# Mahler: abandoned program notes



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

In cases of 1st and 3rd symphonies Mahler initially wrote program notes for all the movements. In 1st symphony it was very literal program, in 3rd it was more symbolical but still it says much about what the music is all about.

Do you ignore it, was Mahler right to withdraw them? Or do you keep them in mind while listening?

The tone poem qualities of 1st are undeniable and I always liked the program notes for it. I even wanted to read the Titan by Jean Paul which was inspiration for the work but couldn't find it anywhere. 

With the 3rd I find those "What X tells me" quite telling. Especially the 3rd movement, the scherzo: What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me. 

I get the vision of Mahler in forest during the night, he walks through wilderness and by the forest river he meet a beaver and he says GUTEN NACHT, HOW'S IT GOING and the beaver sings a theme from the scherzo and Mahler is fascinated and suddenly all animals come out, owls, wolves, foxes, bears, beavers, forest birds gather around Mahler and they all sing the music and he spends whole night like that and at the end he falls asleep to the lullaby they sing him, at the dawn he wakes alone and gets back home to write down everything he heard. 

Or the last movement, "what love tells me" - after all this weirdness he heard from animals, flowers, angels, men the love brings final resolvement to everything.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

It the composer wrote the notes, then I always read it and think about it as it was part of his/her intention for the listener. Often it helps initially but the beauty of the music takes over on is own anyway. (Beethoven's symphony #6 was the first such experience for me).


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## beethovenian (May 2, 2011)

The program notes he wrote are quite matching, especially the 1st symphony and it's wicked funeral march.

Mahler being quite an egoist, probably figure that his music is powerful enough on its own and there is no need for "words" to convey the musical message.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I don't know the Titan story, but the 3rd symphony's notes help me understand the piece; it is a progression from the blind forces of nature to life to consciousness to religion to selfless love.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I quote Natalie Bauer-Lechner in 1900 from the sleevenotes of my Kubelik box set:

_Mahler will have nothing more to do with naming the individual movements of the work, as he used to do: "I could think of the finest names for them, but I won't reveal them to the idiots who wait in judgement and listen in order that they may again most crassly misunderstand and misrepresent me!"_

Mahler provisionally subtitled the six movements he had in mind for his fourth symphony but abandoned them when the work was eventually written in four movements only - the above quote relates to that work.

Mahler went on to say in another correspondence that his music 'ARRIVES at a programme as a summary of the ideas embodied in it' unlike Strauss who sets the programme down first.


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