Mahler’s Symphony №2, “Resurrection” in C minor, with its five movements; I. Allegro maestoso [Totenfeier], II. Andante moderato, III. Scherzo, IV. Urlicht. Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht, and, V. Im Tempo des Scherzos, is truly an epic undertaking in musical form and structure, stamina and endurance, and thematic development.
Thematic: A topic of discourse or discussion a subject of artistic representation, an implicit or recurrent idea; a motif. Music — a recurring melodic element in a composition, especially a melody forming the basis of a set of variations.
Genesis: the origin or coming into being of something; the genesis of a new idea — an origin, creation, or beginning.
In music a theme represents the identity of the work — an introduction, or statement of purpose constructed with the requisite elements that are the building blocks of music; rhythm, melody, dynamics, articulations, texture, form, and structure. A motive, perhaps merely a cell as short as two notes may begin, then continued with an ascending, descending contour, evolving with purpose defined with dynamics, registral placement, and detailed with specific articulations. Now, the motive has already begun to emerge, and may continue to a high point above the initial pitch(es). There is a sense of arrival — it can be quite palpable even if the dynamic marking has been at a pianissimo (pp) marking and remained static.
Perhaps the high point has a marked (accented) attack and arrives after a prolonged of duration, asserted as a punctuated release, only to begin a gradual descent to its final resting pitch four measure later, in possibly a fragmented form if irregular intervals with an increase in energy gain, in a tiered decrescendo to a final dynamic marking of piano (p). An eight-measure melody in sentence structure. Or, perhaps, in a variation of a period structure with an implied half-cadence at the end of the four-measure, concluding at the end of the eighth-measure with intervals that may imply and authentic cadence, or a perfect authentic cadence if the melody arrives at its final conclusion on the root. How many times did Beethoven write his melodies, transforming them over, and over, and over, until the right proportions emerged? What about Mahler’s melodic creations? How did he form them, nurture their birth and growth? Look at the first page of the score of Mahler’s First Symphony. Continue to Mahler’s opening page of his score to the Second Symphony. Although the opening motivic statements are different in intervallic content, they share a unique genesis.
“The genesis of the Second Symphony is longer and more complicated than one might assume even for a work as ambitious and a long as this — it lasts some eighty minutes in performance.” ~ Jens Malte Fischer
They are both born of a seed. A musical seed. In the First Symphony, Mahler opens with the interval of a fourth, then re-asserts a measure later the same interval an octave down with different instrumentation. In his Second Symphony, the opening tremolandi texture in the first and second violins with the violas is answered in the celli and contrabasses with a vigorously dynamic chromatic motive in rapid-fire sixteenth notes, then repeated twice more, moving up a third, then returning to tonic only to ascend once again in a scalar passage of more sixteenths. It is Mahler’s set-up for his opening melodic statement. Three simple pitches descending in leaps, C — G — C, in a dotted eighth, sixteenth pattern. The seed idea. It is the beginning of the genesis of Mahler’s fully formed theme that emerges over the course of the first movement. Upon each return of the motive, it is a discovery, and with that discovery our understanding grows and it feels like a powerful embrace.
“In Mahler’s mind, there was an extraordinarily close link between his First and Second Symphonies, at least as far as the opening movement of the later work was concerned. In 1896 he left Max Marschalk (critic for Berlin Vossische Zeitung from 1894–1933) in no doubt that the hero who is borne to his grave in this movements is the same person as the one who dies at the end of the First Symphony, where he is still attended by victory fanfares. Now he is retrospectively laid to rest, and in the course of the next four movements questions about the meaning of life and suffering are posed, albeit best not always with the same urgency, for there are digressions and moments of rest on the journey that Mahler described as intermezzos. These question are answered in the fifth and final movement (Symphony №2).” ~ Jens Malte Fischer
Indeed, the fifth and final movement of Symphony №2 is the culmination of the initial thematic genesis. With the previous four movements heroic struggle, pastoral intermezzi, and climactic fanfares, the work is unmistakably Mahler’s unique emotional landscape of the universal forces of the world and heroes heart. One can only think of Joseph Campbell’s literary works, The Power of Myth, and the Hero’s Journey, when following Mahler’s personal narratives in musical form. The victorious hero emerges, transformed by life’s struggles. This birth, journey, and arrival are the meat and potatoes of what seems to drive Mahler’s enormous output of creative musical works. There is a pull of universal forces, projected as the everyman in all of us, the romantic yearning of the heart, the sheer power and beauty of the moment and the universe that surrounds us — and the purpose of personal transformation — that draws us into Mahler’s profound and prophetic world of colors, textures, and inescapable melodic contours. It is a beautiful and vibrant world, a world that demands one’s attention and draws us into the present.
