Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)

The **Symphony No. 3** in D minor is a piece of orchestral music by Gustav Mahler. The composer started to write the symphony in 1893 but mostly worked on it in 1895. The work was finished in 1896. The work has six movements and is the longest piece of music Mahler wrote. It takes 90 to 105 minutes to play.

## Instrumentation

The symphony is was written for a large orchestra, with:

- Woodwinds:
- 4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling piccolos, 1st and 2nd doubling piccolos in movements 1, 3 and 5)
- 4 oboes (4th doubling cor anglais)
- 3 B, A clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet)
- 2 E clarinets (2nd doubling 4th clarinet in B-flat)
- 4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon)

- Brass:
- posthorn (sometimes substituted by a flugelhorn or trumpet, used only in movement 3, offstage)
- 8 horns
- 4 trumpets (plus 2 more trumpets for reinforcement if possible)
- 4 trombones
- tuba

- Percussion:
- 8 timpani (two players, four timpani each)
- bass drum (with suspended cymbal attached)
- several snare drums (used only in movement 1, one onstage, the rest offstage)
- several pairs of cymbals (at the minimum 3)
- suspended cymbals
- triangle
- tambourine
- tam-tam
- rute (used only in movement 2)
- 5 to 6 tuned bells (used only in movement 5, "on a high gallery")
- 2 glockenspiels (2nd used only in movement 5)

- Voices:
- alto soloist (used only in movements 4 and 5)
- women's choir (used only in movement 5, "on a high gallery")
- boys' choir (used only in movement 5, "on a high gallery")

- Strings
- 2 harps
- 1st violins
- 2nd violins
- violas
- cellos
- double basses (with low C string)

## Form

The symphony has six parts, also called movements. They are:

## Other reading

- Barham, Jeremy. 1998. "Mahler's Third Symphony and the Philosophy of Gustav Fechner: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Criticism, Analysis, and Interpretation". Ph.D. thesis. University of Surrey.
- Filler, Susan M. 1976. "Editorial Problems in Symphonies of Gustav Mahler: A Study of the Sources of the Third and Tenth". PhD diss. Evanston: Northwestern University.
- Franklin, Peter. 1977. "The Gestation of Mahler's Third Symphony". _Music & Letters_ 58:439–446.
- Franklin, Peter. 1999. "A Stranger's Story: Programmes, Politics, and Mahler's Third Symphony". In _The Mahler Companion_, edited by Donald Mitchell and Andrew Nicholson, 171–186. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.  (cloth)  (pbk).
- Franklin, Peter. 1991. _Mahler: Symphony No. 3_. Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. .
- Johnson, Steven Philip. 1989. "Thematic and Tonal Processes in Mahler's Third Symphony". Ph.D. diss. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.
- La Grange, Henry-Louis de. 1995. _Gustav Mahler_, vol. 3: "Triumph and Disillusion (1904–1907)", revised edition. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. .
- Hurwitz, David. "The Mahler Symphonies, An Owner's Manual." Amadeus Press, pp. 31–32.
- Micznik, Vera. 2005. Ways of Telling' in Mahler's Music: The Third Symphony as Narrative Text", In _Perspectives on Gustav Mahler_, edited by Jeremy Barham, 295–344. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishers. .
- Pavlović, Milijana. 2010. "Return to Steinbach: An Unknown Sketch of Mahler's Third Symphony". _Il Saggiatore Musicale_ 17:43–52.
- Reilly, Edward R. 1986. A Re-examination of the Manuscripts of Mahler's Third Symphony. In _Colloque International Gustav Mahler: 25, 26, 27 janvier 1985_, edited by Henry-Louis de La Grange, 62–72. Paris: Association Gustav Mahler.
- Williamson, John. 1980. Mahler's Compositional Process: Reflections on an Early Sketch for the Third Symphony's First Movement. _Music & Letters_ 61:338–345.

## Infobox (musical composition)

- **name**: Symphony No. 3
- **composer**: Gustav Mahler
- **image**: Mahler Gustav von Székely.png
- **caption**: Mahler in 1898
- **key**: D minor
- **movements**: 6
- **premiere location**: Krefeld
- **premiere conductor**: Gustav Mahler
- **premiere performers**: Orchester des Allgemeines Deutschen Musikvereins