but everything that follows pushes the music into increasingly distant regions. The return of the intro in C-sharp/D-flat destabilizes any motion back towards C, and the arrival of the choir in the most distant key possible, G-flat, solidifies this. After remaining there for some time, the music rapidly moves towards E-flat major, a true cadence on which is withheld until the tutti on the word "Aufersteh'n".

*Text*

The text after the line was penned by Mahler himself, and the tone and style are very different from Klopstock's ode. Mahler's portion is more humanist than religious, more personal. The disparity is not as noticable in the piece because of the shift in tone (to the minor mode) and in texture (soloists rather than mixed choir). The accent in Mahler's setting does not always follow the meter of the poem (even his own portion) and he repeats words and lines, breaking them up as he sees fit.

[Choir]
Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n wirst du,
Mein staub, nach kurzer Ruh!
Unsterblich Leben
Wird der dich rief dir geben.

Wieder aufzubluh'n wirst du gesat!
Der Herr der Ernte geht
Und sammelt Garben
Uns ein, die starben.

________________

[Alto]
O glaube, mein Herz, o glaube:
Es geht dir nichts veloren!

Dein ist, was du gesehnt!
Dein, was du geliebt, was du gestritten!

[Soprano]
O glaube:
Du wardst nicht unsonst geboren!
Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, gelitten!

[Choir]
Was entstanden ist, das muss vergehen!
Was vergangen, auferstehen!
Hor' auf zu beben!
Bereite dich zu leben!

[Alto and Soprano, then Choir]
O Schmerz! Du Alldurchdringer!
Dir bin ich entrungen!
O Tod! Du Allbezwinger!
Nun bist du bezwungen!
Mit Flugeln, die ich mir errungen
In heissem Liebesstreben
Werd' ich entschweben
Zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug' gedrungen!
Sterben werd' ich, um zu leben!

Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n wirst du,
Mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen,
Zu Gott wird es dich tragen!

[Choir]
Arise, yes, you will arise from the dead,
My dust, after a short rest!
Eternal life
Will be given you by Him who called you.

To bloom again are you sown.
The lord of the harvest goes
And gathers the sheaves,
Us who have died.

____________

[Alto]
Oh believe, my heart, oh believe,
Nothing will be lost to you!

Everything is yours that you have desired,
Yours, what you have loved, what you have struggled for.

[Soprano]
Oh believe,
You were not born in vain,
Have not lived, suffered in vain!

[Choir]
What was created must perish.
What has perished must rise again.
Tremble no more!
Prepare yourself to live!

[Alto and Soprano, then Choir]
O Sorrow, all-penetrating!
I have been wrested away from you!
O death, all-conquering!
Now you are conquered!
With wings that I have won
In the passionate strivings of love
I shall mount
To the light to which no sight has penetrated.
I shall die, so as to live!

Arise, yes, you will arise from the dead,
My heart, in an instant!
What you have conquered
Will bear you to God!

*Themes*

A chorale theme based on the dies irae plainchant, which had appeared earlier in the first movement.

A simple turn later set to the first word of the chorus, "Aufersteh'n" (resurrection).









A lamenting theme that later will be sung by the alto. This is accompanied by a piercing inverted echo of its first two notes.









A rising, searching theme that becomes increasingly important as the movement progresses. A similar figure also appears briefly in the first movement.









*Analysis*

After the dramatic lull of the Urlicht, the finale begins by picking up exactly where the scherzo had begun to collapse. A fanfare in trumpets and trombones leaps up and down, and the swaying figure from the scherzo reappears against a curtain of harp and strings. This time, the dissonant chord coalesces into a clear but quiet C major, and the searching theme above forms one part at a time, against a subtle backdrop of flutes and strings. Never having risen above _piano_, the music subsides down to a bare fifth, then a bare octave, then subsides entirely.

A horn call is sounded, slowly and quietly. It is followed by an echo, then a rising triplet figure. This is taken up by the oboe, which places the triplets more or less in F minor. The figure moves from oboes to horns, then to harp, then down through the winds and finally from basses to timpani beating out a repeated C. A chorale in the winds, backed by pizzicato strings, brings back the dies irae-derived motif that appeared in the first movement, which is now answered by a new theme in the major played by the first trombone. A trumpet replies, and the fanfares from earlier are repeated in F major. The music again subsides into a lone timpani.

A new theme in B-flat minor based on a falling minor second recalls the importance of this interval in the first movement. Here it forms into a lament, with clarinets responding in their highest register. The minor second is repeated with increasing urgency as it travels to the bottom of the orchestra. After a pause, the chorale returns, now scored for brass, and it takes the music back into C major, where the fanfares return in triumphant _forte_. Before long, though, the major darkens into minor, and a slow processional over timpani and tam-tam follows. The music again slows to a halt.

A crescendo for percussion alone leads into a march in F minor, based on the inital fanfare figure, but combining elements of several of the themes, as the chorale and the lament appear transformed into this new guise. The primary rhythm of the first movement returns as well. The march shifts into the major, staccato and forcefully accented, as the music moves through a swift procession of keys. The march becomes increasingly strident and the orchestra pushes into extremes of register, culminating in a crashing dissonant chord on F that echoes the introduction, which then dissolves in a chromatic falling scale in the winds.

The lament returns in E-flat minor, backed by tremolo violas. After a move back to F minor, an off-stage brass band, accompanied garishly by cymbals, bass drum, and triangle, starts up out of sync with the orchestra. The lament now moves into the strings, and it continues to grow in intensity against the banality of the band. When the orchestral brass take up the lament, it takes on a mocking quality, as it becomes fragmented and its fragments repeat.

A return of the introduction in the key of C-sharp minor leads to the reappearance of the rising theme, now in D-flat major. The music remains hushed, and the theme appears hesitantly in the minor before it dissipates entirely. The horn call is repeated by the off-stage brass, now in C-sharp/D-flat, and a duo of flute and piccolo (playing in the same register) trade arabesques. As the fanfares die away, the music sits in hushed silence.

At this moment, the choir enters in G-flat major, beginning a capella. On the last words of the stanza, the soprano solo pulls away from the group and takes over the melody. The quiet fanfares and rising theme from earlier are repeated, and lead into the second stanza, which begins with just the men of the choir. This is followed by another iteration of the fanfares and the rising theme.

Instead of a third stanza, the alto soloist sings the lament theme, once again in B-flat minor. This is answered by the soprano. The men reply, first _pianissimo_, then _forte_. A trombone-led chorale leads the music to a tentative E-flat. Then the choir calls out "bereite dich zu leben" (prepare yourself to live). The orchestra, in response, shifts into A-flat, but instead of the expected repeat of the fanfare material, the soprano and alto share a duet, based on motifs from both the fourth and fifth movements, culminating in an echo of the Urlicht setting's last line, which is taken up by the basses and transformed into the rising theme.

The music remains suspended on the dominant of E-flat as the choir repeat the theme in canon, ever more impassioned. A unison _fortissimo_ on the words "sterben werd ich um zu leben" (I shall die, so as to live) leads to a full tutti on the word "aufersteh'n", now firmly in E-flat major and heightened by the entry of the organ. The choir sings out the theme and brings the piece to its climax. Horns echo the rising theme, and its falling fifth echoes until the final triumphant chord.

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## mgj15 (Feb 17, 2011)

Just happened upon this by chance of tapping the blogs link by mistake; and no small coincidence either, having watched the performance of it yesterday by Zander and the BPYO! I look forward to reading it all from the beginning. Thanks!


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

Wonderful, Mahlerian; every post is better than the last. I plan on listening to Mahler's Second with score again this weekend and this commentary will serve as a trustworthy companion. I hope you continue.


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