The Symphony No. 3 in D minor by Gustav Mahler was written in sketch beginning in 1893, composed primarily in 1895, and took final form in 1896. Consisting of six movements, it is Mahler's longest composition and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, with a typical performance lasting around 95 to 110 minutes. It was voted one of the ten greatest symphonies of all time in a survey of conductors carried out by the BBC Music Magazine.
In its final form, the work has six movements, grouped into two parts:
The first movement alone, with a normal duration of a little more than thirty minutes, sometimes forty, forms Part One of the symphony. Part Two consists of the other five movements and has a duration of about sixty to seventy minutes.
As with each of his first four symphonies, Mahler originally provided a programme of sorts to explain the narrative of the piece. He did not reveal the structure and content to the public. But, at different times, he shared evolving versions of a program for the third symphony with various friends: Max Marschalk, a music critic; violist Natalie Bauer-Lechner, a close friend and confidante; and Anna von Mildenburg, the dramatic soprano and Mahler's lover during the summer of 1896 when he was completing the symphony. Bauer-Lechner wrote in her private journal that Mahler said, "You can't imagine how it will sound!"
In its simplest form, the program consists of a title for each of the six movements:
Mahler, however, elaborated on this basic scheme in various letters. In an 1896 letter to Max Marschalk, he called the whole "A Summer's Midday Dream", and within Part One, distinguished two sections, "Introduction: Pan awakes" and "I. Summer marches in (Bacchic procession)". In a June 1896 letter to Anna von Mildenburg, Mahler reaffirmed that he conceived the first movement in two sections: I. What the stony mountains tell me; II. Summer marches in. In another letter to Mildenburg from Summer 1896, he said that "Pan" seemed to him the best overall title () for the symphony, emphasizing that he was intrigued by Pan's two meanings, a Greek god and a Greek word meaning "all".
All these titles were dropped before publication in 1898.
Mahler originally envisioned a seventh movement, "Heavenly Life" (alternatively titled "What the Child Tells Me"), but he eventually dropped this, using it instead as the last movement of the Symphony No. 4. Indeed, several musical motifs taken from "Heavenly Life" appear in the fifth (choral) movement of the Third Symphony.
The symphony, particularly due to the extensive number of movements and their marked differences in character and construction, is a unique work. The opening movement, colossal in its conception (much like the symphony itself), roughly takes the shape of sonata form, insofar as there is an alternating presentation of two theme groups; however, the themes are varied and developed with each presentation, and the typical harmonic logic of the sonata form movementâÂÂparticularly the tonic statement of second theme group material in the recapitulationâÂÂis changed. The symphony starts with a fortissimo theme, stated by an 8-French horn choir. It is similar, in rhythm, to the main theme of the fourth movement of Brahms' first symphony.
The opening gathers itself slowly into a rousing orchestral march. A solo tenor trombone passage states a bold (secondary) melody that is developed and transformed in its recurrences.
At the apparent conclusion of the development, several solo snare drums "offstage" play a rhythmic passage lasting about thirty seconds and the opening passage by eight horns is repeated almost exactly. This eventually brings a return of the march rhythms from earlier in the movement. At the movement's climax, a tam-tam crash rings out, leading to jubilant brass fanfares underpinned by pounding timpani, bringing the movement to its decisive conclusion.
As described above, Mahler dedicated the second movement to "the flowers on the meadow". In contrast to the violent forces of the first movement, it starts as a graceful menuet. Opening with a tranquil oboe solo, the music also features stormier episodes, one of which featuring rapid rolls in the rute. It calms down at its end, however, and the movement ends with a staccato note in the harp and glockenspiel.
The third movement, a scherzo, with alternating sections in and meter, quotes extensively from Mahler's early song "Ablösung im Sommer" (Relief in Summer).
In the trio section, the mood change from playful to contemplative occurs with an off-stage post horn (or flugelhorn) solo.
This posthorn episode closely resembles standardised posthorn signals in Austria and Prussia of the time. The posthorn melody is suddenly interrupted (in measure 345) by a trumpet fanfare representing a literal quotation of the Austrian military signal for falling out (Abblasen). Another important quotation in the movement is a Spanish folk melody of jota aragonesa used by Mikhail Glinka in Caprice brillante and by Franz Liszt in Rhapsodie espagnole. Most probably it is borrowed here from Ferruccio Busoni's transcription of the Rhapsodie for piano and orchestra, as the harmonies are almost identical and passages are equally quite similar. Busoni himself was the first to remark on this quotation in 1910.
The reprise of the scherzo music is unusual, as it is interrupted several times by the post-horn melody.
The last three movements of the symphony are linked together. At this point, in the sparsely instrumentated fourth movement, we hear an alto solo singing a setting of Friedrich Nietzsche's "Midnight Song" ("Zarathustra's roundelay") from Also sprach Zarathustra ("O Mensch! Gib acht!" ("O man! Take heed!")), with thematic material from the first movement woven into it. The movement is punctuated by oboe glissandi, representing the cry of a night bird.
The cheerful fifth movement, "Es sungen drei Engel", is one of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs, (whose text itself is loosely based on a 17th-century church hymn, which Paul Hindemith later used in its original form in his ) about the redemption of sins and comfort in belief.
Here, a children's choir imitating bells and a female chorus join the alto soloist. (In order to make the imitations sound realistic, Mahler asks that the "m" should be hummed.)
Halfway through the movement, the alto soloist's plea for redemption sets off a sinister interlude, punctuated by tam-tam crashes and pealing bells, both choirs keeping up with their bell imitations. The menace quickly fades, however, and the movement ends just as cheerfully as it began.
Of the finale, Bruno Walter wrote, <blockquote>In the last movement, words are stilledâÂÂfor what language can utter heavenly love more powerfully and forcefully than music itself? The Adagio, with its broad, solemn melodic line, is, as a wholeâÂÂand despite passages of burning painâÂÂeloquent of comfort and grace. It is a single sound of heartfelt and exalted feelings, in which the whole giant structure finds its culmination.(p. 103 Gustav Mahler, A Study by Bruno Walter: published Hamish Hamilton, London 1958)</blockquote> The movement begins very softly with a broad D-major melody in the strings, and after a failed climax, the music falls into near silence. Lonely flute and piccolo phrases backed by pianississimo tremolos in the strings rise up from the stillness, leading to a hushed chorale in the brass, namely on the trumpets and trombones. This slowly builds into a loud and majestic conclusion culminating in repeated D major chords with bold statements in the brass and timpani.
This movement in particular was a triumphant critical success. The Swiss critic William Ritter, in his review of the premiere given in 1902, said of the last movement: "Perhaps the greatest Adagio written since Beethoven". Another anonymous critic writing in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung wrote about the Adagio: "It rises to heights which situate this movement among the most sublime in all symphonic literature". Mahler was called back to the podium 12 times, and the local newspaper reported that "the thunderous ovation lasted no less than fifteen minutes".
The symphony is scored for large orchestra, consisting of the following:
Text from Friedrich Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra: the "Midnight Song"
Text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Peter Franklin in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians represents the symphony's progressive tonal scheme as 'd/FâÂÂD'. More casually it is described as being in the key of D minor. The first movement certainly begins in this key but, by its end, has defined the relative F major as the tonic. The finale concludes in D major, the tonic major, which is not unusual for minor key, multi-movement works. Throughout the symphony, traditional tonality is employed in an enterprising manner with clear purpose .
The piece is performed in concert less frequently than Mahler's other symphonies, due in part to its great length and the huge forces required. Despite this, it is a popular work and has been recorded by most major orchestras and conductors.
When it is performed, a short interval is sometimes taken between the first movement (which alone lasts around half an hour) and the rest of the piece. This is in agreement with the manuscript copy of the full score (held in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York), where the end of the first movement carries the inscription Folgt eine lange Pause! ("there follows a long pause"). The inscription is not found in the score as published.
The Adagio movement was arranged by Yoon Jae Lee in 2011 for a smaller orchestra. This version was premiered by Ensemble 212 with Lee as conductor in New York on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Subsequently, Lee arranged the five remaining movements for smaller orchestra as part of his Mahler Chamber Project. The orchestral reduction of the entire symphony was premiered in October 2015 by Ensemble 212, mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim, and the Young New Yorkers' Chorus Women's Ensemble.
The second movement was arranged by Benjamin Britten in 1941 for a smaller orchestra. This version was published by Boosey & Hawkes as What the Wild Flowers Tell Me in 1950.
The final movement is also played during Coleman Silk's funeral in Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain.
A section from the fourth movement "Midnight Song" features in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film Death in Venice (which also features the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony), where it is presented as the music that Gustav von Aschenbach composes before he dies.
The work is also referenced in the pop singer Prince's song "Good Love" ("Gustav Mahler #3 is jamming on the box") from his Crystal Ball album and the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack.
The opening movement is used as the opening theme for the anime OVA series Legends of the Galactic Heroes.